I stayed at the Hotel B in Barcelona for two nights on the #catexp BlogTrip09 in December 2009 as a guest of Turisme de Catalunya. The hotel prides itself on its fusion of avant garde style and cutting edge technology.

I stayed there on the first and the third night of my trip, so had two different rooms one which faced an inner courtyard and the other facing Plaza Espanya. Although it’s a great view over the square, I preferred the quieter room at the back of the hotel, as there is a lot of traffic noise.

Now whilst I agree that it’s a stylish hotel, I’d assert that it’s a triumph of style over functionality and user friendliness. The fist issue I had on entering my room was how on earth do you turn on the lights? The room was rather cold so next it was an unsatisfactory encounter with the temperature controls as I’d no idea what the symbols meant. After a lot of random button pushing it seemed to be getting warmer in the room. Well I thought what about a relaxing bath, but no the third challenge was how do I turn on the bath tap? I had to stand astride the bath (as I couldn’t reach the taps because of the fixed shower screen) and fiddle for a few minutes with the taps before I could get any water and then water at the correct temperature. In my first room I noticed that there had been some water leakage from the corner of the bath onto the wallpaper in the bedroom.

The electrical socket at the desk area was on the ground, so I had to kneel down to plug in the netbook, surely it should be at desk level? In both rooms the safe was displaying low battery on the multi lingual display panel. I didn’t want to risk putting my netbook inside and then the battery konking out so I couldn’t retrieve the netbook. When I checked in for my second night the keycard system was down, so guests were given physical keys. The wardrobe area doesn’t have a door to hide away all your clutter, it’s a flimsy silvery net curtain.

Is it not possible to balance trendy design with usability? I stay in a lot of hotels and I’ve never been left feeling such a numptie (Scottish slang for stupid person) grappling with basic hotel room functions.

On the positive side there was very good, free wifi in rooms. The B Hotel has a roof top pool which would be ideal for a cooling tip in the Summer. The sun deck has loungers and seats.

The breakfast buffet is good.

Until 31 January 2010 the B389 offer includes a room, buffet breakfast and a welcome cocktail for two guests for 89 euro.

In summary the B Hotel has potential if it could refrain from making guests feel like knuckle heads. Perhaps presentation of a copy of “The Dummies Guide to staying at the B Hotel” at check in?