Aramunt Apartments in Barcelona

We stayed here as a family of four for 5 nights. Let's start with the positive aspects. The apartments are well located and there are restaurants, supermarkets and transport links nearby. There is a 'keep the noise down' policy after hours. The rooms contain a washing machine, iron, cooking facilities and cutlery, so you have the possibility to cater for yourself in terms of dining and laundry.

Now for the bad parts. Upon check in, we were greeted by a stern and unpleasant lady, akin to an old fashioned school mistress. No welcoming smile was offered for our tired party and the room wasn't even ready upon arrival (we were given the possibility to wait in the lobby or come back in 90 minutes' time.)

Shockingly, they had charged my AMEX card for half of the cost of our stay, which I had been assured the previous week was purely going to be used as a safety deposit, incurring me hefty foreign exchange and transaction fees in the process. When I raised this, the school mistress merely shrugged and said it was not her problem and something I would have to take up with AMEX directly. It's hardly how I envisaged spending my time within an hour of arrival.

I asked politely if they could reverse the transaction and put this charge on another card instead. To add to my frustration, the same lady then said if she were to do this, I would have to pay for the total cost of the stay (not far off €1,000 including tourist taxes.) This ate significantly into my travel budget and meant having to convert additional sums into Euros to be able to have any spending money for the trip. Imagine my rage then, when they asked for an additional €350 for the aforementioned security deposit.

By this point, I would have happily abandoned the booking and gone elsewhere but since there was no possibility of a refund, my family and I had no choice but to grit out teeth and get on with it.

When we finally got up to the room, the bedsheets were ripped and stained; we called room service to see for themselves and whilst a kindly cleaning lady brought fresh bedding and made up the bed there and then, I was open mouthed at the manager's assertions that the prior sheets 'were not dirty, just stained.' I asked him whether he felt this was acceptable given the extortionate amount of money we were paying for what was pretty average accommodation. He held his ground and seemed unable to understand why dirty sheets might cause a guest to be somewhat perturbed.

In summary, it's not the worst place to stay in Barcelona, but there are far better places on offer. We would not return here even if it were free.