U232 Hotel

From the spectacle of Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia church to the iconic Camp Nou stadium, the city of Barcelona is home to a countless number of stunning sights and experiences that make it one of the most popular city break destinations anywhere in the world.

For more than 30 years one of the hotels catering for business travellers and tourists visiting the city is the U232 Hotel, nestled between Avenida Diagonal and Paseo de Gracia within the shopping and business zones of Plaza Francesc Macià. Part of the Núñez i Navarro Hotels (NN Hotels) group, the hotel offers 102 fully equipped rooms and access to two meeting rooms, a fitness centre, business centre with complimentary internet access, and a peaceful terrace-solarium.

Originally called the Núñez Hotel, U232 underwent a significant remodelling programme in 2007, one that saw it adopt its new name. “For many years this was very much a business orientated hotel,” states Director, Asun Pareja, “however since the remodelling we have been diversifying our client mix to the point where today we have roughly a 50-50 split between business and leisure travellers.”

According to Pareja, both types of client share an appreciation of the hotel’s location away from the hustle and bustle of the city centre. “Here we find ourselves surrounded by a vast array of local business, restaurants and coffee shops that our guests often praise for delivering better quality and value than those found in the tourist hotspots throughout Barcelona.”

Nevertheless, whatever features or attractions surround a premises it is the offerings of the hotel itself that most endear it to its guests. “I believe that what makes this hotel stand out from others, first and foremost, is the product,” Pareja enthuses. “Being a family owned hotel we take immense pride in being able to offer the best experience possible, be it through the service we provide, the materials we use or the way we work to maintain the appearance of the building.”

U232 Hotel’s 102 rooms are divided into several different categories. Its best sellers are its basic rooms, which benefit from all the usual amenities and services, while it also offers exterior rooms, rooms with balconies and four that come with their own terraces. Having this degree of choice allows the hotel to cater to a wider type of traveller with different spending limits.

“In general,” Pareja says, “Barcelona is blessed with having a high quality supply of hotels making this a very competitive market to operate within. It is with that in mind that the NN Hotel group takes great pride in having six of its hotels featured in the list of the top 30 hotel destinations in Barcelona according to the latest ratings on the Trip Advisor website.”

Prior to the financial crisis that enveloped the globe in the latter years of the last decade Barcelona was in the midst of enjoying a number of very good years economically. While the effects of the crisis were unavoidably damaging, the hotel industry can take solace in the fact that it learnt a number of invaluable lessons that it continues to apply today.

“In recent years,” Pareja explains, “we have learnt to become more efficient when it comes to managing our hotel and our profit margins. One example of the measures we have taken to do this is the outsourcing of our housekeeping team. In the years prior to the crisis such an idea would never have even been contemplated, however we were the first of the NN Hotels to do so and the results of this move, from a quality and cost saving perspective, have led to other hotels in the group looking to implement similar moves.”

With the industry in the midst of what it itself admits is turning out to be another challenging year, Pareja is very much aware of what the U232 Hotel has to do to overcome such a scenario. “One of the most common compliments we receive from our guests is how well maintained the hotel is and how it looks exactly the same way that it is depicted in brochures and on our website. Therefore it is clear to us that in order to remain successful our job is to keep the quality of our product and service offerings at a continuously high level, while maintaining the excellent condition of the building for many years to come.”

www.u232hotel.com

Written by Will Daynes, research by Richard Turner