We looked at the area using Google Maps Photos. "It looks like Barcelona" my wife said (where we stayed for a week well north of the Ramblas and the huge main square in a small 4* property maybe fifteen minutes walk east of the Sagrada Familia). "Is there shopping?" she said. I showed her the 411 that had come along with my food research.
"I like it" she said. "Balcony or not? I don't care about a window." She likes it dark and quiet at night.
"I had a noisy atrium room at the Crowne Plaza Beijing, with piano music until 11 PM every night. Maybe we should get a balcony?".
I like windows and daylight. Balcony it is.
We're booking 9 days next month, holding the St. Regis in reserve in the unlikely event that interim reports back prove unsettling.