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Its nice hotel, but you have to remember that is is located just next to very busy street. So, if you plan to rest in the room - or sleep well - you at least might want to request an upper floor room to minimize the noise.

RAPC

Stayed at the hotel for 3 nights over the weekend for the Grand Prix and overall we were very impressed.

We had booked 2 rooms on points for 3,000 per night for the weekend. The hotel was sold out on our first night due to arriving F1 fans, as well as a large cruise booking that had booked out a lot of rooms. Both rooms were upgraded to adjacent Preferred rooms on a higher floor. These were comfortable and spacious enough and traffic noise wasn't a problem due to the high floor.

We found the beds and pillows very comfortable and had a great night of sleep each night as a result. The bathroom was well stocked, above and beyond what I normally would expect at an SPG hotel.

Breakfast is adequate, but not brilliant. There is a selection of cold meats, cheeses, pastries and breads, as well as cereals and yoghurt. There are also some hot options, but as claes059 mentioned earlier it isn't exactly packed with flavour either. For a Platinum amenity for 3 days, it was perfectly fine though.

There is a gym with modern equipment on the top floor. The space is limited, but there are 4 brand new machines and some free weights. It does have floor to ceiling windows though, offering a great view across the city and to the beach area.

We really liked the area that the hotel is in. The Glories shopping centre is across the road and offers shopping, dining and the likes of Starbucks and Carrefour if you want to stock up on food. The Metro station is only 10 minutes walk away with the direct train service to and from the airport. We walked to Segrada Familiar in about 25 minutes, as well as to the some of the main tourist areas within 30 minutes which made for a pleasant stroll. The beach is 15 minutes walk away and there are plenty of local restaurant and bar options on the way.

The hotel can't be compared to the likes of a W as it is at a different end of the scale, but if you want a clean, comfortable, modern hotel in Barcelona, then I would recommend it, especially for the price in cash or points at the moment. We would definitely choose to stay here again in the future.

gdemander

Wow. I must have missed this opening before. This is pretty clutch as all other Barcelona hotels are way too many points. This has really got me thinking about doing a weekend in BCN this summer. 3,000 points for a bed that I would use only for a few hours is awesome.

ThePinched

I've read mixed feedback as far as distance to/from the center of the city. Can someone provide some clarity. I can spend more points for the Meridien but then again I wouldn't mind holding onto them for future usage. Any feedback welcome.

BenSenise

if you walk up to glories and get a metro (L1, Red) to the center of town. four stops to plaça catalunya so probably less than 20 minutes.

alternatively, you can take the tram from outside the hotel down to the olympic village from where you can walk along the beach to barceloneta and port vell which is at the bottom of the famed ramblas.

obviously it's not as convenient location as the meridian or W but it's also a quarter the price. i'm most likely going to stay there next month solely because i need the nights for plat re-qual. i'm hoping that this four points is more comfortable than what you would get for a similar price in the center.

kwilbz

I would say it depends on how much you value your time and what type of trip you are taking. I stayed at both properties on a recent trip to Barcelona. 4pts is more business-feeling, but is a clean and nice hotel. It is also in a quieter location. It is pretty easy to get to city-center, but it still takes time (I remember it taking ~30 min on the metro) so you probably wouldn't want to go back and forth multiple times a day. If I were only going for a few days, and could afford the points or $, I would pick the Meridien because I could be more spontaneous and pop in and out of the hotel if necessary. If I were going for longer and didn't have to fit everything into a couple days, I would probably split my time between the 2 given the value of the 4pts.

