Hilton Diagonal Mar Barcelona

THE WORST HOTEL EXPERIENCE WE HAVE EVER HAD — ABSOLUTELY NOT RECOMMENDED!

Our stay at this hotel was an extremely disappointing and stressful experience. What should have been a relaxing family holiday turned into a series of problems, poor management decisions and serious concerns about basic hotel standards.

🚨 Pool facilities — completely unacceptable

The hotel divided the pool facilities into two sections. Hotel guests were restricted to one small section, while other areas were apparently made available to non-hotel guests who paid around €70 per person, despite the pool facilities being presented as part of the hotel’s facilities when we booked.

When we challenged this with hotel management, we were told that these restrictions had been introduced by the hotel itself, despite there being no clear indication of such restrictions on the Hilton website at the time of booking.

We ultimately had to threaten legal proceedings before the hotel allowed us to access the facilities we understood to be included with our stay. This should never have happened.

Even worse, the pool facilities appeared to be operated/subcontracted to another company, whose treatment of hotel guests was extremely poor. The atmosphere was uncomfortable, guests were visibly frustrated, and we certainly did not feel that we were being treated as valued hotel guests.

We were travelling with our 7-year-old child, who could not safely be left alone in the small section allocated to hotel guests. The pool was also not particularly child-friendly because of its depth. As a result, our family was effectively prevented from properly enjoying the facilities we had expected to have access to.

🧹 Disgustingly dirty carpet

The carpet in the room was in an unacceptable condition and looked disgustingly dirty. This is simply not the standard expected from a hotel of this level.

🚿 Leaking shower

The shower leaked continuously. We had to use towels to soak up the water every time we showered. This created another ridiculous situation: after dealing with the leak, we were left without enough clean towels to actually use.

💶 Unexpected additional taxes/charges

We were also surprised to discover that not all applicable taxes were included in the amount presented when we booked. These additional charges were not made sufficiently clear to us beforehand. Guests should be given a completely transparent breakdown of the total cost before booking, rather than discovering additional charges during their stay.

🔐 Serious concern about room security

Our room safe had been locked before we left the hotel for the day. When we returned, we discovered that it had been unlocked. This meant we could no longer use the safe’s lock function as expected.

We were extremely concerned about how this had happened and whether someone had accessed our room using a master key without our knowledge or consent. This was a very serious security concern and one that the hotel should have taken extremely seriously.

📩 Midnight demand regarding breakfast charges

At approximately midnight, we received a letter instructing us to attend Reception IMMEDIATELY to settle breakfast charges.

This was completely inappropriate and unnecessary, particularly at that time of night. I contacted Reception after being woken up and questioned why this could not simply have been dealt with at checkout. The receptionist apologised, which was appreciated, but the fact that such a letter was delivered to our room around midnight in the first place was unacceptable.

⚡ Electrical safety concern

One of the electrical sockets in our bedroom stopped working after being used once. This raised serious concerns for us about the condition and maintenance of the hotel’s electrical installations. Given the potential fire and electrical safety implications, we found this particularly worrying.

Overall: a terrible experience

Taken together, these issues made our stay extremely stressful and disappointing. The problems were not simply minor inconveniences — they included poor management, misleading or unclear information about facilities, inadequate room maintenance, cleanliness issues, security concerns and potential electrical safety issues.

For a hotel operating under the Hilton brand, we expected a significantly higher standard of service, communication, cleanliness, safety and customer care.

Unfortunately, this was one of the worst hotel experiences we have ever had.

NEVER AGAIN.

We would not recommend this hotel and strongly advise prospective guests to carefully check exactly what facilities are included in their booking, what additional charges may apply, and what access restrictions may be imposed on hotel guests.

A holiday should be relaxing. Ours was anything but.

The WORST hotel ever! The hotel divided the pool facilities into two sections, away from the pool was dedicated to hotel guests and keep the other parts for anyone who paid €70 per person despite these facilities are sold as part of hotel facilities. When we asked the hotel managers, they had made this rule themselves without having such restrictions on the Hilton website. We had to threaten the Hilton with court proceedings to be able to use the facilities.

The hotel subcontracts the pool facilities to another company who treated hotel guests poorly. Everyone was very annoyed. We couldn’t use the pool facilities as we have a 7 year old child who couldn’t be left on this very small pool which is not child friendly due to pool depth.

The carpet is disgustingly dirty.

