We would not recommend that anyone book a room at Hotel Faro & Beach Club, located in Portugal. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU READ OUR REVIEW BEFORE EVEN THINKING OF BOOKING A ROOM AT HOTEL FARO! Do so at your own risk!

When we arrived, our suspicions were immediately alerted when we were told that full payment was required up front for both nights. Of all the hotels we had booked during our trip to Portugal, this was the ONLY hotel that required payment in full upon arrival. We wondered why and if there was a reason for this policy, but complied (what choice did we have given we had already arrived and had no other available choices). Well, it wouldn’t be long before we found out the answer to that question…keep reading and bear in mind that this hotel puts itself out there as a luxury destination and that the price for our room was just under $500 for two nights!

On the morning after our second night, we awoke with ants all over us in our bed, in our luggage, and all over the walls and furniture. It was disgusting, to say the least! Our first reaction after jumping out of bed was to immediately call the front desk for assistance. The person at the front desk advised that “housekeeping” would be sent (to apparently clean the ants??)! Apparently, this hotel believes that cleaning an infestation is the best way to handle these situations versus actually hiring and paying for an exterminator to address the problem! Meanwhile, nothing was done to assist us, we were left in the room with the ants!

We did some checking around the room to understand where the ants had come from and discovered a moldy looking hole just beneath the window in our room, beneath the window curtain. Ants were streaming in and it was clear, given the moldy hole, that the hotel had known, or should have known, about this situation! Gee, wonder why they insisted on full payment in advance!

On the morning that we should have been enjoying our final hours in Faro, we instead had to unpack all our luggage to remove all the ants and so that we could leave the hotel ant free. It was truly a nightmare for us.

To make matters worse, housekeeping never even came by, and so I was forced to call the front desk again to complain! I was promptly given the excuse that the “ant problem” was not a hotel concern, but rather a problem that the City of Faro had whenever it rained. We could not believe it that the hotel was actually blaming its own city for its ant problem….given the moldy hole in the wall next to the window, how is it that the city was to blame? Also, given the response to send housekeeping to apparently “clean” the ants instead of an exterminator, it’s no wonder to us that the problem persists in this hotel.

Bottom line is that this hotel is not worth booking, certainly not worth the high rate it charges. To make matters worse, requiring payment upfront upon checkin is a deceptive practice so that they can keep all of your money, and maintain the upper hand in a complaint situation should the “City’s” ant problem occur during your stay!

While we really enjoyed our stay in all other parts of Portugal, which included Lisbon, Sintra, Porto, Guarda, Chavez, Evora, and Setabul, we highly recommend booking a different hotel if your visit includes the City of Faro, or better yet, perhaps just not visit Faro at all since apparently Hotel Faro claims that it’s city has infestation issues in general!