Unbelievably friendly and warm staff who gladly gave expert travel advice and recommendations that only a Roman would normally be privy to. - Loic Diels
I LOVE this website and will gladly recommend it to anyone headed this way. Nothing disappointed us! - Mary-Iris Taylor
I have been using Cross-Pollinate for about 10 years now. The service is consistently great and I can always find just the kind of apartment we like, at the right price. - Hirani Himona
A really great idea - with a network of hand picked little rooms/guesthouses. If only we could have this in more city destinations! - Zoe Buck
I love Cross-Pollinate and every time we go to a new city I look to see whether they have some accommodations over there. - Arantza Aldea
The two places I have stayed at from Cross-Pollinate have been among the best across Europe. Highly recommended. - Nicholas Burn
Thanks a lot to Cross-Pollinate for the opportunity to experience a city as an insider! We really enjoyed our stay in Rome and Venice and look forward to more. - Tatiana Marchenko
Cross-Pollinate was very helpful when the owner of the B&B wanted to charge us for the baby under 2 y o. It would have been difficult without them since the owners did not speak any english. - Yulia Pichugina
This was our only stay with a C-P apartment and we were very pleased with the entire process. Will look to use them again on our next Europe trip! - Anthony Giglio
Great web site and quick response from the team a CP made the whole experience easy and hassle free. I have already recommended CP to quite of few of my airline industry colleagues and I'm sure they will make use of their excellent service. - Shane Pickles
Cross-Pollinate was extremely helpful! They found us a place to stay in our price range when many other places of business couldn't help us. - Sarah Seminutin
Cross-Pollinate was very easy to use, and it is so much better to stay in places like these than big corporate hotels; you get a much better feel for the place. - Kaspar Deane
Very straight forward. Well done. Definitely would use it again. Love these type of alternatives to hotels! - John White
Cross-Pollinate was fantastic and easy to use. We used Cross-Pollinate to book a room in Florence (the second leg of our trip), which was everything I thought it would be. We have recommended Cross-Pollinate to our friends. - Barbara Carlin
Cross-Pollinate are great - the descriptions are accurate and they are very responsive to questions. - Dominique Bayne
Cross Pollinate was just the best. I had tried a couple of places before coming upon them. As soon as I sent the first email I stopped looking for any more websites. I just wish they expanded to every city in Europe. Their knowledge, helpfulness, etc. was second to none. - Caroline Collis
Ally's Guesthouse
Ally's Guesthouse is 1 14-room guesthouse located in three separate apartments in the same apartment building, run by the same owner. There are 14 rooms total - there's one apartment with 5 guestrooms and 2 shared bathrooms; another apartment with 5 guestrooms and 3 shared bathrooms; and another apartment with 4 guestrooms and 2 shared bathrooms. (The bathrooms are kept impeccably clean!) The apartments are on the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th floors of the same building. The owner, Graciela, lives in an attached annex to one of the apartments, while her son, Juan Pablo, lives in the other, and her assistant, Veronica, lives in the third one. That means in each apartment, there's always somebody on hand to help guests, do check-ins, clean, and serve breakfast. Graciela is a friendly Argentinian woman who moved to Barcelona with her family years ago. Graciela and her family are very friendly and try to make their guests feel at home. On my first visit to the guesthouse, I was treated to some traditional Catalán pastries and a cup of tea while we chatted; on my way out, I was chided in a grandmotherly way to keep an eye on my purse while walking around the city in case of pickpockets. This seems to be the typical greeting for guests too, as Graciela enjoys offering people something to eat and drink when they check in, as well as giving them visitor information -- including maps, places to visit, recommended restaurants, etc. The guestrooms themselves are simple but lovely, each decorated slightly different but all cheerful and with a different color scheme. Some of the rooms are "exterior" (facing onto the street) and some of the rooms are "interior" (facing onto an inner courtyard). The upside of an exterior room is that it has natural light and more of a view; the upside of an interior room is that it is often quieter. Each apartment has a spacious living room / breakfast room where breakfast is served, and guests are welcome to sit and relax. A continental breakfast is served each morning and includes homemade cakes and marmalade, fruit, cereal, yogurt, croissants, coffee, tea, and juice. The apartments are in the Eixample neighborhood, just a couple blocks from the Passeig de Gràcia and Gaudí's famous modernist apartment block "La Pedrera", and well-connected by metro (it is between the Verdaguer stop of the blue line and the Diagonal stop of the green line). At least one of the apartment's breakfast rooms looks out onto Joan Puig i Cadafalch's Casa de "Les Punxes" (House of Spikes).