The shower leaked all the time so we couldn’t take shower without using all towels to soaking the leak. Then we had no towels left to use.

The Hotel doesn’t cover all taxes as part of their rent without making it clear before booking so be prepared to pay extra to cover taxes.

Our safe was locked before left a day. When we return, it was found unlocked so we couldn’t use the lock button because someone had accessed our room and used a master key without us knowing about it.

We had a letter delivered at around midnight asking us to attend the Reception IMMEDIATELY to clear the breakfast bills. When I woke up and called the Reception and asking why it couldn’t have been waited until checking out time. The Receptionist apologised.

One of the electric sockets within the room stopped working after using it for ironing so very concerning about fire safety of this place!

Terrible experience ever at this hotel, NEVER again staying here. Would not recommend at all!

A decent choice close to the beach and away from the city centre if you don't want to be in the middle of it all. There's not a lot around apart from the shopping mall directly opposite, so you'll need to head into town. But on this trip, I stayed just a few nights and chose the location to travel north for some meetings which was straightforward.

The hotel's Exec Lounge was pretty impressive being on a high floor and having some nice small dishes during the happy hour - worth a visit.

Short walk from the beach that's popular with the locals and very lively!

Overall, a good stay and all staff were super helpful.

Tout

Great location for beach. Pool restaurant was delicious.

Near from mall and restaurants

Det bästa med hotellet var läget, framför allt närheten till den stora gallerian som ligger precis bredvid. Det var faktiskt den främsta anledningen till att vi valde hotellet. Vi lockades också av poolen, som såg väldigt fin ut på bilderna, samt av rummen som såg moderna och fina ut på bilderna.

We loved our stay at this Hilton location. Yes, there are a few things that people considering this property should be aware, but these were non-issues for us:

1. This is not a city centre property. If your goal is to explore the more historic sites that Barcelona has to offer, you will be spending some time using transit to reach your destination.

2. The pool situation, with the PuroBeach concept, is overtly complicated. Having a third party operator run the only onsite pool, during hot summer months, with complicated access rules is not the best guest experience.

Let's now focus on why we enjoyed our stay there:

The staff at the hotel is very friendly and efficient - from bell desk to front desk staff, who recognized our party as loyal Hilton Honors Diamond guests. While I was already booked in one of the top room category, the hotel was able to upgrade me to a room with a nicer view. This was a nice sized room, with great views and enough storage for the 3 of us. They had setup the extra bed ahead of time, and the bed had two animal plushes to bring back home.

The bathroom was also nice and modern, with standard Hilton amenities. If featured both a shower and a bath.

Temperature control was adequate during a heat wave, and we were comfortable at all time. Wifi worked well. Everything in the room was in working order - no maintenance issues.

We had access to the executive lounge, which we only enjoyed on arrival, and once late afternoon for drinks - we never really had time to enjoy "happy hour". Maybe next time.

The buffet breakfast had many items - both local and international, and also a cook to order egg station / omelet. Food quality was quite good, and staff really friendly.

We did get to enjoy the pool - it was nice and relaxing, and we did also enjoy the PuroBeach restaurant on one of the night.. A tad overpriced, but good quality.

Speaking of food, this is one of the great feature of this hotel - as it is located right across a major shopping mall. There are plenty of quick service and sit down options, conveniently located all in in spot. We ate at the mall twice (one quick service and one sit down).

There is also a beach area near the hotel.

The hotel itself in in a quieter area of town - other than the world cup celebrations, noise was not an issue.

Housekeeping did an excellent job during our 3 night stay.

If you do not mind being in the city center, this is an excellent hotel and I'd say also fairly convenient to the cruise port, if staying there as part of a cruise package.

I highly recommend this hotel

Booked two rooms because we have a family of 5. Selected our rooms in advance and also contacted the hotel in advance to make sure they would be right beside each other. Arrived early from a Cruise and our rooms weren’t ready yet. We were given one room on the 22nd floor and waited for the other by the pool. Had terrible service by the pool and was offered nothing to make it right for them forgetting to put in our order and our server leaving us for hours. Then when we got the second room it was five floors away. When explaining that we have kids with us and that’s unacceptable I was offered nothing. When my husband went to the counter they told us we could pay more money to get a room on the same floor. We are not paying more money to get what we already booked. I do not recommend this hotel due to their terrible service.

L’emplacement et le personnel