Hotel Prestige Paseo De Gracia by Jenny Pidgeon

Prestige Hotels recently opened their newest hotel in a prime location on the Passeig de Gracia. Good for business travellers and pleasure-seekers alike, this super-cool chic boutique hotel is the head of its class in Barcelona and no other modern designer hotel in the city has got it quite so right. From the moment you enter through the impressive, heavy silver door on the busy main street, all aspects strike an excellent balance between designer minimalism and relaxed comfort, neither at the expense of the other. Jazz music plays in the background and everywhere symmetry and clean lines are thoughtfully softened, often by Oriental touches such as a panel of rouched red silk framing a single flower stem or an off-centre collection of smooth pebbles. A suave first floor lounge (the ‘Zeroom’) transforms from the breakfast room into a chill-out zone with library, music and internet access as well as the hotel’s concierge service ‘AskMe’ whereby guests are invited to do just that to the professional, friendly staff on constant standby. At inspection, a magazine shoot was going on and the cutting-edge interiors of the Prestige have ensured a constant flow of media and fashion moguls to the hotel since its opening.

The 45 guest rooms (with room numbers fashionably indicated on the corridor floor rather than at eye-level) are equally chic in their décor which is all black, beige and grey. Rooms are spacious from executive level upwards, featuring large beds, complimentary minibar and cd selection, control-cards for lighting and a/c and all the technological wizardry you would expect in such a hotel. Sliding glass doors reveal beautiful black-clad bathrooms, shower on one side, separate wc if you slide the other way. Some rooms have balconies onto the Passeig, whilst others are quieter but overlook the less-interesting patio – the eternal dilemma of Barcelona hotel room choices. Superiors on the higher floors have private terraces and there are two Junior suites for more serious splashing-out. However, rates are very reasonable compared to other hotels of a similar standard, as the Prestige has only a 4-star rating due to nothing more than its lack of a restaurant, and this hardly matters in an area with so many dining as well as shopping and cultural options on its doorstep.

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