My wife and I spent 3 nights here in early March 2009. The hotel, and room, were very clean and all the staff we encountered were very nice and helpful.
The hotel is in an excellent location and although we had a room facing on to Carrer de Princesa the double glazing was excellent at keeping out most of the noise.
We love Barcelona and will stay here again next time we visit.

I booked this hotel due to all the great reviews that I saw online but was so disappointed when we arrived. The room is basic and so uncomfortable, basic I can cope with but it felt more like a prison cell than a cosy bedroom for our three night stay. It is March 2009 and its been the coldest winter in Spanish history the heating has apparently been switched off!! Although, we know realize that this a euphemism for "itś not working but we can be bothered to tell you or fix it!" We live in Southern Spain and still have our heating on at home at the moment especially at night because it getś very cold so it concerned me to find just a sheet on the bed and one paper thin pillow each. We did find one thin extra blanket which we put on the bed and also turned on the heating for the first night which only seemed to pump out cold air all night even though it was on the heat setting! I woke up freezing cold and in agony due to the prison type bed. I had a bath and approached the hotel staff they told me it would be looked at and to inquire when we got back to the hotel. We did so and were told that the heating had been switched off due to it being ¨that time of year" and "not being able to please everyone" and all they could do was offer us more blankets which as the only option because by the way we had already had to pay for our entire stay on arrival after booking on the website online. We took two extra blankets which made a total of three and managed a slightly warmer night but still very uncomfortable. The room also has no natural light whatsoever so even though we were on the first floor it feels more like a basement. If I had known that we would have to pay the total upfront I would never have booked here. We I will never do this again because basically your stuffed with having to stay somewhere you are entirely unhappy with. Reception were unhelpful and having read other reviews we realise that this hotel appears to have no heating at all so they were also not telling us the truth which aggravates me even more. I asked them why did not let guests know the heating did not work instead of letting them have the discomfort of putting merely a sheet on the bed and not telling them the heating/air conditioning only pumps out cold air! I will not be staying here ever again and will be sending a complaint letter as soon as I get home the hotels one and I mean one saving grace is itś location. That is about it!

The good ratings of this hotel on tripadvisor.com were one of the reasons for me to choose this hotel for a getaway of 5 days at the end of December 2008 with my girl-friend.
This may well be my worst hotel experience so far, and this is also the reason for me to write this review.
During the first night, we noticed that the heating was broken, i.e. that the air-conditioning was producing only cold, but no warm air. For that night , we pulled on some pullovers to be able to get at least some sleep. In the morning I informed the rather unfriendly guy at the reception (refusing by the way to speak English or any language other than Spanish) who told me that they would take care of the matter. During the second night, the heating did still not work, and it was cold again. I then went down to the reception, asking for another room, or someone fixing the problem - the receptionist for the night-shift informed me that no other room was available but that he could give me two or three additional blankets for the night - and that someone would take care of the problem the other day.
Again, this did not happen. So I went a third time to the reception, asking for someone to check - the again very unfriendly guy at the reception gave me the same answer "Si, si..." I insisted that someone would check the heating right now, in my presence, to which the guy replied that it had been checked and that it worked perfectly - after 10 minutes of discussion he called someone to check with me in my room. The heating was (indeed) broken. They promised to fix it, and in the afternoon, the heating worked - unfortunately it did not work anymore during the night, which gave us a third night in the cold.
The other day, I asked for another room, threatening to leave the hotel. So finally, we could sleep at least two of the 5 nights in a warm room.
Besides the fact that we were not the only people complaining about the heating and that the hotel seems to have a serious problem with it, what angered me more is the way this was handled by the hotel. The personnel at the reception, and especially one Spanish guy for the morning shift was not only unfriendly, but at times even impertinent.
The rooms were OK, and clean.
Breakfast did not give a huge amount of choice, but was OK. Less OK was the fact that on the last day we had to wait 15 minutes before having a clean plate (no it's self-service, but no clean plates in the breakfast room).
The hotel has 2 PC's with Internet access on the first floor - when we were there, one of the two PC's was broken (so was also one of the chairs lacking one wheel...)
Overall conclusion: I hope and firmly believe that there are better hotels in Barcelona. Please avoid this hotel for your own sake.

Spent 4 nights at Ciutat in Barcelona in November, mostly on the basis of TripAdvisor Reviews. Overall I'd say it was a very good choice with 2 caveats, 1 major and 1 minor.

The hotel has an outstanding location - literally a few feet from the PIcasso Museum in the Old City, a 5 minute walk from the Cathedral and a ten minute walk from Plaza Catalunya. There are tons of restaurants, bars, etc within a short walk.

The lobby is small but pleasant, and secured after-hours. It is fairly modern and sleek. The hotel has 2 elevators, 2 computers with free internet access, and free bottled water for guests. There is a breakfast room but we didn't eat breakfast at the hotel. The staff speaks very good English and are helpful and professional. They requested a taxi for me on departure and gave me some good restaurant suggestions as well.

The room was ready upon our arrival at 9 am, which was very nice. We had requested a crib in advance and they had the crib in the room, also very nice.

Our room was a corner room on the main street (C/ de Princessa) with 2 large beautiful windows and a small, pleasant balcony overlooking the street. The room was floored in Pergo and did feel a bit like it was Ikea-furnished. The double bed is two single beds pushed together, but that was not a problem. The TV gets about 20 channels, about 2 in English. There is a safe in the room, no refrigerator. The room was a decent size for Europe, average to small by American standards.

The bathroom was fine, the standard weird Spanish half-shower door thing which I've never understood, good water pressure and good lighting. The counter around the sink is too small and doesn't hold enough toiletries for 2-3 people.

As for the caveats:

Caveat #1 (minor): the beds are extremely firm. I mean almost rock hard, and I like firm beds. As I am a side-sleeper, this was a little tough to get used to and over 4 nights I had a sore neck several times.

Caveat #2 (major): Our room was quite noisy. It faces onto C/ de Princessa, which is a single-lane, one-way street but a significant artery for the east side of the Old City. It's not that the street was actually so noisy; however, because the buildings are so close together, the street seemed to act as a reverbatory cavity, amplifying the sounds of voices, cars, scooters, recycling being dumped in the bins, and trash trucks/street cleaners coming through, especially at night. If you are a heavy sleeper or have a very good set of earplugs, this is not a problem. However, for our infant, it was a major problem, and therefore, it became a major problem for us! She woke up every night at 2 am (as people started coming home from bars and restaurants) and couldn't get back to sleep. We didn't ask for a quieter room, thinking we'd get used to it over the few days, but we never did. I'm not sure if there are rooms NOT on the main street but I would be sure to request one if you are at all a light sleeper.

Overall we enjoyed this hotel and in particular the location simply cannot be beat. However, make sure you bring earplugs or look into the possibility of a substantially quieter room. We would come back if we could be sure of a quieter night.