If you re an SPG member, stay in the Renaissance i...

If you re an SPG member, stay in the Renaissance instead. While a few blocks north of Plaza de Catalunya, you will receive a far better welcome and service there than Le Meridien. You will also be away from the raging-tourist-only La Ramblarghhhh. At the Le Meridien, I was put on the ground floor where I can hear the subway trains rolling beneath the ground.

Now about this hotel...at first I thought I was imagining that I was treated far less superior than other guests (except for the guy who checked me in who was friendly), I can t help but think that there was preference for the light skinned-rich-looking folks, and I was seen as less than and not a guest. It seems that the prejudices against Filipinos and Asians in Spain may be true. I was also traveling solo so I was made to feel like a pariah and didn t feel like a guest in the hotel. I did a little experiment and observed if the doormen would open the door for me, from the 5 days that I stayed there, I was in and out 2-4 times a day not once did I get a nice welcome nor the door opened for me. (Only when they kept the door open for other people coming in before me.) Then, I observed if others got a nice warm welcome, they did and they certainly did not have my skin tone. When I walked by in front of Le Pop, the hostess in the street would offer up the menu for people walking by and when I walked by, I got no offering or welcome (this happened twice).
This place just made me feel horrible about myself.