The affordable Barcelona hotel that wins by doing nothing wrong

The hotel

INNSiDE by Melia Barcelona Apolo

Check-in

Located right next to the Apolo Theatre, from the outset the hotel seeks its own little slice of drama – or at the very least showmanship. The heavily perfumed lobby is impossible to ignore, with carefully selected pieces of art and a bright atrium, all of which were refreshed during the recent hotel-wide refurbishment. Check-in staff are ebullient and keen to help, even when you haven’t asked a question. Opposite the check-in desk, you won’t fail to notice a row of bright-green bikes, available to rent if you fancy cycling around the Catalan capital.

The look

So complete has the refurbishment of this hotel been that it might as well be a brand-new property. From the lobby up, the place is generally bright and organised, with modern flourishes that would make it as suitable as a business hotel as it would for a romantic city break. There’s a gym and rooftop bar, but also private workspaces and small shop for people on the go. The Melia brand may be a corporate hospitality behemoth, but if they’ve applied some algorithmic decisions to the design here, they’ve done a good job of hiding it.

The room

The format of the room may be fairly linear – bathroom, bed, balcony – but that’s no surprise given the reasonable price point. There are some nice flourishes throughout, however – a decent speaker system for pairing your own devices, a huge TV, a mini-bar with complimentary soft drinks and an espresso machine. The decor is essentially grey, safe, and comfortable, but there’s some vivid, inoffensive wall art, too. Balconies in refurbished rooms have views out to the famously scaffolded masterpiece of procrastination that is the Sagrada Familia.

Food + drink

Breakfast is served on The Terrace, with seats inside and out. There’s a live omelette station, but the buffet options range from abstemious and healthy, to downright gluttonous. If you’re in more of a rush, the Bite Box by the lobby will help you with something on the move. The Terrace also has places for dinner and while some of their local(ish) dishes are perfectly fine, Barcelona is one of the world’s great culinary cities and it seems unlikely you’ll have dinner here. On my visit, I was one of just two tables eating in the hotel at night.

Out + about

Just a five-minute walk to Las Ramblas and another five to the Gothic Quarter, the INNSiDE Apolo is about as central as you’d like to be. Airport transfers via the metro network are painless and simple, while there’s a bus stop right outside the hotel. If you want a superb local experience, just behind the property Locanda Santa Marta is the sort of little bar that is fast being squeezed out of Barcelona by the blandness of mass tourism. If you’re looking to stretch your legs, head up the hill to Parc del Mirador del Poble-sec for views across the city.

The verdict

Not the fanciest hotel in Barcelona, the hotel wins by simply doing nothing wrong. Priced far more reasonably than many places in the city, its location sits ideally at the fringes of the centre.

The Essentials

From $303 a night (for doubles, room only). INNSiDE by Melia Barcelona Apolo, Av. del Paral-lel, 57-59, 08004 Barcelona, Spain. Phone: +34 933 43 30 00. See melia.com

Our rating out of five

★★★★

Highlight

Having a morning coffee on the Terrace feels unmistakably like being on a proper holiday.

Lowlight

For a hotel that has been recently refurbished, the lifts sound surprisingly rickety.

The writer was a guest of INNSiDE by Melia Barcelona Apolo.