Renaissance Porto Lapa Hotel

"We had a great stay at the Renaissance Lapa Hotel. The room was amazing, large and well furnished, with a desk, chair, and a chaise longue. The shower room was always supplied with clean towels, soap, shampoo, etc, and even face flannels. We did not use the AC as it gives us a headache, but were able to leave the window open, and the curtains, despite the bright mornings, and slept very well. The breakfast spread catered for any kind of diet; it was infinite, in theory, and you could eat either very healthily or unhealthily, if you wanted to. We ate at the restaurant once, and the food was deliberately fancy, and tasted incredible. It is really great to have the option not to go far after a day of sightseeing, but for the food to be as good is a real bonus. The rooftop pool is good, although there were never really enough sunbeds for such a large hotel. We may have used it more if there had been. Still, a nice pool, great to cool down in hot weather. The staff throughout are wonderful: friendly, efficient, polite and very very helpful at all times, especially the waiting staff. The hotel is in walking distance to some nice bars and restaurants. It is also 2 minutes from the Metro, and you can get into the city centre in a matter of minutes. All in all, I recommend the hotel, and would love to stay there again."

"Overall a lovely hotel, but reception staff were lacking - we arrived early and checked in but no room available which is fair enough. They took my card details and promptly took €350 without explaining ( I had already paid for my stay in advance). Despite saying she would call us when room ready we returned later to find it had been ready a while - no call! She also just chucked the key cards at us with no explanation of where the room is and anything else - we found it eventually in the other block. We had a meal in the restaurant but they failed to give the fork discount. It was good food but €120 so not cheap. Rooms were good and cleaned daily. We were leaving early on the Friday having stayed a week, so I checked with reception the previous day for the charges it would be - it was the €120 meal and a city tax - that was hard work though…little did I know it would get worse as upon waking the following day I found they’d taken another €350???? So they now have €700 of mine less the €150 owed?? I went to reception where I was repeatedly told it’s not a real charge - tell that to my account that went overdrawn 😡 I found him to be dismissive of me and not bothered - kept telling me it’s been released…. As I type this I’m still €558 down with no explanation and I’m pretty furious as I have never had this before; why on earth did they take another €350 on the day I’m leaving… it has put a complete dampener on my holiday and I can envisage having a battle to get my money back, I hope I’m wrong."

"Disappointing stay. Check in was efficient but not a word exchanged with the employee. He just made me sign a paper and gave the key without explaining the hotel amenities, restaurants etc which is usually the case in 5 star hotels. Rooms are beautiful and well maintained. The rooftop could be good but needs improvement: clearly not enough sun beds as it was completely packed by 10h30 am and people were sitting on the floor (!!!) and no food is served at the rooftop bar, which means that if you wish to spend the day at the pool, you either starve or have to get dressed and go into town for food. This is really badly designed for a brand new hotel. Overall I think the staff need more hospitality training and the rooftop need adjustments for this hotel to be really good. Won’t recommend in its current state."