A new five star deluxe hotel, the Alma Barcelona, has been opened in the ‘Ciudad Condal’. The Alma Hotel group in Spain specialises in creating luxury hotels in unique locations. The group’s promotional literature says: “From the choice of location to the careful design of the hotel accompanied by impeccable service within a discreet and comfortable setting. All of these features give the sensation of exclusivity to all guests who stay in one of our hotels.” The Alma group now has hotels in Seville, Barcelona, Pamplona and Berlin with two new hotels coming soon in Cordoba and Lisbon.

The Alma Barcelona is located just a few minutes from Barcelona’s famous thoroughfare, the Paseo de Gracia, in a building that dates back to the early twentieth century. The Alma Group has restored the façade of the building to protect its history. With seven floors and 72 rooms, all over 40 square meters in size and including a terrace that overlooks famous Barcelona landmarks like the Sagrada Familia, Montjuic, La Pedrera or Tibidabo. The hotel restaurant serves international cuisine as well as local specialities and the hotel garden contains a curious botanical variety which makes it, along with the hotel terrace, a place not to be missed this summer.

The hotel fits nicely into…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The four star Hotel Porta Fira in Barcelona, which belongs to the Santos chain of hotels in Spain, recently won the prestigious architectural prize the ‘Emporis Skyscraper Award’. The hotel was voted best skyscraper in the world ahead of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which came second in the competition.

In all some three hundred buildings entered to gain the accolade of being recognised as the best skyscraper in the world. Nevertheless, the Hotel Porta Fira, which actually consists of two buildings, defeated them all thanks to its functional and aesthetically pleasing design. A jury of more than 67 international experts judged the hotel on its appearance and functionality. The buildings are the result of the work of Japanese architect Toyo Ito and Spanish architectural studio b720 headed up by Fermin Vazquez. The towers have 26 floors and are 113 meters high. The hotel is located in one of the more modern areas of Barcelona just off the Fira Gran Via.

“The facade is made of aluminium tubes that run along the outside of the building as continuous lines from the ground to the top, following the complex geometry of the tower, that grows and twists and becomes ever wider as it rises,” explains Fermin Vazquez….Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The hotels of the Mandarin Oriental brand are synonymous with luxury and opulence and since the chain opened its only hotel in Spain in Barcelona in 2010, it has proved to be a huge hit with locals and international travellers alike. The very grand hotel in Barcelona lives up to the usual outstanding quality of all the other establishments of this exclusive chain which is known for taking pleasure in delighting its guests and surpassing their expectations.

The hotel chain has managed to establish a presence in many of the most exclusive areas of the major cities around the world in a very short time. It has gone for superb locations in Asia such as Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur and the likes of Las Vegas in America. In Spain there is only one of these luxurious hotels which is to be found right on the Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona very near to the famous Casa Battló designed by Antoni Gaudí.

Located in one of the most hip areas of the city the Mandarin Oriental Hotel has managed to become one of those establishments where everybody wants to stay and from around €400 a night we can discover and appreciate every detail of each of the 88 rooms available and 10 magnificent…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The Hotel Grums recently opened its doors in Barcelona under the slogan “Muy Barcelona”, or very Barcelona. The hotel is positioning itself as a modern, cosmopolitan and charming four star establishment striving to be a place where customers can enjoy to the full both business and leisure trips to the Catalan capital in the northeast of Spain.

Built on a street adjacent to one of the main thoroughfares in Barcelona, the Avenida del Paralelo, the hotel is owned by the Sastre Group. The Sastre Group is a local construction company that has been operating in Barcelona since 1922 with headquarters on the Rambla Catalunya. Over the years the company has built many of the emblematic buildings that grace the Barcelona skyline and has recently moved into the hotel sector.

In the design of the Hotel Grums the Sastre Group has endeavoured to combine the brightness of the Mediterranean Sea with the vibrant culture of Barcelona and events from the city’s colourful history. This is the reason the hotel logo bears the expression ‘Very Barcelona’, because inside the hotel there are frequent references to the history of the city.

The 78 rooms of the Hotel Grums are spread over six floors, each containing references to landmark buildings, Catalan artists, streets, tourist resorts or famous people…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The H1898 hotel in Barcelona is currently hosting a superb exhibition of magnificent and striking images of the Philippines taken by Swedish photographer, Maria Espeus, who is based in Barcelona. The photographer recently spent some time in the Philippines absorbing the customs of its people and its superb scenery. Many little details that reveal the Philippine’s past colonial connection with Spain have remained unchanged and can now be appreciated in this Barcelona hotel.

Many different rooms in the H1898 now offer spectacular snapshots of the Banaue rice fields in the Philippines. The Church of Pavay, famous because it is made of coral, can be admired in the hall on the fourth floor of the hotel. Some of the photographs demonstrate the production of cigars proving that the long tradition of craftsmanship is still alive in the archipelago and this craftsmanship can also be seen in the markets and old colonial houses of the islands. The colonial connection between Spain and the Philippines is in fact the essence of this Barcelona hotel, which is located in the building which was previously home to the headquarters of the Philippines Tobacco Company right on the famous Ramblas.

