Looking for budget flats in Barcelona for yut vacation accommodation can be a tricky thing. Many home owners are advertising attractive prices for their holiday flats in forums, inblogs and even in the eBay web. They also attach images that lmake the property seem very attractive but in fact there are completely not representing the real apartment. You will find out that in order to resrve this apartment you are required to pay serious amount beforehand, some time up to 80% of the total rent. There is no real contract and you have no one to ask for resposability when things will become problematic, and most probably they will.
When you realise that this very economic flat you have reserved with joy in Barcelona looks nothing like the apartment you booked on line whenb you are already in Barcelona, by then you have practically nothing to do. probably you have already sent big amount of many to the owner and by cancelling your booking you will loose this amount. Because there is no agency in between you have no power of negotiation with the vendor and practically no body to ask for refound. When insisting not to stay in the flat then you will find out that your cheap apartment was eventually expensive.
This is why it is recommended to book a vacation apartment through an official agency. We can recommend you one or 2 agencies (www.apartime.com or www.homingbarcelona.com) but there are many agencies you can use. Most of Barcelona's vacation rental agencies are professional and the competition in the field made them offering quality services. We reommend to use agencies because anything will be better then finding out that you were mislead by athe apartment owner.
Have a safe holiday and visit Barcelona as it is a great city.