"Didn’t read the reviews before we visited as we only booked the night before. We are a family of 2 adults & 2 older teens. We are used to nice hotels & have been lucky enough to frequent 5 star boutique hotels all over the world & although this is a nice hotel in a good location “boutique” it is not. Decoration alone does not equate to boutique in my mind.
We had 2 rooms so I’ll start with the positives, the 2 ladies on reception were extremely helpful (the gentleman not so much, don’t think he smiled the whole time we were there?) There is a lovely aroma as you walk into the hotel & the contrast of the heat outside & air conditioning inside is very much welcomed. The mattresses & pillows were very comfortable & extremely good quality as was the bedding & towels. The water pressure in the shower was excellent.
Next the negatives, upon entering the rooms they were extremely warm & the air conditioning was not working in either of the rooms. A maintenance man came up to look at my room & it was fixed within 5 mins but only lasted half an hour before going off again. A different man came up about 45 mins later (who was very pleasant & spoke very good English) & he got it working. It was 2 hours before anyone went up to the other room & they could not fix it & we were told there were no other rooms in the hotel to move to so that night was very hot, uncomfortable & noisy as the windows needed to be kept open to be bearable. We had to pack up & move rooms the next day & although the air conditioning was working it was very weak & the room was still warm. In contrast to the other room which was absolutely freezing. You cannot control the temperature or speed of it from inside the room but at least it was working.
The rooms are quite small & due to the colour scheme very dark. I needed my phone torch to find plug sockets. The USB charging points were not working at the side of the bed. There is only a frosted glass door to separate the bed & bathroom with a hole for the handle & gap all the way around the frame so no privacy. Toilet paper felt quite cheap. The design of the bathrooms is very poor, due to the powerful shower & the tiny shower screen the floor & sink gets drenched. No extractor fan so steam from the shower made everything feel damp & there was a fousty smell when entering the room.
Only Portuguese channels on the tv which we thought unusual not even an English speaking news channel! The rooms are quite shabby in places, there was sticky residue on the side table. The coffee maker was broken & as for the complimentary items in the fridge, there was 1 bottle of water!
The breakfast selection was ok, 3 choices of juice but nothing was labelled. Having a food allergy I just stuck to an apple & cheese & coffee from the machine which was a pleasant cup. The ladies in the breakfast room were not very friendly, one of them had a hacking cough which was quite off putting. One approached my son abruptly to ask him what room he was in as she didn’t realise he was with us. I asked if they had gluten free bread & what they brought out I’m not sure if it was a roll or sweet bun but they crumbled into dust when I picked them up & were inedible. All in all the hotel was nice but they let themselves down in many areas. I probably wouldn’t stay again as there are a lot of nice hotels in the area."