With the opening of the H1898 in 2005, the building, which for many years had reverberated to the sounds…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

Barcelona is undoubtedly one of the most diverse cities in Spain and has many characteristics that tourists find attractive. It resembles a very old Spanish city in the Gothic Quarter, the Ramblas give it a very popular feel, it is melancholic and maritime in the Barceloneta area and it has its fair share of modernity in the newer areas of the city. But there is another aspect that is starting to attract more and more tourists from all around the world and we could perhaps describe it as the luxurious Barcelona.

There are, of course, lots of five star hotels in Barcelona that offer many of the usual services associated with such exclusive establishments such as suites decorated with original pieces of art from the ancient classical period to swimming pools with fantastic views over the city and Mediterranean Sea.

For lovers of jewellery, the Bagués Hotel, is located in the historic former headquarters of the Masriera jewellery makers. Masriera have been making jewellery since 1839 and are famous for their Art Nouveau pieces from the early Twentieth Century. The Bagués allows hotel guests to see the latest jewellery collections in private and make purchases with the help of a personal shopper who specialises in this field. So, you might be able…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

It looks like the hotels in Barcelona could rack up around 15 million overnight stays this year. Occupancy rates have continued to rise throughout 2011 even though the average price of hotel rooms in Barcelona has increased by 9 percent and are now, on average, €104 per night.

It would appear that the tourism sector in Barcelona, which accounts for 14 percent of the GDP of the city, has been booming this year and it seems that this will continue for the foreseeable future. Expectations for the year could not be more optimistic and the Hotel Association of Barcelona expects to beat all records and reach or pass the 15 million overnight stays mark. The trend began last summer and has consolidated during the first half of 2011 which closed with 8 percent more overnight stays than during the first half of 2010.

The recovery in overnight stays and occupancy rates is reflected in the €104 average room price. The President of the Barcelona Hotel Association, Jordi Clos, stated that the future challenge for hoteliers in the city is to maintain these prices and noted that there is still work to be done as these current rates are still well below the €121 achieved in 2007. He went on to point out that…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has signed an agreement with Amrey Hotels in Spain to open a Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Barcelona, which will be the first hotel to be managed under this brand anywhere in Spain.

It is planned that the Four Points by Sheraton Barcelona Diagonal will open this autumn, on October 1 to be exact. It will be located in the 22@ new technologies district of Barcelona and will feature 154 rooms, a 24-hour restaurant, cafe, bar and fitness center. There will also be three meeting rooms, a reception area for events and a business center.

This will mean a complete refurbishment of the Hotel Amrey Diagonal currently managed by Amrey Hotels, which also owns the property. The addition of this hotel to the Four Points by Sheraton brand after the renovation and repositioning process is part of Starwood’s strategic plan to convert and incorporate emblematic hotels throughout Europe, Africa and Middle East into the group.

“We are delighted to strengthen our partnership with Amrey Hotels with the debut of the Four Points by Sheraton brand in Spain. The partnership has been working successfully for over five years ever since we first opened the hotel Le Meridien Ra Beach Hotel & Spa on the outskirts of Barcelona”, said…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

Axel Hotels, the hotel chain based in Barcelona that caters specifically for the gay community in Spain and beyond, is keen to continue with its plans for expansion in spite of the current gloomy economic outlook. The chain achieved revenues of some €7.1 million in 2010 which represents an increase of nearly 27 percent over the previous year.

The chain attributes this success to the company’s corporate restructuring programme which was undertaken throughout 2009 and early 2010 and affected both the management team and staff and an increase in the popularity of the hotels belonging to the Axel brand. The EBITDA ratio, which reflects the operating performance of the chain, exceeded €100,000 in 2010, in contrast to the negative results obtained the previous year. The improvement in the results can be attributed to an increase in bookings at the company’s three hotels located in Barcelona, Berlin and Buenos Aires and to the expansion and renovation of the hotel in Barcelona which had the number of rooms increased to 105. According to the company both the occupation rates and the RevPAR  (revenue per available room) developed positively during 2010 when compared to 2009.

Thanks to the current positive scenario and future growth forecasts, the Axel Hotels group is currently analyzing the international situation to…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels

The Hotel Arts, one of Barcelona’s well known luxury hotels, is to invest four million euro in renovations this year. These investments appear to be justified by the positive recent results achieved by luxury hotels in the Catalan capital.  The number of private guests looking for luxury hotels continues to increase and the Hotel Arts is now reporting the same level of bookings as in the heady, pre-crisis days of 2007, which was the best year ever for the luxury hotel market in Barcelona.

The improvements taking place this year in the Hotels Arts will mainly involve all the communal areas. According to the new hotel manager, Rivero Delgado, “offering added value and pioneering services is crucial if you want to stay on top”. The hotel, which is located right on the Barcelona sea front, attracts half its business from groups and individual business travellers, so the bulk of the budget (€2.5 million) will be used in completely renovating the 14 meeting and function rooms, including one room which is over 1,300 square meters in size. The work will take place in August and both the decor and technical facilities of the rooms will be enhanced.

One of the hotel’s most famous facilities, the Enoteca restaurant, will also be completely transformed to try…Click to read more about Barcelona Hotels