Last November the restaurant at the ABaC Hotel in Barcelona received a second Michelin star. This five-star Barcelona hotel is an excellent example of a hotel that is able to combine good taste with precision, luxury and simplicity.

The ABaC Restaurant & Hotel is a perfect choice for enjoying a weekend trip to Barcelona. The hotel is located right at the start of Tibidabo Avenue, one of the most popular areas of Barcelona. Surrounded by the Tamarita gardens and overlooking Kennedy Plaza, the location fits perfectly with the hotel’s concept of exclusivity.

The hotel is the product of the integration of two buildings, the legendary former U.S. Consulate and another building with contemporary design by the architect Antoni de Moragas. The hotel is renowned for its elegant features and tranquil atmosphere. White and cream decor with exclusive furniture and quality fabrics are the basic ingredients, although the final result is also thanks to the use of lighting which is capable of providing a special intimacy. The rooms are spacious and luxuriously equipped with large windows overlooking the gardens and some come with magnificent terraces.

The hotel has a spa reminiscent of ancient Roman baths. It was built in a quiet area illuminated by skylights, allowing the passage of natural light that is reflected in the back…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The Casa Camper hotel has been voted the best hotel in Barcelona after a report showed that it received top scores from many of its customers on the popular hotel booking sites Booking.com, TripAdvisor and Trivago. This four-star boutique Barcelona hotel with just 25 rooms located in Elisabets Street in the Raval area of the city achieved the highest score with 27.5 points out of a possible maximum of 30.

The report selected the 15 best hotels in Barcelona among the three, four and five star categories and it is based on the points given by guests who have spent at least one night in these Barcelona hotels. The scoring assessment involved, among others, aspects such as personal attention, service, comfort and value for money.

In second place comes the Hotel Monte Carlo which received a score of 27.3 points. It is also a four star hotel and has 50 rooms. This hotel is located in a renovated nineteenth-century palace right on the famous Ramblas in Barcelona. The 125 room, five-star Palace Hotel in Gran Via de les Corts Catalans, formerly the Barcelona Ritz hotel, ranks third on the list with a score of 27.1 points.

The H1898 Hotel, also located on Las Ramblas and the Abac hotel on Avenida Tibidabo, respectively took fourth…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The Casa Fuster hotel, located on the central Paseo de Gracia thoroughfare in Barcelona, and which belongs to the Hotelescenter hotel chain in Spain, has been nominated as a finalist in the Hospitality Initiative Awards of Grand Hotel magazine in the Best Urban Hotel section. This nomination is in recognition of the high standard of the hotel facilities in general, the quality dining experiences on offer and excellent customer service. The Grand Hotel magazine awards will be announced on November 3rd.

This unique Barcelona hotel previously won this award in 2008 and continues to maintain and improve its high levels of quality and service. To give the hotel its full title, The Hotel Casa Fuster 5 * Monument Grand Deluxe, is the only Barcelona hotel to be nominated in Best Urban Hotel category of the Grand Hotel magazine awards this year. The hotel has managed to blend the prized architectural heritage of a unique building in Barcelona with the latest trends in design, advanced technological installations and great offerings and products for both leisure and work. In addition, the hotel contains two well-known cultural and social facilities, the ‘Café Vienna’, which often hosts select musical events and the unique dining experience of the ‘Galaxó Restauarant’, which caters for all kinds of events. There…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The Palace Hotel in Barcelona, which was formerly the Ritz, is currently up for sale. International property and hotel consulting firm CB Richard Ellis is handling the sale and is understood to already be in a second round of negotiations with potential investors. According to the Head of the hotel division of CB Richard Ellis, Jorge Ruiz, “we have received numerous offers from foreign investors and some from Spain with bids coming in at between €60 and €70 million”.

However, one well-known investor is currently missing from the list of international parties interested in the hotel. Lebanese investor Boutros El Koury, who last year acquired the hotel Husa Princesa and Husa Moncloa in Madrid and the hotels Miramar and La Florida in Barcelona has not yet expressed an interest in the Barcelona Palace.

The former 5 star Ritz hotel has 125 rooms and was built by Swiss hotelier César Ritz. It opened in 1919 and soon became the hotel of choice for celebrities visiting Barcelona. Its guest book includes signatures from Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Pele and Madonna among others. Salvador Dalí lived in the hotel for some time and one of its suites has been named after him. In 2007 the hotel closed to undergo a thorough renovation which cost thirty…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

It would appear that the hotel business in Barcelona is one of the very few sectors that is still attracting investment and experiencing growth in the current difficult economic climate in Spain. The development of houses, offices and the construction sector in general has practically ground to a halt. However, investment continues into the hotels in Barcelona, albeit at a slower rate than some years ago. After a difficult time at the start of the global crisis, the hotels in Barcelona now seem to be managing the economic crisis better than many other businesses in Spain. By the end of 2011 eight new hotels will have opened in the Catalan capital including two five star establishments, three four stars and three in the three star category. Another twelve new hotels are planned for Barcelona next year and a further thirteen are planned for 2013. A report by consultancy company Global Bric has estimated that the value of transactions in the hotel sector in Barcelona for the last twelve months was around €135 million.

