Airbnb has become my latest travel obsession, I can easily sit for hours looking through the listings of places to stay on my next adventure. JP and I tried out Airbnb last year in Greece for the first time and had a pleasant experience. Therefore we decided to book our accommodation for our city break in Barcelona using this ever popular website. I picked out seven favourites and added to my wishlist weeks before we had even booked the flights! Still when it came to actually booking a place, I always came back to the same apartment as my top choice.
A sunny room in Eixample with a balcony it was.
We were able to instantly book this property and communication with Leonardo was fast and easy with only a small language barrier. Before setting off for our holiday we had complete instructions on how to get to the apartment from the airport and the cheapest way of doing so.
Leonardo happily met us at the apartment despite not arriving until 9.30pm, although I soon realised this was early evening for the Spanish. He instantly presented us with keys, showed us around the areas of his apartment we needed and told us about some ‘house rules’. These were simple things like locking the door up fully when coming home after 10pm and making sure to turn the lights off. Everything was common sense but they were all written down which felt nice and professional. That evening Leonardo also talked us through the map including ‘must see’ sights in the city, places to eat and drink, the nearest metro stops and just general information about the city. Additionally he helped me make a reservation for a restaurant as the following day was JP’s birthday.
We had a brilliant nights sleep each night and there was never any noise to disturb us but that first morning, waking up and finally seeing the view from the balcony felt exciting. The view wasn’t much but just being able to see the blue sky and sun beating down on us was enough to give us that relaxed holiday feel. There were chairs in our room to use for sitting out on the balcony and also a table if we wished to eat or work. The room itself was very bright and sunny with a double bed, TV and some space to unpack and store our clothes. We felt fully at home inside those four walls during our five nights stay here.
There was a little breakfast room we had access to which had a fridge, toaster and microwave. Each morning Leonardo would leave us a little breakfast muffin, a note and some tea – although we never understood how to work the tea machine, the gesture was thoughtful. What I liked most about the breakfast room was the map on the wall with pins for every visitor’s homeland marked on. He has had so many visitors from Europe there is a second map! Next to the breakfast room was a bathroom with toilet, sink and shower – which was always warm and powerful enough.
On the morning of JP’s birthday Leonardo had put up a banner and some balloons as well as leaving two mini cakes and some candles. We had only told him of JP’s birthday the night before when we arrived so this gesture was very much appreciated and we could not thank Leonardo enough!
We absolutely loved our stay here, the apartment was beautiful, very clean and well located for exploring all Barcelona has to offer. This was a private room, with Leonardo living in the property and another room being rented on Airbnb – which although meant we were sharing the bathroom meant there were other travellers to interact with too, I liked that. Leonardo was very flexile with check in and out times.
I honestly couldn’t recommend a better place to stay in Barcelona!
Price: This room is advertised at £24 per a night but varies depending on the dates. For our stay in early May we paid £30 per a night which including the Airbnb and cleaning fees, cost us £193 for a five night stay.
Please excuse the unmade bed in these photos, I took them after Leonardo had cleaned the room. He had stored our bags for the day as our flight home wasn’t until late evening.
Tags: Barcelona Budget Europe Accommodation City Break Spain