AC HOTEL IRLA BY MARRIOTT

We stayed at the Irla for a few days in our stay in Barcelona. Just a great location with awesome accomodations. The room was bigger than expected to my surprise. Quiet neighborhood with a great deli just around the corner. Close to public transportation as well. And would highly recommend this hotel. Great stay!!

For over six months, we planned our vacation to Europe. We would visit seven countries and over 20 cities in the course of 4 weeks. Barcelona would be the site of our greatest adventure. We would stay at the AC Irla three nights prior to our Mediterranean cruise and three nights after. Throughout our vacation in Europe, we stayed at many Marriott hotels. Each experience was surpassed by the next, until we arrived at the AC Irla. On our first stay from July 6 -9, 2017, our shower in room 303 was completely full of mold and tiles missing grout, which we told the young lady at the desk in the morning. Not what you would expect when staying at a Marriott Hotel. She explained that since there was remodeling on the fourth floor of the hotel, some of the third floor rooms were moldy. The ceiling of the shower as well as the walls was blackened with mold. After we returned from our cruise, we were given a room on the second floor, room 202. Although we requested a king size bed on both stays, we were told there weren’t any for our second visit. We waited patiently in the lobby for well over three hours for our room to be ready without even a television to entertain us, since the TV in the lobby wasn’t working. That, however, was not a concern since the lobby’s temperature was very cool and comfortable. Once we were given the keys to our room, we were very happy to finally be able to go upstairs and relax. However, as soon as we walked in the door, we were hit with a wall of heat. We immediately contacted the front desk. They told us they would check the unit while we spent the afternoon exploring the beautiful city of Barcelona. Upon our return to our room, we once again walked into a sauna. We spoke with the front desk attendant. He told us he’d go up to our room to check the system. He went to our room, stood on the chair and said the unit was working. I explained to him that it may be working but it wasn’t cooling…it was very hot in the room. He said to give it a little time to cool. The AC never cooled. Needless to say, that evening my husband and I did not sleep well due to the heat in the room. The next morning, (Monday morning) we spoke with the front desk attendant once again. We were told they would check the unit again. Again, we explored Barcelona and returned to a hot room. At that point, we complained and were told again there was nothing wrong with the AC in the room. We told them that the lobby was actually cold and they replied that it was kept cold. My husband called Marriott Customer Service upset we were not being helped. He was told that although there were rooms available they were only for paying customers and since we had reserved with points nothing could be done. When all you would have to do is charge more points if the room was more expensive. Not a nice way to treat your Reward Points members. Marriott Customer Service told us that the hotel manager would contact us and that never happened. We were once again forced to sleep in a hot room with an AC that never cooled. That evening my husband slept on the sofa in the lobby since the heat in the room was unbearable. I stayed in the room. I opened the window and dealt with the shouting of passing pedestrians and the noise of the traffic below. After two very warm nights, the unit was finally fixed. We received an email confirmation while visiting Montserrat. So although they insisted the AC was working properly something was wrong because it was repaired. They told us that they would give us free breakfast for our inconvenience, but that does not justify the way we were treated and two nights with no sleep in an extremely hot room. We used our points to pay for a proper room at a Marriott Hotel - not for a partially working room. If we wanted a less than par room with no AC, we would have stayed at Motel 6. However, we are loyal Marriott customers.

Arrival without booking at 10:30 pm dying for a bed. A slow finding out if there's a room starts. Booing.com said there was, but in a 35-room hotel they don't know and need to check. The price he offers is higher than in Booking.com and when I suggest that I can instantly book it there he says no. 5 more min typing in the computer. In the process the only guy takes two long phone calls. After the second he says he needs to go to attend a room service and that we should wait. When 15 min later he is back, after my comment of "I hope now you're paying attention to us" he answers back that we can look for another hotel if we want. We certainly did. We left and found other much nicer, faster and warmer receptionist.

Our family group of eight people stayed at this hotel for two nights (four rooms). We used our Visa cards to get a free breakfast (which was wonderful). The front desk staff was so friendly - Especially Rebecca. I accidentally left my sport coat in the closet of my room as we went on a cruise ship. Rebecca found it, and saved it for me to pick up two weeks later when the ship came back to Barcelona. I ran in on the way to the airport and she had it ready for me. Outstanding service! The hotel only has about 36 rooms and is reasonably priced compared to other Barcelona hotels, but with the service expected in a Marriott hotel (great service by the English speaking staff). It is only a few blocks from the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus, and you can get your tickets at the hotel's front desk. They have internet (Enhanced Internet is free for Marriott Gold members). Even if you are not a Gold Marriott member, this is a great hotel. It is a couple of blocks from a nice park - great for the morning run, or in my case a place to relax and smoke a cigar. I highly recommend this hotel when in Barcelona.

The hotel was nicely situated in the city closer to the mountain than the cruise port. The staff were friendly and quite accommodating as we arrived early from our flight and were let into one room for storage of our luggage. We found the room to be typical of European hotels a bit small compared to US but nicely situated. The bathroom was rather open with frosted glass surrounding it rather than actual walls. The power points (outlets) were European so converters were needed for us. Taxi fare to the cruise port was 30€ from here. The breakfast was good and open at appropriate times, offering both hot and cold options. The front desk staff were very helpful at arranging rides and providing directions for us. Clean and comfortable accommodations. Would definitely stay here again.