Windsor Barra Hotel — Hotel in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

We were placed in Room #916. I have to say it is one of the most horrible rooms I have every stayed in during these years of travel. The room was extremely tired, lacked maintenance and moldy. An outdated room wasn’t such an issue for me; however, allowing black mold to grow wild in a guestroom is a health hazard.

When I walked into the room, the first thing I noticed was the strong unpleasant mildew smell mixed with the toxic smell of cleaning detergent. As there was only a pitiful small window in the room, it was quite gloomy. I tried to turn on a floor lamp which was obviously covered with black mold but it didn’t work as the power socket was broken and had fallen into the wall. The mold in the room was literally EVERYWHERE! On the peeling wall paper, mirrors, bathroom walls…etc. The shower head was so rusted and gross! It already turned GREEN! My toilet seat was loose and halfway falling off. It is also impossible to store any of my belongings in the closet as the musty wet dog smell in the closet would have ruined my stuff. I was just too shocked at the terrible quality of the guestroom in Windsor Barra Hotel at that point.

You will find NO complimentary amenity except basic toiletries. There was no complimentary bottle water, no coffee/tea facilities, no kettle, not even an iron or ironing board. There is only a minibar with a ridiculous price in the room. As I was attending a conference, my shirts and pants needed some touch ups after almost 30 hours in my luggage. I had to go down to the Front Desk to ask for an iron and ironing board. When they were delivered to my room, the surface of the ironing board was obviously covered with mold. I had to clean it up on my own before I was able to use it. I again was amazed by the lack of standard and carelessness of this hotel. They did not even bother to check the condition of items before they sent those out to the guests. I really can keep going on about my nightmare at Windsor Barra Hotel as most of the basic elements needed for a decent hotel were missing but you get the picture! (Literally! Really! Look at the pictures before you decide to book a room in this horrible hotel!)

I did not complain to hotel staff but decided to suffer in this room and clean the mold myself. Why? My experience taught me that if the management team allows a guest to check into a room filled with mold and the entire facilities are falling apart, do you think they care about the quality of guest’s stay? Of course NOT! You mean nothing to them but an unlucky number on their monthly revenue report. That’s it! I did however respond to my online travel agent’s real time feedback about my check in experience. The hotel did respond to my comment and notified the online travel agency through the same system that “They will address the issue directly.” Guess what? I was there for 9 days and 8 nights which should give the management team enough time to address the issue with me but well…I don’t know what exactly their response meant but NONE of the issues I mentioned were addressed during my entire stay.

Upon check out, I expressed my disappointment of my stay. Don’t get me wrong, I specifically told the Front Desk agent that I was not asking for a discount but wanted the management to take this feedback for improvement. I was offered 5PM late check out which I appreciated as my departure flight was in the evening. I was told to send the communications with the online travel agent and also the photos I took to the reception’s email--which I did. I later on got a very short response from the General Manager named Marcos Bezerra to notify me that the hotel will be renovated next year without any apology for my horrible experience. The worst thing (which also proved me right on how careless and arrogant the management level of Windsor Barra Hotel) is that the GM even addressed me by a totally wrong name in the email he sent me! Correct name usage is a basic respect to the guest! It is customer service 101 worldwide but NOT...

Pool service in general was disastrous! Witnessed an unpleasant scene that made us feel uneasy about this place.

One afternoon a drunk couple started making intercourse gestures in the pool while many kids swam around them. After that, the woman began to harass a teenage boy and his family saying that the kid touched her. None of the waiters or the pool guard took care of the situation at that moment. After the woman started assaulting the parents, two hotel personnel approached the drunk couple and talked to them. Still, they were escorted to a different place on the terrace where they continued drinking. Then the staff approached the family and told them in a condescending tone they should take care of their children's behavior. I didn't feel safe after watching that scene as a spectator, cannot think what that family must have felt.

But that's not all. While checking out, we noticed we were charged for a drink we didn't take! It was our fault for not checking the bill before signing, but we were relaxing on the pool and didn't expect they would add a 40 reais drink to our account!

Waiters stayed mostly inside the bar and didn't take orders from guests poolside. Once, we ordered a drink that was never delivered (according to the waiter, he looked for me and didn't find me) and they wanted to charge us for the drink or send it to our room when we were leaving.

The rest of the hotel was mostly ok. Most of the staff is helpful and friendly. The main problems come when you take into account that you pay for a 5-star experience and some things are lacking. Breakfast was ok but didn't have as much variety as many other hotels with fewer stars. The hotel was dirty in some areas, sometimes food is left in common areas and not trashed until the next morning. The curtains in our bedroom were stained with some gross...

What a disappointment. I usually stay at the Radisson hotel, but unfortunately they didn't have any opening at the time I booked my hotel.

I came in to the Windsor and immediately was disappointed with the service at the front desk. Very impersonal. I have stayed in $35 dollar motels that had a more friendly frond desk team. At some point I asked to talk to the manager and his treatment wasn't any better.

At the front desk, I found out that the hotel charges 35 reais/day for their internet. Which is almost what I pay for a full month of internet service at home. When I asked the speed of the service, I was told that they didn't know exactly.

I went up to my room and came into a extremely stinky room. I immediately requested another room as I was going to stay at the hotel for 15 days.

Later that day I decided to order dinner. They have a smaller menu for order after midnight (which is understandable). I ordered my dinner and waited about 40 minutes. When I received the dinner, I found out that they had made a mistake on my order.

This is my second day here, and my disappointment just keep going up. I went up to the gym to find out that they only have a few treadmills and cycling machines, some free weights and an exercise machine that nobody was around to show how to operate.

Later today, I requested a teapot with hot water to drink a tea (since there isn't any way to warm water in my room), and was charged 6.5 reais for the water.

I am a little afraid to breath here as they might be charging me for this as well.

If you can chose another place to stay, I would suggest you do. If you have no other option but stay here, you will probably survive. It isn't the worst hotel in the planet, but the price they will charge you is way high for the type of...