"My wife, daughter and I had a three night stay here. I booked through the AMEX Fine Hotels and Resorts program. I booked a Junior Suite to make sure that we had room for a rollaway bed. The FHR program has benefits such as free daily breakfast, 4pm checkout, upgrade if available at checkin, early checkin and a property credit.
When we arrived at the hotel around noon we were told that their WiFi was down and they couldn't check us in. That wasn't a big deal as we had anticipated that. They took my mobile number and said they would contact us when the room was available for checkin; we went out and explored. Our first impression of the hotel from the lobby was that it was very nice and boutique-y.
We went out to explore Porto and have lunch. Around 6:00, with most of the sites closing, we made our way back to the hotel. We had never received a phone call so I thought that perhaps our room would not be ready; it was but no phone call was received. When we checked in the agent went over all of the FHR benefits with us. She said we were elegible for an upgrade and that we had been upgraded to a Junior Suite. I pointed out that I had booked that, really more to let her know that they hadn't done us a favor by giving us the room I booked. She said oh, let me look. Yes, you will have a Junior Suite. Our bags had been delivered to the room already which is nice.
We were in room 401. It was off on its own with no real view to speak of and down a maintenance hallway with a light that was motion triggered; it was dark every time we went in or out of the room. It was right next the staff elevator and a maid closet. We would hear the elevator but it ended up not disturbing our sleep.
Our bags were simply stacked up by the door; they weren't put on a luggage rack and there weren't extra luggage racks provided. The room was adequate but smallish, similar to the jr. suite we had in Lisbon. There was a couch and small sitting area. My daughters bed was placed right in front of the door against the wall underneath some windows. It took us a while to figure out how to get the room warm. I had someone come up to help with this; he told us to turn it all the way up because it wouldn't actually get to that temperature.
The bathroom was ok. It had a single sink and sliding doors. The shower was in the tub, and the tub was a very high step to get into it. It was a bit slick when showering but the pressure and temperature were good.
We used the concierge to arrange for a car to the airport on our checkout date. I would have booked it myself, but we needed to leave at 4AM and I wanted to have someone with whom the hotel had worked.
Breakfast was good. We ate the buffet and ordered eggs since they had the runny scrambled eggs so common in Europe.
The hotel bar really isn't a hotel bar IMO. It is adjacent to the hotel and connected with a hallway. I think it is called Scarlett. We ended up eating dinner three times there because we were so tired and didn't want to explore. I'll review that place separately, but the service was lacking each night.
We didn't have much interaction with the staff after checkin, save for one time. The night before we left I went to the concierge with whom I had corresponded to confirm my ride. I said that I had arranged for a ride for the next morning through 'you' and wanted to confirm; he somewhat bruskly put his phone down and asked if I had talked to his colleague at the front desk. I said no, because I booked through the concierge. It just felt dismissive.
Would I return here? Well, I don't see myself going to Porto again. If I did, I think I would probably look for a different hotel. This wasn't a bad stay, but it just didn't feel incredibly 'luxury' though I can't quite put my finger on it."
