Hesperia Sant Just, Barcelona

.../> The Spanish hotel chain Hesperia has taken a slightly difficult approach to the whole 'girly-room' challenge with their 'Pink Room' concept which I experienced at the Hesperia Sant Just on the outskirts of Barcelona. Apparently you can pre-book a pink room at no extra cost so I'm not sure if that's what our secretary did or if I was just randomly assigned to a Pinkie.

I'd probably been in the room for about an hour before I twigged ...
...the details I discovered that Hesperia had listened to feedback from their women guests and realised that we were sick of massive bathrobes, slippers that were a zillion times too big and likely to trip us up, trouser presses but no iron, the wrong kind of coat hangers, a shaving kit but no cotton wool, lousy lighting in the bathrooms all those other little niggles. Hesperia had then set about designing a more customised woman-friendly experience ... more

There was a time - not so long ago - when business travellers were almost all men and suppliers to the industry (airlines, hotels etc) built their offer around what men wanted. Cutting edge hotel décor was of the 'dark wood - black leather - lots of chrome' variety that's apparently supposed to appeal to the boys. If you are old enough, think of the apartment of the control-freak boyfriend in the film 'Nine and a Half Weeks' and you'll get the idea. For many years, if you were a woman staying in business hotels in Eastern Europe, you had to be careful not to sit alone in reception waiting for anyone as you might find yourself in the company of lots of other 'ladies' who weren't exactly paying for their rooms, if you know what I mean. On the flip side 'nice' male travellers in some parts of the Far East had to contend with having friendly ladies sent to their rooms as part of the 'hospitality'.

Being the only 'non-prostitute female' in the hotel is at one extreme end of the spectrum, but less extreme examples of not feeling completely at home include being frequently called 'sir' by hotel staff, finding plenty of 'Dear Mr Koshkha' welcome letters in your room, getting a trouser press but no iron and finding that there's only one towel in the bathroom and the smellies are distinctly 'manly' in their fragrances.

Then around about 10 years ago, some of the more enlightened hotel chains noticed that quite a lot of women were passing through their hotels and a few even decided to do something about it. Early attempts at 'feminising' hotels tended to focus more on issues of security and less on comfort. Hence some hotels did 'wimmins' floors - the idea being that female travellers would appreciate all being grouped together. I believe the idea was that security would be enhanced if all the women were in the same place so that there was no reason for any odd men to be lurking around the corridors. These rooms would often have enhanced security features such as door chains, peep holes, even panic alarms, and hotels would guarantee that nobody such as housekeeping or room service would be sent to your room without reception calling ahead to say they were on their way. To be honest, I have to say that I found all that sort of stuff a bit over the top and at times a tad silly. If I was that much of a scaredy-cat I'd never leave my home, let alone go all over the world.

The Spanish hotel chain Hesperia has taken a slightly difficult approach to the whole 'girly-room' challenge with their 'Pink Room' concept which I experienced at the Hesperia Sant Just on the outskirts of Barcelona. Apparently you can pre-book a pink room at no extra cost so I'm not sure if that's what our secretary did or if I was just randomly assigned to a Pinkie.

I'd probably been in the room for about an hour before I twigged that something odd was going on. I'd vaguely registered that there was a glossy magazine on the coffee table but since it was in Spanish and since a lot of hotels have magazines, that hadn't triggered any thoughts. I'd clocked the immense number of freebie toiletries in the bathroom including such non-standard delights as a bath sponge, conditioner, make-up removal towel, lip balm, deodorant, nail file and cotton buds but even with the discrete little box with tampons and sanitary towels, all I'd registered was 'hmm, I wonder if that's standard?' I'd marvelled at the black furry bathrobe and wondered how many teddy bears had been slaughtered to give their pelts to that, and I'd doubly marvelled when I got out of the shower, grabbed the bathrobe and found a hair turban in the pocket - genius! Just like being at home. The thing which finally slapped me in the face that this was a girly room was when I took the bedroom slippers out of the wrapper and found the words 'pink' on one and 'room' on the other and I remembered that there had been a leaflet on the bedside table about a 'Pink Room' which I'd just assumed was the hotel spa or something like that.

Reading the details I discovered that Hesperia had listened to feedback from their women guests and realised that we were sick of massive bathrobes, slippers that were a zillion times too big and likely to trip us up, trouser presses but no iron, the wrong kind of coat hangers, a shaving kit but no cotton wool, lousy lighting in the bathrooms all those other little niggles. Hesperia had then set about designing a more customised woman-friendly experience - and why not? Women travellers staying alone in a hotel are more likely to spend their free time in the hotel, eat over-priced room service meals and spend more time in their rooms - so why not make that a better experience if it means we're more likely to choose Hesperia next time? I didn't check the mini-bar but apparently it should have contained things like chilled face packs and cereal bars. The hotel makes a donation of Euro1 per stay to a breast cancer charity. The one thing that was missing - and I think was quite a serious omission - was a peep-hole in the door. I was really surprised that with so much attention to the 'little things', Hesperia had missed one of the most basic security requirements for anyone staying in a hotel. Not being able to check who's knocking is one of the features that most hotels put in place many years ago.

