Barceló San Salvador

Muy amables los trabajadores y limpio

I love the hotel, location and the staff.

Beautiful building, great breakfast, good menu to order room service, comfortable bed

It was all exceptional! Room, breakfast, gym, staff. Great value for money.

Excellent.

Todo estaba en excelente estado

El desayuno muy rico y las habitaciones cómodas

Everything

Laa habitaciones son espectaculares, muy cómodas y silenciosas.

Very good location and good facilities as well as breakfast

The location of Barcelo San Salvador is one of its strengths. It in the Zona Rosa district in San Salvador which is a really nice area. We were quite surprised how nice it was and driving around the hotel reminded us of being in West Hollywood. The area around the hotel is safe to walk (even at night) and as foreign visitors there were a lot of good (for El Salvador) restaurants within close walking distance of the hotel. There is a shopping centre (and for those interested, a McDonalds) across the street.

The hotel when you arrive is grand like most large five star hotels around the world. It has a nice lobby, helpful staff with the bonus of free hotel guest parking which we really appreciated. Hotel guests have free and unlimited in and out access from the hotel underground car park immediately underneath the hotel. There is a security looking after the car park.

We booked a room with lounge access so I am not sure if we were given an upgraded room. The room we did get was what you would expect of a (slightly dated) five star hotel. It was spacious and the bed was excellent - one of the most comfortable I recall sleeping on. There was everything you would expect in the room of a five star hotel, except a mini bar. The shower was excellent.

The hotel facilities are excellent, in particular the gym. It was one of the largest and best equipped hotel gyms I have used although some of the equipment was starting to get a bit old. You could do a proper workout in this gym. Another feature which we really appreciated was the availability of clothes washing machines and clothes dryers. Located in the gym, it is $1 per load in each. After a week touring around El Salvador, it was so good to be able to do a load of laundry. The front desk provides change to use it.

There were some features of the hotel that we distinctly didn't like. Firstly, the access policy to the executive lounge is so generous as to make the space so crowded as to be unusable. The hotel either needs to expand the space (and it wasn't that small) or not sell so many rooms with access. I would not recommend booking a room with executive lounge access - it is a waste of time.

The breakfast was also disappointing. The food selections were basic, of mediocre quality and the wait times for cooked to order food was too long. The design of the restaurant is also a bit flawed with it being difficult to get around the tables. Although we paid for a rate with breakfast, we didn't bother with it again after the first morning.

The part of the hotel that caused the greatest frustration was the elevators. It is a large hotel and there are only two (slow) elevators that have low capacity. This means that there is insufficient elevator capacity to service the hotel. You wait a long time for the elevator. Indeed, I recall seeing people sitting on chairs on the floors waiting for the it to arrive. There are crowds in the lobby level and when the elevator does arrive, often you can't fit into it. There might be space, however the elevator wont move because the weight in it. This happens at every floor as it goes up and down. We gave up and started taking the stairs as it was faster and less frustrating. I appreciate that this isn't an option for everyone.

If you do stay here, I suggest a basic room on a low floor without breakfast!

Great location in a good and safe area . Plenty of nice restaurants and shops close to the hotel . Taxis very cheap to bring to any where in the city . Nice gym and spa . Bars and restaurant very quiet so we eat out in the local restaurants to get the feel for San Salvador. Big changes in the last 4 yrs . El Salvador is definitely a Central American country that should be included on a trip to Central America .