Circles “Vallvidrera”
Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸
→ circles.house book at hotelrunner.com
✉️
a coliving community · since 2022
Building a global boutique coliving and coworking chain for conscious entrepreneurs. We are focused on creating meaningful and authentic relationships as well as wellbeing to shape a better tomorrow.
At Circles our primary purpose is to create a culturally diverse international community through digital conscious nomadism. We bring humans to the center of every decision. Kindness, love, respect, genuineness and the desire to see your peers grow is key to creating personal and professional relationships that will last a lifetime.
Is also open as a public hub for dropin coworking and events, however the location means this is quite rare so is mainly used by residents alone. [–Ed.]Reviews please interpret other's opinions per your own needs and values
I stayed at Circles for 3 months. Although the property was beautiful with great views, nice rooms and a decent co-work space, there were some issues with the experience there. The internet was often very slow. Towards the end of our stay they had tried to fix it, but still had issues. During our stay the dishwasher was broken for over a week which was challenging considering there are 24 people living there. The same thing happened with the washing machine too. Fixing either took over a week which was highly inconvenient for such a large coliving.
The kitchen was also very small especially with 24 people living there. It was often quite messy and limited space.
We stayed in a single room, and for that price, my partner and I expected much better.
We stayed at Circles for three months, and as digital nomads for over five years, we’ve experienced 15-20 co-living spaces. While the property and location are stunning, several factors make this co-live fall short of expectations.
What We Liked:
Location and Views: Absolutely incredible. Possibly the best view in Barcelona, and the property itself is beautiful.
Co-Work Space: Well-designed and comfortable, although ergonomic chairs would be a great addition.
Rooms: Nicely furnished, though not very spacious. The best rooms are undoubtedly #1 and #6, but the rest are relatively small.
What Needs Improvement:
1. Kitchen Issues: With 24 people and just one kitchen, it was constantly dirty and crowded. We even had to take out the trash ourselves, which we’ve never experienced in a co-live before.
2. Maintenance Problems:
The dishwasher broke twice, the dryer didn’t work, and the washing machine leaked water.
The app for opening room doors was unreliable and slow, and the AC worked inconsistently.
The printer never worked during our stay.
3. Service:
Service was poor for most of our stay, though it improved after the community manager changed.
When the dryer broke, we had to buy our own drying rack, only to be told we couldn’t use it in the social areas.
4. Internet Connection: The Wi-Fi was unreliable, especially for video calls, which is a critical issue for a co-living space catering to remote workers.
5. Broken Facilities: Our toilet was broken for two weeks, which added unnecessary stress to our stay.
6. Noise Levels: Noise can be an issue depending on your room’s location, with some rooms (like #1 and #6) being better insulated and more private.
7. Mixed Expectations: The co-living caters to very different demographics, from dorm residents to those paying €3,000/month for a room. This gap in expectations often created friction and inconsistency in the experience.
Overall:
This co-live has immense potential due to its location and beautiful property, but the poor service, maintenance issues, and unreliable internet significantly detract from the experience
Circles.House is a beautiful concept of co-living with a focus on doing work amongst like-minded people, and for that it's fantastic. It's problematic that basic amenities keep breaking though. I can work around issues like washing machines and dishwasher breaking on the regular, but the lack of a reliable internet connection made it impossible to work from there. As the place is quite remote and cellular service is not great either, I had to commute to co-working places in the city, which is a major inconvenience. Instead of acknowledging and at least compensating the cost, I was dragged into endless conversations that felt like attempts to gaslight me into accepting that ‘working on it’ was an adequate solution—despite the undeniable fact that I couldn’t work there. I wish I hadn't paid for the entire stay (min. stay of 1 month) in advance.
I had a very good experience here. Amazing view, the house is beautifully designed, close to nature but with good city access, and the workspace/wifi were good. I made some great connections, and would definitely come back. The neighborhood is not a city neighborhood. There are no good coffee shops, and there is only one grocery store that is overpriced and hard to reach on foot. However, it was good enough, and worth the minor discomfort because I enjoyed being in the fresh air and not in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Barcelona center.
The staff were lovely and I felt heard any time there was a challenge or an issue with maintenance etc. The only weird thing was they hosted some multi-day events in the communal spaces with groups of people who weren't co-livers, and it made myself and other co-livers quite uncomfortable, especially during the working hours. If that was a recurring thing I would not stay again, but otherwise it was great.
I was being nudge to write a review and I thought I should be honest with what I felt.
Let's start with the positive: The views are great and I made good connections at Circle.
There are a few negatives, but I will list the main issues that I faced:
Firstly, the problem relates to the Circles House Whatsapp contact. When I was booking and I told them specificially to send me the link to make payment as I was onboard a cruise and did not have constant wifi. They told me a date in a few days that they will send the payment link, however I didnt received the link even a few days after the said date. When I prompt them again, they change my dates by a day and sent me the payment link. I have to find somewhere to stay for the 1 day that they had agreed to earlier, but changed very close to the check in date. After my stay, when I checked out, I faced difficulties and constant procrastination to get my photos and videos despite repeated promises by the same WhatsApp number. It took about 5 weeks after I took the pictures just to get everything sorted. In the end when I received it, they had also lost almost all of the pictures that they took while "I was typing on my laptop" (with only 1 picture remaining), and also the video interview of me is muted. It was really frustrating to face such issues.
The next issue relates to my stay in the shared rooms, as the private rooms were fully booked. There were constant loud creaking sound from the beds and I could barely slept well for the 31 days that I was there. In fact, that was definitely the worst month of sleep that I had in the past 1 year. Also, there was a coliver living in my room initially, that was prejudice against me which soured the whole environment. I later felt that one of her friend, which is a staff for Circles did not treat me fairly. For example, that coliver (who dislike me) had a space in the fridge twice as large as me, but I was being asked to make space to share half of the space with someone in the middle of my stay. In the end, I have to shift a number of my items to the side of the fridge. Later (due to the small fridge drawer), the new coliver spilled my hummus with added olive oil, and a lot of my foods and fruits were filled with Olive oil and it took me a while to clean and sort out the mess. When I asked the above-mentioned staff, why can't that coliver (which is also her friend) share her much larger space with the new coliver instead, she told me that she is leaving soon. That didn't make sense to me and is a clear sign of prejudice against me that benefits her friend. I managed to make peace with both of them in the end, but still it was not a pleasant experience at all.
It is just that these incidents severely affected my productivity and mood during the stay. This is why I could only rate it as 2/5 (or below average) as I didn't felt at home here at all, unlike the experiences of the other reviewers here.
Co-living at another level. Circles features impecable, tastefully designed spaces and rooms in a tranquil location overlooking Barcelona. Will definitely stay here again.
This place is awesome! In a nice area, with comfortable rooms and co-working space, with so great views, and a lot of fresh air. But the most important thing here is the people. Welcoming and friendly, even for such an introverted person as I am, it was an amazing time to spend among them. I would recommend this place to everyone and I will definitely be there again.
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