Just like many ordinary people, I do not write reviews often. I travel a lot but most of the time I have a pleasant experience without nothing special to write about. I take time to write reviews only when I have a very positive or negative experience. And I would say that Hostal Balkonis was the worst accommodation I have ever stayed.

1) False advertising

Do not book the triple room. You will get a totally different room from the pictures on their website. The room is much, much smaller and uncomfortable. Since there is zero privacy between the single bed and double bed, you will have an awkward time even with your closest family member you share the room with. Their rooms look cheap for Barcelona but are way overpriced for what you get.

There is no space for a single bed or anything beside the door unlike you see in the picture. When you open the door, there is a double bed right in front of you. You will have your single bed right beside the double bed, where you see only a chair in the pictures. There is no chair in the room; The only furniture you will have is a small bedside table and a tiny, almost broken closet. There is not even a space to open your suitcase. It is smaller than the smallest business hotel room in Japan. The bathroom is also cramped.

I understand that hotel rooms with the same name could be slightly different, especially if the hotel is in an old building. But our room size was beyond the understandable irregularity. I do not usually complain because I want to use my limited time to enjoy the vacation, but this time I decided to talk to the reception desk because I was traveling with my elderly parents.

2) Rude, rude, rude employees

I cannot still believe how rude, disrespectful, and unprofessional the employees were. All of them (Demian, Juan, and especially, MARIANNA) were ridiculously aggressive. They do not want to listen to any kind of complaints. My elderly parents were always watching me talking with them and were shocked about how I was treated. They were worried that the employees were racists; their attitude was that ridiculous.
Change of the room or any kind of compensation would have been great, but if there was nothing they could do, I would have appreciated at least a sincere apology or a sympathetic gesture. When I gave up talking with them, I felt that they were just doing what the owner told them to do and even felt sorry for them for having to be such a horrible human being towards the other humans to earn a living.

I do remember what they said word by word and want to write down everything if I could, but I don't have time for that; I would just summarize the conversation.
Demian, whom I talked to first, did not want to listen and was extremely defensive. He insisted because we have the same number of beds (one single and one double) we have the correct room. He just read out repeatedly that our room was non-refundable (even though I did not ask for a refund). At least he finally admitted that he was employed only for 6 months and did not know how to deal with the issue.

When we returned to the hotel after dinner, nobody opened the hotel door for us (you are not given a key; you have to ring the bell) and we had to wait quite long in front of the hotel. I understand that the receptionist could have something to do urgently, but it was not a good experience because my parents were shivering in dark, it was our first night in Barcelona and it was a late night, not many people around there, and you never know how long you had to wait in that kind of situation.

Finally, the door was opened and I met Juan, the night chief. At first, Juan looked confused and was difficult to talk with. He did not say sorry for making us wait in front of the door. Instead, he was mad at us! For some reason, he thought we were upset about their elevator issue and talked angrily about the elevator forever. He angrily told me that the elevator wasn't moving only for a few minutes. It took time to explain to him that we were okay with the elevator because we could walk up the stairs. When I asked for an apology, He reluctantly apologized saying that "I apologize if that makes you happy." He was still mad at me for no reason and told me that because I was talking to him, he could not help the other guests (which I did not know about). I reminded him that I am also his guest and gave him time to help the other guests and calm down. After calming down, he became easier to talk with and at least seemed to be trying to help. He let me sit inside the office with him (it was his invitation) and we checked their booking calendar together. I saw that the first night was fully booked. I could also see that they have 4 triple rooms and we were assigned the 4th room (we made a reservation a couple months in advance). The most reasonable option for us to change the room for the second and third night was a bigger apartment. Juan wasn't sure what his boss would say about the upgrade but promised that he would talk to the boss to find a solution and would let me know what they could do next morning. It was past midnight at that time.

Next morning, I met Marianna. I told her what I talked with Juan. She ignored everything and insisted they are fully booked for all nights and they could do nothing for us. I told her that I saw the booking calendar with availability just a few hours ago. I asked her to show me the calendar again and she refused (Rather than the refusal itself, I was shocked by the way she spoke to me. How rude!). She insisted that I should check their website to see the availability. Because their website only shows rooms that are available three nights in a row in the high season, it would have been meaningless to us. I asked her to let me talk with the boss and she rudely refused again. She interrupted every single phrase I said and harshly repeated whatever bullsh*t she could say to stop the conversation. I gave up talking with her. I saw that right after the conversation, she called someone (should have been the boss) to report what she did. At that moment, I thought that she was just another poor employee and decided to forgive her.

However, I do not want anyone, especially those traveling with their family, have the same horrible experience in this hotel. Even though they were unfair, I want to be fair; the location was not the best but good, and our room was cleaned every day. But you won't get your money's worth here. There are better deals if you look for. (I wish I had researched more; I am going to Barcelona again soon and I could find better options) And, most importantly, you don't want to be treated like garbage when you travel. This hotel may be one of the cheapest options, but there is a reason for the cheap price. I think they do not value their customers at all because there are always people coming for the cheap price.

We arrived at night and did not know where to park. I ran inside and the receiptnist could not have been more helpful. I had three options for parking. No problem. The room with a kitchen had beautiful balconies and was perfectly clean. The hallways and the elevator smelled amazing. I would stayhere long term when i come back to barcelona. Perfect english speaking.