"We stayed at the Madeira Regency Cliff for six nights in a Superior sea-view room.
There were some genuine positives. The sea view from room 207 was beautiful, the bed was comfortable, the linen was clean, and on arrival there was a lovely welcome fruit basket with bananas, an orange and grapes, plus a bottle of water. Housekeeping also left a fresh bottle of water each day. The hotel courtesy car into Funchal was another useful touch, although it needs to be booked in advance.
Unfortunately, our experience with the Superior room itself was disappointing.
The hotel’s own website describes Superior rooms as being on the top floor and lists features including a king-size bed and coffee machine. We were allocated room 207 on the second floor, with two single beds pushed together and no coffee machine.
When we raised this, we were told that room 207 was definitely a Superior room and that Superior rooms exist on every hotel level, which did not seem to match the website description. We were later told that the beds should have had a mattress topper joining them together to create the king-size arrangement, but this had not been fitted before our arrival. This was corrected the following morning.
The coffee machine took repeated conversations to resolve. We were initially told we could rent one or pay extra to move to another room, despite a coffee machine being listed in the Superior-room specification. After the receptionist checked the hotel’s own website and repeatedly went back and forth to the manager, the hotel eventually agreed to provide one with 10 complimentary pods.
During that discussion, we were also told that there were several things listed on the hotel’s own website that were not actually provided. Examples given included cots, despite the hotel being adults-only, and sea views, with the explanation that not every room necessarily has the same outlook because some overlook another hotel. This left us with the impression that the website itself was being treated as unreliable rather than the hotel acknowledging that the room we booked should have included the advertised facilities.
The manager was aware that we were there but did not come out to speak to us directly, leaving the receptionist to repeatedly go backwards and forwards.
The alternative coffee sachets supplied with the kettle were also poor. The contents had hardened into solid blocks, so we could not make a drink. When we showed them to reception, we were told that the date was fine and advised to shake, crack or bend the sachets to break the coffee up rather than simply being offered replacements.
We were also surprised by the minibar and refreshment policy. The minibar contained only bottles of water, charged at €2.50 each, with the charge explained on a small notice near the kettle. The room information also stated that only two coffee sachets, two tea sachets and four small milk portions were provided daily, with additional supplies charged separately.
Housekeeping was also inconsistent. The room itself was comfortable and the beds were made, but on Friday a dirty coffee cup was left behind and no clean replacement was provided, leaving only one dirty cup in the room. The patio doors leading to the balcony had visible handprints on them from the day we arrived and these were never cleaned during our stay. The floors in both the bedroom and on the balcony also did not appear to be properly swept, with visible dust and hair collecting around the skirting boards and under the dressing-table chair.
To be fair, the hotel did eventually rectify the missing mattress topper and coffee machine, and one of the receptionists we dealt with was pleasant and helpful.
Overall, the hotel has lovely views and some nice touches, but we felt the Superior room did not clearly match the description we had booked, and the handling of our concerns could have been much better. The biggest frustration was having to spend part of our first evening and following morning trying to resolve issues that should not have arisen in the first place."
