In Spain, what is considered the 1st floor in hotels and apartment buildings?
 

I'm getting conflicting reports and don't want to book an apartment without a lift that says it's first floor when it's really an American 3rd floor. My initial understanding was that first floor was second floor (to me). Not so sure now. I'm looking at an apartment called Pi Entresuelo and somewhere I read that entresuelo meant 3rd. First floor being considered as "premier"....can you see that I'm confused!!! :)

In all of europe the floor where you enter the building (street level) is considered the ground floor. Directly above that is the first floor - the first floor above the street.

In this case I would enquire the specifics - how many fights of stairs. (You can still have more than one flight of stairs between floors if the ceilings are high.)

not always so.. nytraveler.
in spain many times in older buildings with high ceilings they have an "entresuelo" (between floors).. which "adds" a floor until you even get to what they call "first"!

soooo confusing.

i would assume a first floor in a building with an entresuelo would be two floors above ground floor.

in fact.. if i am not losing it.. i think there may even be ANOTHER floor after entresuelo sometimes.. ( but i haven´t seen this in newer buildings).

just a name game.

we need kenderina , cova and josele.

clear this up for us, please!!

I knew in France and Italy that when we booked first floor apts. they were on "second" for me. The "entresuelo" thing was totally new to me - thanks casanova for "sort of" :) clearing it up for me!

Sounds like I need to get clarification from the apartment hosts themselves. Thanks for the input thus far.

i am not sure why this name was created..

In new buildings first floor will be just above the ground floor as some have indicated.
There are old building with "entresuelo" or "Principal" that will make the first floor effectively a second floor.
In other buildings with "Semisotano" a sort of floor halfway below the street level, and in this case the first floor will be just half a floor above the street level.
I do not know of Entresuelo being a 3rd floor, but
I do know of buildings with Semisotano, Planta Baja, Entresuelo and Principal.
In this case your first floor flies to the 3rd and a Half.

It is better to rent with a lift.

I believe "entresuelo" is sort of the equivalent of Mezzanine - a floor that doesn't really count as a floor since it has no number - and may not be the size of the entire floor. That's why I suggested contacting them directly and asking about the number of flights of stairs.

In some european buildings there are 2 flights of stairs between the ground and first floors - since ceilings are very high. Entresuelo could be in between - or on top of - numbered floors.

Okay, here is the explanation the apartment leasing agent gave me.
"First floor in Spain would mean the second floor in U.S. considering street level as first floor."

"In the Gothic Quarter is even more complicated because street level (first floor in U.S.) is bajos, second floor in US is entresuelo, third floor in the US is principal and fourth floor in the US would be first floor in the Gothic Quarter."

Wow! who knew it could be so complicated...I'm with "car", looks like the safest bet is to just make sure you rent an apartment with a lift! Thanks all for you help.

>>>>>
In all of europe the floor where you enter the building (street level) is considered the ground floor. Directly above that is the first floor - the first floor above the street
>>>>>>

this is not true. it is not completely unusual to see the ground floor labelled as the first floor. i just stayed in a hotel in poland that was this way and you do see it occasionally.

Lets not confuse Poland and Spain. In Spain the ground flood is labeled "0" on the elevator (lift).

In Argentina and Uruguay the European nomenclature for floors is the same. The ground floor is called Planta Baja, and in elevators you will see a PB, then 1, 2...etc Not in Europe, but I thought this might be useful....

>>>>>
Lets not confuse Poland and Spain.
>>>>>

clearly i was responding to another poster's incorrect information and not answering the OP's question...as often happens here.

sometimes it does say "B" for bajo, or "0" in newer flats.

Long ago the numbered floors were not the chic floors .. the chic floors had NAMES.

thus creating entresuelo.. then sometimes principal and then numbered floors (primero,etc).. the higher you went up WALKING, the cheaper the flat USED to be.

The more noble floors were the first ones and usually had more decoration in the stairwells.

The only way to find out for sure is to ask.
an apartment building can have entresuelo, then principal, then 1st floor. sometimes the first floor will be up half a flight of stairs.
This all depends on how old the building is.

Your Pi entresuelo apartment will not be more than 1 flight of stairs.
Entresuelo apartments usually have lower ceilings and have less light than those above.
However if this is Plaza del Pi in Barcelona, you will be looking onto any of the 3 squares located by the church and should not be facing another building.
It's a nice area but check if you've got double glazing, especially on a low floor, due to noise at night.

Great information all!

Lets not confuse Poland and Spain.
>>>>>

A common occurence but now one restricted to Epcot center where Morocco is still next to Japan.

I think that between all of you has been well explained. The order would be more or less : ground floor, entresuelo, principal, first floor, second floor ...

The "semisótano" mentioned by Lin was usually the concierge flat, and it didn´t have so much light and less windows. The "entresuelo" might not have a balcony, or if it has them, they might be pretty small..

Is this the one you are looking for? It doesn´t look bad.
http://incatalonia.es/apartamento-ca...-12671002.aspx

Rgds, Cova

That's the one cova. It does seem almost too good to be true. I love the location and it looks to be quite comfortable. Has all the ammenities we were looking for. I'm in the process of booking it for only 100 euros per night. I'll be sure to post a report on the accomodations when we return.

My building (where I live) has an "entresuelo". There are no flats in it , though. It corresponds with the upstairs room of the commercial locals in the block. The lift doesn't stop there either , (it is just one flight of stairs). So in the lift you see PB (planta baja/ground floor) , 1 , 2 till the 6 th.

if that location is correct, you're actually directly facing the back entrance of carre-four supermarket, which is quite convenient. it's mysterious that they would call it Pi, when its not on plaça del Pi tho...