And before the boys reading this get angry that the girls are getting special treatment, relax - Hesperia gives you lots of boy-goodies too and just remember that if you want to leave the loo seat up in your rooms, that's just fine, we won't force you to put it down again and if you want to leave all your stubble shavings in the sink, feel free. We'll be hunkered down in our pink rooms.

Where is it?

The Hesperia Sant Just is on the airport side of Barcelona in the suburb of Sant Just Desvern. If you are a glass-half-full kind of person or someone who believes hotel website blurb, it can be described as 'at the end of the Diagonal' but if you are a realist it's more accurate to say it's 'a bit too far from the centre' of Barcelona. It's a lovely hotel but if you are looking for a place that's handy for the city, I'd have to say this isn't the right place for you. Getting into the city on my second evening took nearly half an hour in the heavy traffic and cost Euro15. Getting back again we were ripped off by a taxi driver who decided to take the long way back which took almost as long as the traffic jam on the way in but cost twice as much. We told him what we thought of that, as you can imagine! So if you are tempted by this hotel, check out the underground maps and see if there's a lower cost way of getting around - it may still be worth it because these hotels on the outskirts are often a lot cheaper than central hotels. At just ten minutes from the airport, this is also a good option for anyone with an early flight and I believe it's possible to do your check-in and print your boarding pass at the hotel business centre and express check-outs are available

First Impressions

The lobby is a grand open space with high ceilings and plenty of big comfy sofas and chairs. There's a bar and area for light meals, an area set up like a library with two public-access internet computers and of course, a big check in desk and a corridor leading to the main restaurant. The 'library' area has a set of bookshelves with six identical black vases. Six? Ok, I could understand just one, or better still, six different vases but why - other than for the sake of some distorted sense of style - would you have six identical vases? The weight-bearing pillars that hold up the high ceiling are clad in a really fascinating textured tiling that I really wanted to stroke but feared looking like I'd escaped from a 'place of security'. The overall impression was stylish and bright.

Room Layout

My room was on the larger side of average and laid out essentially the same as almost every chain hotel room I've stayed in recently. There was a king sized bed with a nice upholstered bench at the bottom of the bed - nice looking but I'm not entirely sure what its purpose was supposed to be. In the absence of a case-stand, it became the place where I put my suitcase. There were bedside tables either side, each with a lamp and one with a phone. There was a comfortable arm-chair with a coffee table and a tall reading lamp as well as a desk with lamp and a funky black leather work chair. The TV was a flat screen and there was a minibar below. There was a full length mirror on the wall and a small vase with a silk flower - each probably indications of the 'Pink Room' status. The colour scheme was exceptionally beige but pleasant and reminded me of the childhood friend whose family couldn't agree on colours for any rooms in their new-build house and so had the entire place painted magnolia. It was funny at the time but it seems to be the norm these days. There was a large fitted wardrobe with a safe and an iron and board inside.

The door to the bathroom was frosted glass and the bathroom contained a loo, bidet, big broad sink unit, bath with shower over and a set of scales. The sink unit was made from grey/white marble - what I think of as 'tombstone marble'. Everything was in great condition although the large mirror was slightly tarnished at the edges. The selection of toiletries, as commented elsewhere, was second to none.

Check In

Check-in was quick and simple - the usual registration documents, handing over the credit card and passport. I pinched a big glossy green apply from the check-in display; it looked like something from Snow White. I was informed that there was free wi-fi although I had to call down from my room later to get the sign in codes. Free Wi-Fi is my favourite hotel freebie when I'm travelling for business - not something that's useful when staying for fun but a really useful thing for business travellers. Since many hotels charge Euro15-20 for 24 hours or even as much as Euro10-12 for just an hour,

Drinking and Dining

On my second night a colleague and I had a drink in the bar which, presumably due to the European Cup, had a selection of international beers. Two Witbeers cost us Euro10 which wasn't cheap, but not overly expensive either. I was surprised in the land of tapas culture that we weren't offered so much as a bowl of old peanuts.

I had breakfast on my second morning and found a really good selection of hot and cold dishes, displayed on several serving areas, thus designed to utterly confuse a half-asleep guest. The breakfast cost Euro15 which is about standard for a Spanish 4-star.

Check Out

After two very pleasant and problem-free nights, I found the check-out intensely irritating. There were two members of staff doing very slow check-outs and about half a dozen people waiting at 9 am in the morning. A third member of staff came to the counter just as it was my turn to be next. Rather than start checking people out, she stood around disturbing the other staff, chatting to the people who were being dealt with and generally slowing things down even more than before. When I looked directly at her, she just shrugged and said there were only two computers and then carried on disturbing everyone. Check out took about 10 minutes from joining the queue to leaving the desk.

Other facilities

The hotel also offers a gym and a squash court, a business centre and 8 meeting rooms, a sauna, several restaurants and parking.

Details

Frederic Mompou 1
08960 Sant Just Desvern
Barcelona Spain

I paid 105 Euros per night, excluding breakfast 

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