AP Dona Aninhas

Enjoyable stay. Breakfast had an abundance of choice. Great location. Friendly staff.

Definitely a great place to stay if you're visiting Viana.

This charming and extremely well priced hotel is a 10 minute walk from the train station and a 5 minute walk from the main street in Viana do Castelo. The staff was lovely, the hotel charming. The room was spotless, and impeccably comfortable. The bathroom was also sparkling and everything functioned perfectly. Breakfast was lovely. The breakfast staff was cheerful and helpful. We very much enjoyed our stay.

There is something very wrong with AP Dona Aninhas but they are not telling us anything about it. A family reunion took me to Viana do Castelo and I was excited about staying at this new AP property Dona Aninhas. During the booking process, I got an offer for their two floor family suite and I booked it with a special rate. We arrived at the hotel late at night after a long trip from Los Angeles. Note that the access the hotel has a quite long flight of stairs and no one is there to help guests bringing their luggage up to the lobby. After check in, we entered room 310, and a foul smell hit us hard. We turned the AC on, hoping that once the air circulated, the smell would go away. The second floor, where the bedroom is, has an even worse problem: the AC doesn’t work there so the sewer smell is more accentuated upstairs. Exhausted, we took a shower and fell asleep, planning on discussing the problem the following morning. We both woke up drenched in sweat and with a throbbing headache - It was like waking up in the sewer in a hot and muggy day - and for this awful experience we were fooled to pay 120 Euros for the night. That morning, we talked to front desk and maintenance people, and we found out that the smell and the heat in that room was a recurring problem, but since the hotel was sold out in the night we checked in, they had no option other than putting us in the “sewer room”, omitting the truth about the terrible smell that many guest had complained before us. After that first night, we were transferred to room 312, a smaller room with a similar configuration of the previous room, except that there was no bathroom upstairs where the bed is located. After the first night in that new room, we realized that room 312 had the same issues of room 310. AC doesn’t work upstairs and the sewer smell, although less accentuated, is very noticeable. Also note that the hotel doesn’t have telephones in the rooms, so to reach the front desk you have to go there in person. I had a conversation with GM Ricardo Santos and I explained to him what happened and I mentioned all the stories about guests dying in hotel rooms due to criminal negligence from hotel management, that in order not to lose revenue, keep booking “compromised rooms” to guests. Mr Santos shrugged off my concerns and said that although they were not sure about the origin of the foul smell, he was sure, without any tangible proof, that it wasn’t toxic. And then he added: “Did you enjoy the wine bottle I sent to your room?” Really? I was expecting that he would have the decency to refund me for that first night that he knowingly booked us in the sewer room. But I got a wine bottle instead. We have stayed in hotels all over the world in our travels but this was a very disturbing and alarming stay for us. I cannot accept this hotel’s negligent approach to such a serious situation. So if you are planning on staying at Dona Aninhas, be aware that at this hotel they will put you in harm’s wa