This continuing investment into the hotel sector in Barcelona is probably due to the excellent results that the tourism sector in this part of Spain has been experiencing recently, where visitor numbers continue to increase steadily. The president…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The number of reservations in the five star hotels in Barcelona almost doubled in July this year compared to the same month in 2010, recording an increase of some 87.75 percent. This increase in bookings can be ascribed mainly to the reduction in prices that these establishments have been setting as a way of attracting guests in the midst of the ongoing financial crisis in Spain and beyond. At the moment there are quite a few five star hotels in Barcelona that are more affordable than one would expect of accommodation with their characteristics. A data analysis firm, The Data Republic, recently produced a study of the profiles of clients of five star hotels in Barcelona. The analysis was based on more than 6,000 web user reviews and revealed that the profile of the majority of guests of five star Barcelona hotels are young couples. This group, by far, makes the majority of reservations in these establishments. In relation to hotel choices, those establishments that stand out for their style, design and art are preferred over more emblematic five stars that are aimed more at business guests and are often located in more remote areas away from the city centre. Preferences also vary according to the nationality of those visiting Barcelona….Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The ‘Ciutat Vella’, or old town, in Barcelona city centre is starting to increase the quality of both its tourism offering and the type of travelers it is attracting thanks to the fact that some good quality hotels have set up business in the area. These hotels have focused on the marriage of the traditional architecture in the old town and first-class, modern design and service to entice guests to this charming, if somewhat forgotten, part of the city. This combination of architecture and tourism has provided a way of reinvigorating previously run-down areas of many large cities and Barcelona is no exception.

A good example of this is the Hotel España, which has enjoyed great success since undergoing a complete renovation during 2010 and making its 82 new rooms available for booking again earlier this year. Previously known as the Fonda España , the historic original building dates back to 1859 and was designed by local architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner and operated as a two star hotel until the end of the last century. The recent renovations mean the building has now been upgraded to house a new four star establishment which has retained many of the original modernist elements of the original. Its new terrace, appropriately called the…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

Investment into the hotel sector in Barcelona either through acquisitions, new builds or refurbishments, that were completed between July 2010 and July this year, reached a total figure of some €135 million. This figure is still below the one recorded for the same period in 2009, just before the worst of the effects of the global economic crisis really hit Spain, which amounted to some €157 million.  In 2010 some 840 new rooms were added to the capacity of the hotels in Barcelona and during the first half of 2011 several transactions have been completed that will mean a further increase in capacity of some 1,100 rooms in the coming years. The majority of these planned rooms will be in four star hotels in the city. Interestingly, the investments announced in July this year alone, make up nearly half the investments for the whole year, which could demonstrate a renewed appetite among investors based on the belief that the tourism sector in Barcelona has put the worst effects of the economic crisis behind it.

The profitability of the hotel business in Barcelona remains the highest in Spain with an average revenue per available room or RevPar of €69.50. This compares favourably with the €55.50 achieved by the hotels in Madrid, the…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The influx of guests to luxury hotels in Barcelona appears to be on the rise again which may be an indication that the worst effects of the global economic crisis in some economies outside Spain may be on the wane. The number of guests staying in top five star luxury hotels represented almost 14 percent of the total number of overnight stays in Barcelona last year and this figure is still increasing.

2010 made history because the number of tourists staying in the hotels of Barcelona reached record levels, achieving an average of almost 75 percent occupancy throughout the year. Within this figure, luxury hotels recorded occupancy levels of 67.8 percent, which was eight points higher than the previous year and was the sector with the highest percentage growth.

Although the rates of many luxury hotels in the city are around €300 per night, there are many accommodation options in Barcelona that are well beyond the pockets of the average traveler. For example, the Extreme Wow Suite in the W Hotel is €10,000 per night and the Presidential and Royal suites in the Hotel Arts can be as much as €12,000, these are over 400 square meters in size and include two bedrooms, private gym, personal trainer, butler, welcome massage for two, a Mini Cooper…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The use of environmentally friendly electric vehicles is starting to take off in Barcelona, and it is worth noting that the hotels in the city are now doing their bit to promote the use of this type of transport in Spain. From now on guests staying in the hotel Diagonal Zero, the Santos Porta Fira, the ME Barcelona, the King Juan Carlos I or the W Barcelona can rent electric scooters directly from these hotels as an alternative way of independently exploring the city. This initiative is a world’s first and is being promoted by the Barcelona Hotel Association, the City Council and Mobecpoint, a green energy company specialising in the installation of charging stations for electric vehicles. The service has been initiated with thirty electric motorcycles spread across the five hotels where charging stations have already been installed. It is is expected that many other establishments throughout Spain will join the initiative in the coming years.

Doing a projected average distance of 30 kilometres a day, the use of these vehicles as opposed to carbon-based means of transport, will save up to 37 tonnes of CO2 a year, which is the equivalent of planting five acres of Mediterranean forest. According to the Councillor for Mobility in Barcelona, Eduard Freixedes, the electric vehicle…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels