In Gold Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Águeda

Of you're looking for a nice relaxing stay and enjoy some SPA time, do yourselves a favour and pick another hotel.

I wouldn’t recommend this hotel, especially considering it’s rated as a 4-star property. I’ve stayed in 3-star hotels that offered a far better experience overall.

The room was decent, though nothing special. The bathroom, however, was another story—the shower floor was falling apart and extremely slippery, which felt both unsafe and unacceptable for a hotel of this rating.

The best part of the stay was the staff. Everyone we interacted with was very friendly and helpful, which unfortunately made the rest of the experience all the more disappointing.

Breakfast was a letdown. There seemed to be a lack of staff, resulting in long waits for food refills and many tables left uncleared and unset, making it difficult to find a place to sit and eat.

But the worst part by far was the so-called “spa.” You have to make a reservation, though it’s unclear why—there was absolutely no control over how many people were allowed in at a time. On our second visit, there were 11 people crammed into a small pool, including four kids loudly jumping into the water while their parents egged them on. My husband, another guest, and I were stuck in a corner, trying to relax but constantly having to move whenever the chaos got too close.

To be clear, the problem isn’t with the kids being kids—it’s that this is meant to be a spa, not a regular pool. We specifically chose this hotel hoping for a relaxing spa experience. If we just wanted a loud pool environment, we would have picked a cheaper hotel with standard amenities. In my opinion, small children shouldn’t be allowed in a spa area, or at the very least, there should be designated time slots for families so that everyone can enjoy their stay in a way that suits their needs.

Also, the water was cold. And the SPA in in another building. If it's raining, you'll have to walk in the rain. Also you have to walk up a bit to get there so it's not suitable for guests with reduced mobility. We didn't have to pay extra because the SPA was included in our reservation. However, it has a cost of 15 EUR per hour.

This stay left us disappointed and frustrated. I can’t recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a relaxing getaway. The saddest part is there are previous reviews with the same complaints. So clearly the adminstration of this hotel has done nothing...

TERRIBLE ! Poor not to say NO GUEST SERVICE. The hotel itself is ok, rooms are ni clean. Parking is a great plus Now let’s talk about the rest. Spa ? Spa ? What is the spa actually, a pool that is not even warm in winter and full of unsupervised children. The sauna is not included and the rest was closed. Waste of money. Then, the real problem: customer support is the worst I have seen in hotel management. We booked and paid in advance 2 massages, when we asked they said all was booked (mail to prove it that we send them) and the day of the massage we were told that the person was not available on a Sunday. You don’t know that in advance ? When the poor receptionist, that was already under pressure from checkout, tried to find a solution for us the managers were not able to help us or her. Indeed, they refused to talk to us, refused to understand that we do not live in Portugal so not able to come back. We wrote email and send the complaint by mail : after a month I can told you NO ANSWER. We filled the livro de reclamações online and at the hotel : NO ANSWER. The complaint is now sent to lawyers in the EU institutions that take care of customer service. It is a shame for a 4* hotel to not be able to answer an email or just apologize for their actions and mistakes. Just to let you know that they are not professional and they do not deserve this 4star service. Management is unacceptable and inefficient. Good for them the receptionists are awesome, tried to help and did their job perfectly. As well as the diner that was super. If you read this email, maybe take 2min to answer the email, letter or the official...

View. View in the rooms with balcony is not that advertised - you will have a view on the constructions only. And in the morning, when you open your window, you'll see how workers are looking at you. See attached photo. Facilities. They advertise massages, SPA zone and everything you need to use it. But when we arrived, they said they couldn't provide any massage services during the whole of our stay. And they can't sell slippers and swimming hats that are required to use the swimming pool (but they advertised they could sell them). They told us at our check-in at 7 pm that we had to go somewhere (they didn't give exact directions or shops) to the shop and buy slippers and a swimming hat. Staff and administration that are lying. We asked for a refund for the remaining nights (we don't need a refund for the first night) and decided to move to another hotel as they can't provide advertised facilities. They told us to ask for a refund through booking.com support, and they will accept it. But in fact, they started saying for booking.com support that we didn't check out! When I asked to provide proof that we checked out earlier, they sent me an invoice with the wrong dates and started completely ignoring my further emails. They only say "write to booking.com support" and support is saying "they don't confirm you checked out earlier". They simply stole the money for two nights that were left. Breakfast. It is very poor, with tasteless food and coffee. It is better to avoid it and walk 15 minutes to great cafes and restaurants in the city.

The only good things are quite modern rooms and...