I found the Gran Ronda hotel to be a lovely well located hotel in Barcelona...5 mins walk to Las Ramblas and 1 min walk to the nearest metro where you can access almost anywhere in the city... We requested a double room the morning we arrived as the website we booked on would not allow us to and we were accommodated..the room was facing out on to the street..there was no smell of drains or no noise..except the cleanin lady knocking at our door..but we did sleep in late!! The staff were helpful,especiallythe lady who checked us in..we didnt get breakfast as i thought it was a little pricy,but ate out instead.. all in all a lovely stay in the Gran Ronda :)

Stayed here for 3 nights with my Boyfriend in Jan 2007. As soon as we checked in we were impressed, the reception staff were very friendly and helpful and the room was one of the best we have stayed in!
Flat screen tv, huge bed, modern bathroom and the whole room decorated to a high standered. We also had a small balcony over looking the front of the building.
The location of the hotel was great, we were right in between 2 metro stops and used this form of transport to get around every day, it has a systym very similar to the London underground and we found it very cheap. You could also easilly walk to most of the attractions as the Hotel is in a very central position.
We just wish we had been able to stay longer as Barcelona is a beautiful city!

I was very disappointed with the hotel. First appearances were good - friendly reception & nice looking room. But our room stank of bad drains, & despite our complaints about this, the staff did not seem to take this very seriously - refusing to let us change rooms (even though there were rooms free) & shrugging their shoulders & saying that they had done all they could by cleaning the bathroom again. I guess this is one of the perils of having paid upfront for a hotel. I was very disappointed about this, especially given that this is a 3 star hotel & cost 180 euros a night (for a twin). The thought of spending our nights in a stinking room, plus having to deal with unhelpful staff, cast a shadow over our stay in Barcelona, which otherwise was a fantastic city.

Booked on lastminute for a hotel plus filght deal. Finding the hotel was no problem, just take the aerobus from the airport, the big blue bus, which takes you all the way to placa catalunya and stops at various places. Get off at placa universitat which is the penultimate stop and walk down the road st. antoni. its about 2mins walk on your right. Its not the busiest of roads and the hotel is next to some electronics shop. We arrived pretty late and were mildly annoyed at having to stay in a double bed rather than a twin room as booked, as we were two guys. The hotel staff were helpful in moving our bags to the adjacent room which had twin beds in the morning.

Morning buffet breakfast is fine and held in a smallish room in the basement. There appeared to be a mixture of tourist nationalities, with i think one hen party whilst i stayed, but they were the civilized type, in the daytime anyway.

Finding Las Ranblas is pretty simple as its 5mins walk away, but the beach is a rather longer walk of 20mins due to having to wlk around the harbour. We decided on a principle of walking a different route everyday and we found that walking south through El Raval is generally NOT a good idea if you're female and on your own. We stumbled upon the prostitute street at 11am!!! which was a nice wake up call. If heading to the harbour and the beach, go via Las Ramblas. There are two metro stations very nearby and you should buy the T10 pass which gives you 10 trips. More than enough for a week's holiday.

The rooms were decent sized, clean with a nice tv. There can be no complaints on the hotel, and there's free internet in the reception. The room has a safety deposit box, a safe baggage store and the staff were friendly all round. Though on checkout, there was some confusion over the breakfast and mini-bar bills, but this was sorted out without fuss.

I'd recommend this hotel to anyone travelling solo or group if it appeals. There was no problem with noise, and if you want a balcony, ask for a street-facing room. Great view. I have no photos as my computer harddrive decided to die on me over the summer, but the website photos are pretty genuine.