Adelphos

I was considering this hotel for later this week, but now it seems pretty far from the main area of the city (I’m at the Edition at Gothic Quarter now). If one is not a Hyatt loyalist, any reason to stay at this hotel over any of the myriad Marriott options (Cotton House, Renaissance, etc) or the other Hyatt SLH options (Clarins, Grand Hotel Central, etc)

stvr

You can eat breakfast outdoors.

Big bathtubs.

bomberman92

Traveling with a young child and a pregnant person -- does it make more sense to stay closer to city center if its our first time? Or is transiting fairly easy/recommended?

pantanal

stay somewhere more central. This is a fantastic hotel but location is not ideal for first time visitors unless they are going for barcelona football games in which case it's a fantastic location.

There are a lot of points and miles hotels with much better location like the cotton house (Bonvoy) which will be more central.

Football Fan

This hotel's upgrade policy is really stupid. Arrived, the gentleman at check-in said "sorry there weren't any suites available to upgrade you to". Previously, I always had sort of a suite here, with a very large bathroom, and the bed was pretty big, too. The room they gave me this time (which was supposedly an upgrade) was very small and dark. (I'm a Lifetime Globalist, but neither they nor I ever mentioned my status explicitly.)

Quick look at the app, two types of suites available, called First Wish and Great Wish or something like that. So I went to the front desk and said can't you give me one of those rooms? Made me wait for ages to talk to the "supervisor" who was (wo)manning the WoH check-in and dealing with another complaint.

Then she says, no, we have no suites available. I said, but there are these suites? (the price difference to them wasn't even very big from what I had paid). She goes "no, they are not suites". lol? "But they are 'wish'"? I asked, what is "wish"? She then said she could give me this type of room if I paid 200 Euro extra. But she couldn't really explain what it was. I said if I can book it if I pay the difference, why don't you upgrade to them? I get it, their policy seems to be to only upgrade to whatever the lower level of suite categories is. But she was so clumsy about explaining it, said, Hyatt tells us that's what we must do, etc. blabla. Way to unnecessarily frustrate a returning guest.

Anyway, I said thanks, but no thanks, I'll go somewhere else - she was kind enough to cancel my reservation without a penalty (supposedly, let's see if there will be a charge).

LHW it is for this stay, and I'm done with this hotel.

168

First Wish is their standard suite when we used suite upgrade. No luck for this LT either to get additional upgrade to a Great Wish Suite (34K per night). One can pretty much forget about the Best Wish Suite.

Yes, it is far from town, but we do enjoy their Oasis Spa if you can get free access. We thought we would only get 1 visit for our entire stay, but ended up with daily visits in March '22.

skj

We're currently booked here for a few nights in September. I used a Suite Upgrade Award and am confirmed into a Junior Suite King which I'm assuming isn't a true suite. At this point, I'm likely to cancel this reservation (even though I have a good cash rate) and burn some points at one of the SLH properties that seem to be better located.

168

Apparently suite upgrade is good for either a Jr. Suite or the First Suite. 30Euro cheaper for the Jr. on the dates I checked, layout seems similar and just seem smaller.

For a minute, I thought the hotel removed First suite as part of the up grade inventory.

gmax58

I stayed at the Sofia last week, just finishing a three night stay. Nice hotel with good staff, but subpar Prive/WoH recognition. Very upscale hotel but should not be confused for a luxury hotel - mostly due to size and inconsistent recognition based on the prior posts.

Booked: King Room Harmony (base room) on Prive rate. Used TSU (which MHC mentioned would get a First Wish Suite). Ended up getting a Junior Suite - it’s about the same size as First Wish but does not have Wish Lounge access. That Junior Suite is the standard TSU upgrade, and since there were Great Wish Suites and First Wish suites available leading up to the stay, this upgrade didn’t really meet expectations.

To their credit - we were able to check in about noon, which was great since we had a really rough to travel due to weather issues in NYC. We arranged a transport by E-class (I was unfamiliar with the BCN metro so having this available was helpful). They provided an EQS for the same price (99 Euro). In the future I would use the airport lines (L9 to L3) because using the metro was straightforward.

Really liked the finishes in the room, along with the electronically operated blinds. Super comfortable bed. Rooms do get cool but I’ve noticed that there is not much ventilation, so the room doesn’t get cool very fast - we were able to maintain a temperature of about 20 C but the lack of airflow made it feel warmer. No elevator issues.

Concierges were responsive and very helpful for standard requests. Had some challenges with tougher ones (like Barca-Madrid basketball tickets during the finals), but they were communicative and really did their best to make the stay worthwhile.

Was provided 85 Euro credit for Prive but that was not able to be applied to laundry or transport (it could be applied to F&B or spa). Prive amenity was cava (0.5L).

Breakfast was fine - waffles, omelette, and scrambled eggs cooked to order, lots of meat options, sweet pastries acceptable but not exciting. Outside breakfast was nice but watch out for pigeons; staff was good about keeping the birds at bay. Do agree that tracking down someone for coffee was harder than it needed to be, and it was weird hearing from the same server three days in a row “is this your first time at the buffet?” - but it’s possible that may have been a translation issue, or just due to the large number of rooms (400+).

Would I stay here again? There are a lot of good options in Barcelona, and the next visit would still involve a lot of tourism, so I’d be ok staying at the Sofia, but I’d also be curious about other options (Hyatt or otherwise). I did like the area and found the more local feel appealing (wasn’t as concerned about crowding and petty crime). The Prive rate (about 300 Euro) was better than the 23K points for certain (Cat 5 peak).

Note for those interested in visiting Camp Nou - it is under construction and expansion. Barca plays at the Olympic stadium near Park Montjuic in 2023-2024.

NJTeacher

Anyone had luck getting upgraded as a Globalist without using a suite upgrade?

katstarr

I used a SUA but was upgraded to a premium suite. This however was right before the lockdown so the hotel was pretty empty.

dparkinson

When people got upgraded to the Best Wish Suite using their TSU, was it an upgrade to the J Suite and then an on property upgrade to BWS? I ask because I called the Globalist line today and was told the TSU only was good for the J Suite.
Also, has anyone gotten a Best Wish upgrade at check in or only when using an instrument to support it?

168

No, direct into BWS last year using certs. However, WoH told me the same thing last month. Only to Jr Suite now, but if Jr suites are fully booked, WoH can contact hotel to see if they will release a BWS. Sounds very silly, not sure why WoH wouldn’t just request a BWS. If hotel is playing this game with us, think outside of the box to play this game with them.

Dave510

Currently on property and upgraded into the J suite without TSU. Been here before and was also upgraded into a j suite. Both stays are week long.

NJTeacher

Thanks all, for the record we had a great stay. Did not use a certificate and we're upgraded proactively to a junior suite. Absolutely incredible hotel with the only downside being the location (too far from major sights).