BenSenise

i just spent two nights at the FP Barcelona Diagonal and found it to be very comfortable and good value for the money.
check-in was ok except they didn't seem to enforce the SPG line and the front desk agent was taking a long time with the two people in front of me. When it was my turn, my check in went quickly. Plat status recognized and I was upgraded from the classic room i had reserved to a comfort room which is their best room (not incl suites) and about 30% bigger. the room was clean and attractive. bed was perfect and i slept very well. the AC kept the room cool while it was 35˚C outside and even though i was on the 1st floor (2nd in N. Amer. terms) the windows and drapes kept the noise out even though i was facing the main street. i chose breakfast as the plat amenity and it was very good. there was a wide variety of hot and cold, sweet and savory items to choose from. i really appreciated the self-serve espresso machine. everything was very good quality although i didn't try the scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, etc.
i chose this hotel because of the price since it was one-quarter the price of the Meridien. it is located a bit out of the center but for two days, i could deal with it for a savings of about EUR450. the tramvia runs by right in front and can take you to the olympic village which is on the beach. the number 7 bus goes along Diagonal, cuts across arragon to paseo de gracia and then rejoins diagonal from there. that's a very convenient route and may be overlooked by many. the metro stop at plaça de las glories is about 5 blocks away. there are quite a few restaurants around, especially on the rambla de pobla nou right outside the hotel. i was amazed by the number of tourists in the neighborhood. 20 years ago you would never have seen tourists around there. there's also a nice supermarket across diagonal a little to the left coming out of the hotel.
overall, i found the hotel to be great. you can't get a crummy one-star hotel in the center for the same price. if budget isn't an issue, then staying in the center might be more fun. I would very likely stay at this hotel next time i'm in BCN.

TTnC4me

The point value of this hotel is so enticing; needing 2 rooms. However, can anyone comment on the ease (or lack thereof) of coming in from the airport at 8:30pm with 3 large suitcases (family of 5) and then making it to the cruise terminal the next day?

BenSenise

I think that with five people and three large bags you're looking at a taxi each way no matter what hotel you stay at. You can get seven passenger mini-van taxis from the airport and in the city. for info my taxi cost a bit over €30 at around 21:30.

TTnC4me

Great! Seems like a much better savings to pay for a taxi & get 2 rooms reasonably!

DHAST

Hi,

We're going to stay in BCN for four nights before a cruise in late Sept 2013. Does anybody have any thoughts on this property vs. the Hilton Diagonal Mar? For a four night stay, we're looking at 14,000 SPG points for the 4P or 145,000 HHonors points at the Hilton. I'm not flush with Hilton points.

Is this property the steal I think it is? I'd stay at the Hilton if it was an "OMG you'd be a fool not to" but I'm not getting that vibe from the reviews I read.

dcstudent

Yes, this property is a steal at 3000-4000 points a night and I'd be surprised if it stays at this category next Spring when SPG announces category changes. It's a nice new hotel.

You may wish to watch revenue rates. I hardly ever pay more than 69-79 Euros per night.

claes059

Well it depends what you expect of a hotel. I am not impressed by Four Points. I stayed here last year, it just changed to the 4Points brand and made a review of it. If possible I do not want to stay here, its very basic and when I was there the quality of the food was low, the bed to soft for my back. My first impression was ok though and the deluxe room offers more space. [ersonnel is very friendly. But you cannot compare it with the Hilton, two very different cat. hotels. I noticed I had to pay 200 euros per night in October in the 4Points for a deluxe room and I think this is overpriced.

britbronco22

I've just booked a reward stay for 3 nights in October. The confirmation e-mail offered me the chance to upgrade for €10 per night. Pretty cheap, but I should get that upgrade as a Gold anyway right? Anyone with experience of this?

If I paid the upgrade to the Preferred room it doesn't seem like the upgrade to the Comfort room would be a big deal.

I stayed at the nearby Holiday Inn Express 4 years ago, so I'm not at all concerned with the location. In fact I'm looking forward to returning to the area as it seemed to be quite 'up and coming'.

PedroNY

I just booked 3 rooms for 4 nights (total of 12 nights) for next May, 2013. I had hard time believing that I was able to get that many rooms for that many nights in Barcelona for only 42,000 SPG points.

I did the same analysis as above, as I considered doing Hilton Diagonal Mar for 145,000 AXON7 stays for same rooms, but it just didn't seem right to spend 435,000 HH points versus 42,000 SPG points. I know that these are apples and oranges, still 10:1 ratio is a bit too high.

Best,

PedroNY