Hotel Marina Badalona

The hotel is lovely, very modern and clean. The staff were friendly and helpful. The views are great over the sea and Badalona port. The room was great, very comfortable bed and modern features. I disagree that guests should be paying extra to access the spa area, I think it's wrong. The breakfast was okay, but nothing special.

The worst 4-star hotel I have ever stayed in Let me start with the location: the hotel really is far from the city centre, and getting there takes a long time whether you go by taxi or public transport. That alone would be manageable, but unfortunately it was the least of our problems. On arrival, I asked the receptionist to explain how to get to the city centre: which route to take, where to go, what to expect. The answer I got was as short and dismissive as possible: “Go straight and you’ll see the bus stop.” No map, no directions, no landmarks, no information on ticket prices or which stop is best to get off at. Nothing. It was clear from the very first minutes that helping guests is not a priority here. To be fair, we were given our room early, around 11 a.m., on the 13th floor, and we were grateful for that. But when we came back late that night, we had to “enjoy” a constant noise from crickets, cicadas or something similar. At 11 p.m., just before going to bed, this was extremely frustrating. We had to change rooms at 11:30 p.m. We received no apology and no help with moving. The next morning we went down to breakfast and were not let in. At check-in, nobody had told us that on WEEKDAYS breakfast is served only until 10:30 (which is absurd!), and that it runs until 11:00 only on weekends. Upset by this surprise, I went to reception to sort it out. In my experience, in situations like this a hotel simply refunds the unused breakfast and that is the end of the story. Here, our refund was refused, and the receptionist made no effort to help or calm the situation. Quite the opposite: he escalated it by demanding that I prove he had not informed us about the 10:30 cut-off. This is complete nonsense. I am the guest, and I am somehow supposed to prove something? Naturally, I asked him to prove that he had told us. Thankfully, the breakfast manager came over, calmed things down and, exceptionally, offered us breakfast after first asking what we would like. I want to sincerely thank him for his help and for smoothing out the situation. He was the only person who showed any real hospitality during our stay. During the same conversation, I also raised with the receptionist the fact that we had been forced to change rooms at almost midnight, and suggested that the hotel offer some kind of apology or compensation: a free breakfast, spa access, a room upgrade or anything similar. I was met with a flat refusal and a complete unwillingness to make up for any of the discomfort and disappointment. In the end, we got him to agree to discuss it with the director and come back to us with options. We never heard back from anyone. Total disappointment. On top of that, the hairdryer in our room barely worked. We called reception to report it and ask for a replacement, and were refused outright. Once again, there was no willingness at all to help or resolve the issue. I unfortunately did not catch the name of the receptionist we dealt with, but he is a male staff member who wears glasses. He did his job terribly and completely failed at what a receptionist is there to do. Overall, I can say with confidence that this hotel does not come anywhere near 4-star standard. Reception is the front line of any hotel and perfectly reflects how it treats its guests. Here, there is a total unwillingness to help, to solve problems or to provide even a remotely pleasant experience. As the face of the hotel, reception simply does not do its job. It was awful. The room itself is completely average, with nothing remarkable about it. For the first time in a 4-star hotel, instead of a proper capsule coffee machine, I found the cheapest, poor-quality Nescafé instant coffee. That is motel level. Breakfast is very mediocre: limited choice, extremely average omelettes, and the coffee was not good either. This is the worst 4-star hotel I have ever stayed in. I would not recommend it to anyone. Our trip was spoiled, and we left deeply disappointed.

when I was in Spain two summers ago our flight got cancelled and my group had to get a new flight the next day. The airline refused to tell us where to go to find a new flight, a hotel, or how to get to the hotel, but we figured it out. When we get to the hotel, the front desk very clearly wasn't expecting us, and was scrambling to figure out how to accommodate a busload of arrivals. The scene was chaos, annoyed customers swarmed the desk, complaining at staff that had nothing to do with our predicament, who were just trying their best to make us happy. The miserable scene was finally cut short by one of the workers, who announced that groups of 3+ would take priority, since they had limited space and if there were any groups willing to come up to please make their way to the desk. My friends and I were a large group, so we made our way over and presented our case. I joked with the guy, thanking the hotel for accommodating us and apologizing for our current state, and we laughed about the whole situation. We weren't able to have anything to eat, so after we settled in we tried to go downstairs to see if we could get anything to eat, only to find that the restaurant had closed for the evening. We were pretty bummed, but the guy who helped us out earlier saw us, and went into the kitchen to see what he could do. They came out with plates of spaghetti, bread, a little salad, some fruit and a yogurt cup, one for each of us. We were so shocked and grateful, at this people who made all this for us to eat when it was well past closing. I was so confused, and I asked them why are they being so nice to us, why'd they make us this fine meal? And I'll never forget what the guy said. "People around here never say thank you, and you did, and we appreciate that." The people who work here and the kindest, most amazing people, and they turned what had been an awful day into one of the highlights of my trip to Spain, so thank you so so so much for everything you all did. one million stars!!!

The hotel is nice overall, although I think it looks better in photos than in person. The rooms weren’t quite as nice as expected, but the bathroom was lovely. The shower gel and shampoo dispensers have restricted use, presumably to prevent people from taking them, which made them quite difficult to use. There’s also no window that opens, so you can’t get much fresh air, although the beach view was great. The elevators were surprisingly slow despite there being four, so we often had to wait quite a while. The hotel is also quite far from central Barcelona, with around a 15-minute walk and 15-minute metro journey each time. There’s a supermarket nearby and a beach, although the closest beach is a nudist one, so bear that in mind. There’s also lots of pretty outdoor seating in the hotel, which is lovely for relaxing. The breakfast was definitely the highlight, with lots of options, everything cooked well, and even champagne available. The rooftop infinity pool is lovely but smaller than it looks, and the shaded seating areas get taken very early. The swimming pool and steam/sauna area are an additional cost so not free to use which was disappointing. Overall, a nice hotel with good facilities, but I think the photos make it look better than it actually is.