Hotel Rio Othon Palace — Hotel in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

Rooms The most disappointing part of our experience at this hotel. For half our stay, we were left wondering why my friend was coughing constantly and having breathing difficulties (as she is extremely asthmatic). The cause can be seen in the image. The hotel subjected us to some pretty bad mould covered on the curtains and wall. We notified the front desk that the mould in the room was affecting my friend’s health. They moved us to a room above, claiming it was a ‘premium’ room, just a number of floors up with the exact same facilities and a similar view.

Service At the end of our stay we asked to speak to the manager, both about our negative experience and the numerous hidden fees that the hotel will charge you for. For example, hotel rooms have refrigerators with soft drinks and water. We assumed these would be complementary, every day the housekeeping team would re-stock all these. But little did we know that we would end up with a 897 Real bill to pay for a few soft drinks and waters. If you don’t want a massive bill at the end of your stay, please avoid touching any of these. Stéphano Silva (the manager on shift) claimed ‘this is how Brazil hotels operate’.

Stéphano Silva claimed that the room move and a later checkout time was an ‘adequate’ compensation for the exposure to mould, and that ‘we should have told him sooner that there was mould in the room’. We are customers paying hundreds of £pounds, it should be the hotel’s responsibility to identify, prevent their customers from being exposed to mould and compensated adequately. The hotel moving us to another room would be a bare minimum, the hotel refused to compensate us properly, which demonstrates a lack of care for my friend’s health and our experience.

Lifts

The hotel lifts is another nightmare. If you expect to get to any floor please ensure you add an additional 10 minutes to your journey. We were on the 15th floor, where the lift buttons don’t work and so you may need to press down if you’re going up and make two lift journeys to get to where you need.

Pool

The hotel has a pool on the 30th floor/roof. If you’re looking to sunbathe on a sun lounger, then think again. The hotel has only about 9 loungers for the 100s of guests it accommodates for. The chances of securing a sun lounger is very slim.

Laundry

The hotel offer a laundry service, but we were shocked when we were faced with a 376.60 Real bill to pay for 18 items of clothes (half of these were socks and underwear). Besides the awfully inflated price, the list clearly ticked off items that we had not included, such as an apparent handkerchief, a scarf, and swimwear - these items were the most expensive, which we had not washed.

Food

The breakfast food is good and the variety is very pleasant. However, the roof restaurant has much less to choose from and the prices can be quite high. Enjoy the many independent restaurants available in the surrounding area, offering much cheaper and better quality food.

Location

The only positive thing about our experience was the location. Everything is accessible and Copa Cabana beach is on the doorstep. We did witness two muggings just outside the hotel, if you want a better time spend a bit more money and stay in the Ipanema Beach area. From my experience, Ipanema offers more security with heavy police presence and a better vibe.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the unaddressed mold issue, hidden fees, awful service, and the two muggings that occurred just outside the hotel make it difficult to...

Where to begin? The only good thing about this hotel is its location. The rooftop view is stunning but we can’t really give the credit to the hotel it self, as any other building in Copacabana shares the same view. Now let’s start with the real issues: 1. Rio is hotter than hell. I’m Canadian, we’re not used to 40C heat, I’ve paid a Cad$300 a night for this hotel, the Hilton was $450 should’ve gone there (and let this be a tip for anyone who wishes to stay at Copacabana), my room’s air conditioning was broken, I complained in the first night, they did nothing. Complained the day after, nothing again, they just wrote something down and nothing happened, complained the third time and guess what? They sent a technician with another concierge, they stated that the AC was broken and told me someone from the hotel was going to call me to assign me to a room with a functioning AC. They never called, my rooms AC kept being broken and that was that, not even an apology they were even annoyed with my complaint. I spent 3 nights there, terribly spent. It was terrible to fall asleep in a room that felt more like a sauna than a 5 star hotel room. Wifi: just like the AC I complained about the wifi 3 times, in 2025 the hotel’s internet network didn’t load a simple google search. Didn’t upload a single photo, not to mention a video. Simply awful and again they did nothing and were annoyed with our complaints. Water: Brazil does not have tap drinking water, therefore one must either drink filtered tap water or mineral bottled water. The hotel did not provide any included in the already expensive price. The mini fridge had for water cans 310ml each for USD$2.00 each. Pool and bar: the pool is nice but expect it to see more people than water in it. Bar and restaurant: probably the most overpriced around, just go to any other restaurant around Copacabana and you’ll have better food and drinks for a better price. Overall, the hotel is not worth the price, I’ve stayed at the Hilton in Copacabana and I had just wished I had stayed there again. It’s a little more pricey but it’s what you’d expect from a 5 star hotel. I would classify Othon as a 3.5 star hotel. It’s clean, in a good location, the breakfast is nice but you will find the same breakfast in any other hotel in Copacabana (and Hilton’s was much better, plus Othon didn’t even have bacon, I’ve seen road side motels have bacon in their breakfast, but anyways). The AC situation was really unacceptable, it’s something that any self respecting hotel would solve ASAP and at least apologize if not compensate. My tip for anyone who wishes to come to Rio, for the sake of your vacation, steer clear from Othon...

We came here for the New Year. Most of the other hotels on the strip were more expensive.

I want to give kudos to the man in maroon last night. Our flight was at 7am on New Year's Day. We didn't know finding a taxi or Uber would be such a challenge with roads being blocked at 3am because the NYE party was still going on. The guy in the maroon who worked for the hotel just volunteered himself to help us when he saw us with luggages rolling it out of the hotel into the streets. There was language barrier. But he spoke for us and probably asked at least 6 taxis until he finally found someone who agreed to take us to the airport. The Uber couldn't get through the street where we were. I wish I gave him tip! But it happened so fast and we were rushed to get into the taxi when he found one.

I can't say the hotel was perfect but it was well worth it given the price compared to the other hotels. This was the only hotel we found had balcony. Great views for the fireworks.

We had the junior suite on the 8th floor, corner. This was good so we can be faraway from th party noise in the 30th floor. We weren't too high to be looking down on the fireworks. We were still high enough to be away from the traffic noise. We did still hear some traffic noise but it helped when we closed the wooden sliding door and the glass sliding door in the balcony.

The furnitures were outdated. There was no napkins/tissues in the room. No microwave. There are waw a small refrigerator. I loved the water pressure in the bathroom.

Customer service was nice although I would say maybe one or two people in th staff weren't so nice.

Decent breakfast with great views at the rooftop!

We stayed in our room for the New Year to avoid th crazy crowds and that was nice. We ordered room service for our dinner. The Menu was so limited like spaghetti, risotto and burger. We ordered the burger and it was good. The hotel also gave us complimentary champagne and New Year plastic cups that we brought home with us. That was a nice surprise/souvenir.

The lobby was always crowded. Official check in I believe was not until 3pm. We arrived at 11am and waited about an hour in line to ask about checking in or leaving our luggages at least until checkin. When it was finally our turn, we were told that we needed to go into the VIP checkin room. So much for waiting! The VIP room was another wait..there check in process was not efficient. But there were some small snacks/food and alcoholic and non alcoholic beverag s in the VIP check in room.

Overall I recommend this hotel. As long as you are okay with the minimal negatives I found. Checkout attached videos and photos...