Hotel Nacional Rio de Janeiro — Hotel in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

The hotel is beautiful, convenient and offers stunning views of Praia Da Gavea (Sao Conrado). We got the junior suite and it was a great value and very spacious with breathtaking views. Our stay came with a free breakfast buffet every day (lunch and dinner are offered but you have to pay and it's like $70 for 2 people). There is a lovely bar in the huge lobby area where they make excellent drinks. You can also buy water and cokes to go. You can even take your cocktail with you to the room! The pool is big and climate controlled. The bar is nice and the waiters will bring you drinks and food. You are given key cards for towel service which you can also take across the street to the beach (they rent beach chairs and umbrellas on the beach for next to nothing). There's a great gym, sauna and spa on site. We were there for Carnival so there was lots of traffic but the area is easily accessible by taxi and is close to Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana as well as Barra de Tijuca in the other direction. We took a cab to Corcovado for the Christ Redeemer even all the way to Lapa which was expensive..to save money take the subway in Rio then grab a cab in Leblon to Sao Conrado, it's like 5-10 minutes away. As for the cons my biggest complaint is that the front desk staff, some of the pool bartenders and restaurant hostesses tend to not be very warm. Frankly they looked stressed out, like they had a tyrannical boss or something. That struck me as a little unprofessional given the stature of the hotel as well as price. When we arrived there was no toilet paper in our room and I had to ask them twice in person because they didn't bring it and I had to do it person because none of the 2 phones in the room worked. The room was great but there were quite a bit of scuff marks on the walls. Also they NEVER replaced the coffee pods for the espresso machine even though we had the room serviced multiple times. The elevators are slow and take a long time especially when it's a busy time. I enjoyed the convenient wrist bands which open your door and pay for anything you buy on site. Lastly, when I paid my last bill and checked out the woman or anyone nearby DID NOT say thank you, goodbye, come back soon, safe travels, ate mais, zilch, nada. This was my second time in Brazil previously I stayed at the Hyatt in Bara de Tijuca and it was friendly and excellent service and I think the breakfast was better. I did not eat at Massi as we had to cancel our dinner reservation but it looked beautiful I probably won't stay here next time but not because it isn't a great hotel but only because I would try a different locale. But I do recommend this hotel for first...

So far, this has been a remarkably terrible experience—one for the books, really.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to anticipate my trip to Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately, my secretary couldn’t reschedule my usual stay at Hotel Emiliano, where I’ve been a loyal guest for years, and i will be there from July 9th to August 12th. So here I am—regrettably. And from the very beginning, it’s been downhill.

First, my driver wasn’t even allowed to stop at the front entrance—which really set the tone for what was to come. From there, it was a full-blown opera of incompetence. The front desk fumbled, room service was clueless, the phone operator managed to hang up on me five separate times (an impressive record, truly), and guest experience? A complete misnomer—unless the goal is to frustrate and ignore the guest entirely. It felt like each department was in a fierce competition to see who could deliver the worst service possible. Spoiler: it’s a tie.

Let’s talk about the star of the show: Fernanda. What a gem. Truly the gold standard of what not to do in customer service. She managed to be both dismissive and disrespectful in one go. Despite me repeatedly correcting her, she blatantly ignored my professional title. I suppose basic courtesy is optional here?

When I asked for two adapters for my devices, I was helpfully informed—by Fernanda, of course—that I could just go downstairs and buy them myself. Lovely. It didn't finish... when I asked for 2 transformers, instead of telling each one has 5 outlets, she told me that unfortunately the hotel will not offer me it.

Then, when I needed assistance with the internet (you know, because some of us actually work), she recommended I go to a nearby co-working space at the mall, instead of offering the obvious solution: sending someone to fix the problem in my room.

Three hours later—yes, three hours—an IT team finally showed up: Andrei, Ronald, and someone on his very first day (and he was very prepared and helpfull). Ronald not only brought a transformer but also got my devices charging and fixed the Wi-Fi, which wasn’t functioning at all. The new guy and Andrei where able to fix the internet problem, and give me an extra installing my Netflix. When I asked why this took hours, they informed me they had only been contacted ten minutes before arriving. So basically, the delay was entirely avoidable—just another triumph in communication and guest care.

If this place wanted to offer a case study in how not to treat guests, congratulations: mission...

Overall a nice trip, and a pretty fancy hotel for the price. I would consider it more like a 4** hotel than a 5 star, personally.highlights: - beautiful lobby and view from our room of the mountains, beach, etc.- kind people at the desk and otherwise. very safe inside even though neighborhood is a bit sketchy at times. - great bed, windows, bathtub, etc..- affordable as an american for level of service.- spa and rooftop restaurant are amazing. gym is great too!dealbreakers: (may stop me from booking next time)- wifi was basically broken the entire time in our room, and in the hotel at times. less than 10mbits, and no signal in most of our room. front desk said several times they'd fix but I don't think they have the ability to actually fix it. many other people had this issue as well. at a 5* hotel, this should not be happening. major issue, had to do meetings in the lobby to get it to function at all. - breakfast is good but definitely caters towards a local brazilian diet (very few options for vegans). as a vegetarian, I'll just say I ate a lot of eggs and cheese. but hey, that's brazil so not digging on the hotel too much on that.- elevator is incredibly busy, and there were times where it literally said "not available" and we had to wait 5 minutes to actually use it.- there are TONS of families with kids in and around the pool when we went. so environment was quite loud and crazy most of the time. they do timeshares so I think mostly big families frequent the hotel.- we booked and paid extra for the Junior Suite (with a large living room as well as bath). the front desk gave us the room with bath which ended up being nice.. but is half the size, and refused to put us in the junior suite room, even after showing the reservation. this may be a Trip.com issue instead of the hotel.. but they didn't offer any compensation or flexibility for us. trip did refund us the difference in price though.overall, its a great deal for the price, and the architecture is amazing, the room is nice, good water pressure. horrible wifi and very few vegetarian options made it difficult to recommend again, but we liked our stay...