There is also an Ally's Guesthouse II, which is listed separately on our website - this is a fourth B&B owned by Graciela, also in the same building, but which has rooms with private bathroom rather than shared bathroom.
Amenities
  • WiFi
  • hair dryer
  • linen and towels provided
  • panoramic views
  • breakfast included
  • central heating
  • TV in common room
  • shared balcony
  • use of kitchen
  • use of refrigerator
  • use of microwave
  • stereo in common room
  • 5th floor
  • with elevator
  • use of phone
  • calls in Spain free (to landline phones only)
  • ceiling fan
  • air-conditioning
Reviews
Jennifer on Aug 2017:


Ally's Guesthouse is in a very central location allowing us to walk most places we wanted to see. Everything was clean. The breakfast was filling and there was a small refrigerator, microwave, and access to bottled water.
The breakfast was filling but not of a very high quality. The bathrooms smelled like sewer if the window was not left open. One of the showers was extremely small, almost unusable by even a small person. One of the two available bathrooms for five double or larger bedrooms couldn't be used from 10pm until 9am.
Fine, very limited interaction. No response from them on parking in the area when I first booked.
Dinda on Oct 2016:


Location, breakfast and bathroom
All good
My second time using cross pollinate. Had a difficult at first speaking with the staff in english. But all fine till the end of our stay. Breakfast was more than enough and all in. Acess to location is very convenient.
David Clarke on Jun 2016:

I was hesitant about sharing bathrooms with other guests but it was just fine. But it wasn't a problem, as we were up earlier than others, our teenagers showered in the evenings,and the bathrooms were kept clean and tidy. Breakfast is included and was just fine with healthy choices. The accommodation is clean and quiet. There is a computer/printer which was invaluable for buying timed tickets for tourist sites. The only thing to point out to potential clients is that the accommodation is accessed after a good stair climb (~120 steps) or a 2 person max elevator, so not for the unfit or claustrophobic.
Finding accommodation in Barcelona was a bit of a frustrating process, as the accommodation I tried to book, using the onsite calendar showing availability, was later determined by C-P not to be available after all. This happened 3 times, so the calendars are not kept up to date. The proprietor of one accommodation I was told by C-P could not be reached and had not responded to them for some time. One lesson here is not to leave it as late as I did to find accommodation on the shoulder of the tourist season. C-P was very helpful and persistent in ultimately finding accommodation that was available for us and turned out to be great value for money, in a nice and convenient part of the city.
Leslie on Jun 2015:

We were very satisfied with our accommodations. Most of all we appreciated the homey feeling, cleanliness and location of Ally's Guesthouse.
I also highly recommend Cross Pollinate's services. I'm so thankful we found them. We were able to use them for two of the three cities we visited in Europe and had an equally positive experience at both locations! It helped make our trip more affordable and very comfortable! Thank you!
Mary Zavodszky on Aug 2014:


Well kept clean place helpful staff.
The free standing air conditioner unit was as loud as an airplane. It was very difficult to sleep. The address off the property is a side street and the windows opened to the very busy and very noisy main road. I would not recommend to stay here during the hot and humid days of summer.
Everything was positive except the above mentioned location.
Fidel Desir on Aug 2014:


courtesy and willingness to help
upgrading of beds. floor and bath
good but beds are terribly awful
Justine Martyna on Jun 2014:


Friendly staff
nothing
We will be recommending it to others
Jill Unruh-Philadelphia on Oct 2013:


This was a charming B&B with a great location with easy access to all the major sites. The decor and rooms were delightful and Veronica was very helpful providing directions and recommendations. I hope to return soon!
Working all the different keys was difficult.
Cross-Pollinate was wonderful and provided great service and information. I will use them again and I highly recommend!
on May 2013:


Location was fantastic. Graciela was a delight. She was very helpful in arranging car service from the airport and was very gracious in being willing to check us in after midnight when we arrived in Barcelona. The car service she arranged was excellent and the driver provided sightseeing information and gave us a tour as we drove from the airport. Graciela was very helpful in assisting us in planning our sightseeing and figuring out public transit for us to and from the sites. The breakfast was delicious.
We often had to wait to use the shared bathrooms and some of the other guests were not very careful about keeping the bathrooms tidy during their use.
Very helpful in assisting us in ensuring that we could check in after midnight when our flight arrived and in working with Graciela to arrange car service from the airport to the Guesthouse.
Ratings
average score
4.6 / 5.0
Price/Value
4.5
Comfort
4.4
Cleanliness
4.9
Accuracy of listing
4.5
Location
4.9
Helpfulness of owner / staff / host
4.6
Helpfulness of Cross-Pollinate
4.6
Booking details
Booking details: guesthouse (owner lives on premises), 5 guestrooms, with 2 shared bathrooms
Payment accepted: cash on arrival in euro
Minimum stay: minimum stay of 2 nights
Cancellations allowed up to: 5 days before arrival
Occupancy: double
Bed options: 1 queen (160 cm) or 2 singles
Policies & Extra Charges: check-out time is 11 am, room will be ready by 1 pm for check-in, luggage can be held before check-in, luggage can be left after check-out, smoking permitted on balcony only
Spoken Language(s):
Rates and Availability
Location
 Ally's Guesthouse
A
Sagrada Familia
B
Poble Espanyol de Montjuic
C
La Pedrera (Casa Mila)
D
Picasso Museum
E
Casa Batlló
F
Parc Güell
G
Castell de Montjuïc
H
Barcelona Cathedral
I
Las Ramblas
J
Arc de Triomf
K
Boqueria market
L
Sants Estacio