If you're looking for a place of sanctuary on your next visit to Barcelona, we might have exactly the place for you. While Margot House - its name doesn't include anything as crass as the word "hotel" - is in the heart of the busy Eixample neighbourhood, it doesn't exactly shout about its presence, and that's partly because of its compact size.
There's just nine rooms behind a classic Catalan Modernist facade, and a style which creates the sense of staying in the Barcelona townhouse of a friend with a particularly fine taste in sustained quiet minimalism.
Finishes are in oak and concrete, white walls are often left bare and bedrooms, in neutral tones, have cossetting cashmere blankets. Sound systems are by B&W while Barcelona's own exclusive Alqvimia brand provides toiletries.
Brompton folding bicycles are available for guests, the laundry service is free, breakfasts are of locally sourced produce and there's even a library.
In short, father and daughter Sergio and Sandra Durany have created a place of maximum privacy and rare tranquility in the midst of Barcelona's bustle.
This hotel aims to be, as Margot House puts it, "a place that has what you need and does away with what you do not".
Margot House is somewhere special in one of our favourite cities. Its four exterior rooms, which look out on Gaudí's Casa Batlló, are in especially heavy demand. We'd suggest they're well worth waiting for.
