Hotel: Fairmont – Rey Juan Carlos I, Barcelona, Spain
The hotel is described as an exclusive, luxury retreat in Barcelona… and whilst the hotel itself is beautiful, our experience was tainted by some of if not the worst staff I have ever come across.
We arrived at the hotel around 10am and checked in, we were told to come back at 2pm when the rooms would be available so we went off into the city.
2pm, we arrived back at the hotel to 3 receptionists with 3-4 people ahead of us in each line… so perhaps a 10 minute wait or so you’d think. Nope, an hour… yes an hour, they took 20 minutes to check each person in. I though at one point perhaps they were painting a Picasso piece on their computers, it was ridiculous.
So as we reached the desk an hour later, we commented on the time it took and noted they should be apologizing for the wait, to which the male receptionist laughed at us. What appalling behavior! We asked for his name only to see him remove his name badge and being unable to catch it, I have never ever come across anything like it and I would think or hope Fairmont would be ashamed by this. We shared our distasted for his attitude to which he again laughed and shrugged.
Once we finally got our room keys he slid a free drinks card to us and winked, now I appreciate any gesture of good will but this is a luxury hotel and this was tacky at best.
Now the good bit for those who can see past the checkin staff… the rooms are big, very comfortable. The bathroom is also lovely, with a bathtub, shower, toilet and bidet the only negative I can give is the lighting, there’s a fancy touch pad near the entrance which is not illuminated at night so I ended up causing a mini disco trying to turn the bathroom light on late :)!
Sadly we thought our negative staff experience was done with but as we were checking out the stateroom attendant chased us outside the room, flicked a key card at us and said take your key downstairs in such an abrupt manner. As far as I’m concerned the behavior by the staff we received at this hotel did not meet the standards of the luxury brand it portraits.