Having read the generally positive reviews, I had high expectations for this hotel. Unfortunately it was a really poor experience.
Issues during my stay were as follows:
- Room did not match the photos with the booking - smaller, less furniture than pictured, 1 pillow (apparently the hotel was short on pillows), noisy from street below
- Broken air-conditioning unit in my room
- Shower that wouldn't drain
- Door that broke and wouldn't close properly (hotel was overbooked and staff recommended that I stay in a room where I couldn't close the door)
- Unclean room with hairs on floor in bathroom and "mystery" white stain on chair in room
- Eventually switched to another room with a single bed which didn't match my room booking - this was due to hotel being overbooked
- Items went missing between room changes - staff were unhelpful with this. When I said that I would need to submit a police report for items missing, they were profoundly unhelpful and refused to help with this process (not even helping me get in touch with the police or telling me where to go, for example).
- Overall rude and disengaged staff. They gave an impression of not caring at all and being unhappy to be there There is a phrase we use in Australia which is 'phoning it in' and this describes the staff perfectly.
- Lastly, this hotel is poorly located for those wanting to be in the heart of Portugal. It is in the commercial district and not in the city itself. As such, the hotel foyer is frequently full of loud, noisy tour groups (eg. loud group introductions at the beginning of tours, or tour groups getting organised to leave for the next location), and hence not a relaxing location.
I have saved this review for a few weeks, thinking that perhaps that this was just the standard to expect in Portugese hotels (or perhaps I was being just a difficult guest), however the OTHER 3 places I stayed during my trip were absolutely fantastic and I cannot recommend the staff and rooms highly enough - at the other places, not this awful hotel!
