General advice for your stay in Barcelona
Complaints
Try and react to complaints promptly and pass them on to our staff as soon as possible.
Health and Safety
Please discourage students from bringing flip-flop footwear. This offers no protection from broken glass or other discarded sharp objects.
Our courses are intensive, and with the change of diet and routine, students with specific medical requirements, e.g. self-managing diabetics, need to be particularly careful in monitoring their condition during their stay.
Try and structure the students' free time as much as possible. If you allow students to leave the hotel after work in the evening, organise a signing-out book.
Everyone in the group is entitled to a good night's sleep and students should be given a time for 'lights out' at night and encouraged to honour this. This helps to ensure everyone is fresh in the morning. Accidents are more likely to happen when students and staff are tired and stressed.
A 'no smoking' policy for the hotel bedrooms and balconies is recommended.
Leisure Time
Try and provide some leisure time for your students, ideally before and after the evening follow-up session.
If you can provide one evening at the end of the course that is 'special', this can contribute markedly to a thoroughly enjoyable trip. A tapas meal in Sitges comes highly recommended, with as much as you can eat and drink!
Many students (and staff) appreciate some time for sight-seeing or shopping in Barcelona during their stay.
Security of money and valuables
Put all passports and the bulk of the students' money into the hotel safe upon arrival. Bring plastic wallets for storage.
Please advise us separately by e-mail or fax when a deposit cheque has been sent or a bank transfer made.
Spending Money
The decision on how much spending money to bring will vary from student to student. In our experience, 50-100 euros for a stay of 5 days is more than sufficient, and allows for the purchase of presents and additional food and drink during the day if desired. Many groups leave the decision on whether to book a tapas meal for their final evening until the mid-point of their stay. You may prefer to ask students to bring a little extra money to allow for such 'extras'.
Student Behaviour
Try and keep a tight control on student alcohol intake. The legal age limit in Catalonia for the purchase and consumption of alcohol in public places is 18 years. We recommend that you have a 'no-alcohol' policy with a possible exception made for an end-of-course meal in Sitges, where the restaurant staff will provide strong support in discouraging 'binge-drinking'.
Please encourage students to be punctual.
Maintaining a system that ensures students honour the 'lights out' time at night enables everyone to get the sleep to which they are entitled. See 'Health and Safety' section above.
It is important that students respect the needs of other guests staying in the hotel. The slamming of doors, shouting in the corridors and between balconies tend to quickly generate complaints and we would recommend that you advise the group about this prior to arrival. Maintaining a 'no visitors' rule for hotel bedrooms helps to significantly reduce noise levels. Students are able to socialise in the hotel lounge and bar area.