Tivoli Carvoeiro Algarve Resort — Hotel in Lagoa

GO ELSEWHERE. Save your money.

I called the hotel to confirm details. I dialed the phone three. The first two times I let it ring for two minutes before hanging up. On the third attempt someone answered the phone after ringing for 20 seconds. Misleading advertising with cropped photos showing ocean but not the pool front crowd staring at your room. The hotel’s online photos are completely misleading and inaccurate. No privacy on lower floors.

The Tivoli Carvoeiro is not a five start hotel. We spent five nights without being able to get one full night of sleep, sweating profusely in the heat without working AC. My wife had to use her American mobile phone to call the front desk from our room in Portugal. The room phone didn’t work. Our hotel neighbors next door were also sweating at night and not sleeping.

Unfriendly front desk staff.

Unfriendly pool staff refused to serve water to overheated guests and told them to walk all the way up to the kiosk and get it themselves.

During dinner my wife went up to the dessert section and asked the server what was the white creamy dessert in the clear cup. He looked at it with a confused face, shrugged his shoulders, turned down his lips and told my wife “…don’t know, you taste and tell me what is.”

Discrimination - we saw an elderly English couple request a table near ours facing the ocean. They were told rudely “No, you can’t sit there, we have to clean the table.” One minute later, a young couple is brought in, they ask for the same dirty table and they were immediately sat down. The elderly couple witnessed this.

After providing cash and a hotel voucher to pay for dinner at the hotel restaurant we were told we have to walk to the reception front desk of the hotel to redeem our dinner voucher, and could not accept cash, only room charges. While paying for dinner at the front desk (so low quality) we discovered the hotel had overcharged us by €172.03 over our confirmed booking online. Good thing we checked. How many people get ripped off, pay and leave? We spent 45 minutes at the front desk paying for dinner and fixing our overcharged bill. So much for a fine dining evening with my wife.

We heard guests asking the waiter to put two tables together outside during breakfast for a family to sit together and they were just told “No, we’re not doing that, you can sit inside.”

During one breakfast my wife was denied orange juice. The waitress used the excuse that “the machine was broken.” We could see tables all around us had orange juice. Another couple we knew also were denied orange juice. These temporary workers the hotel hires to save money are completely worthless. They have no place working in the hospitality industry, they have no skills, and speak zero English. Most days the hotel is full of English speakers from numerous nationalities. I heard some of these workers gossiping and talking about the dining guests. Unfortunately for them, I understand Portuguese. Horrible service.

At 1:30 PM the room was not clean yet. Card key stopped working on third day.

The food is low quality buffet. We saw grey mushrooms from a can, round potato tater-tots that were definitely from a frozen package and were disgustingly tasteless. Beans come from cans. We were served stale, old, hard bread. After complaining they brought more slices from the kitchen that were fresh. My wife asked for Tabasco sauce and the food server started to look through a porcelain box full of sugar packets. I asked for Worcestershire sauce for the roast meat and the food server pointed at a bottle of vinegar and a bottle of olive oil. No joke.

Save your money. Terrible, mediocre service, overpriced and overhyped hotel with just a great view to show for it. Regardless of what the management, including the GM, tells you, many awful buffet food items come from a can. The hotel is dated and the staff is...

When I say huge disappointment that is an understatement! The staff is beyond rude! When we checked in, my room was so hot that we turned on the air conditioning. The ac had such a bad smell like the sewer. When we went to see what they could do they half heartedly attempted to fix the AC. Then they offered to switch rooms to a horrible view then got mad at us for making the complaint to begin with. That was just in the first few hours of arriving. Mind you this is an upscale hotel or we thought it was. I aksed for a fan to at least cool down the room. We turned the ac off. When HOUSEKEEPING came to bring the fan she made a horrible face. We left the room to go eat. When we came back I aksed a staff member sitting at the front near the entrance to the hotel (he told me he was the complaint manager) if they had a chance to see/fix why the ac was blowing out a bad smell. This is what he said. “They fixed it whike you were out but why did you leave the ac on and the patio door open.” I was shocked… what is he saying? Why would i do that? Then he proceeded to tell me that housekeeping said i did that. This is the most stupid thing to say. I told him he had better get the info correct. From that moment on every single one of the staff treated me poorly every time i walked by or if they saw me. Honestly, why would you BLAME a guest!!!! I was shocked. I came here for my vacation and to enjoy it so I just ignored all of them. I must also say the reviews that say this place is great(which is why i booked) are not telling you the truth. Some people might like it… but it sucks in many ways not just what i experienced about the room. The food is horrible it is so bad that you will cry. But don’t worry within walking dist 3 mins they have amazing places to eat in the town. If you want cold fries for $15 and $30 sandwhiches suck eat at the hotel. What else… the toiletries in the rooms also suck. They don’t really clean your rooms just tidy up a bit. Not just mine i aksed other travelers they said the same. Hmmm if you ask any questions about anything they basically can’t be bothered to understand you. Infact the service is so horrible you might think it was just isolated towards me but i did not speak to them after the first night I had other people I was traveling with get any info. Basically they don’t care about your vacation or your stay, they are just there I don’t know doing what checking people in and out. That’s it. NEVER SATY HERE. The ALGARVE is amazing and there are wayyyy better places than TIVOLI. This looks nice but it is not. Also very missleading online. Every hotel, villa etc. on the coast has great views. Most of all you want people to treat you as a GUEST not as a PROBLEM! I still do not understand how the food was so bad. Oh the breakfast people rave about on reviews …. It is ok not great, it’s edible. They have a good selection but you have to be up super early like 7 am to get a seat without a mad rush. It reminds me of hoards of flock running to get food. One more thing…. I heard the staff say repeatedly to guests “we are fully booked” as an excuse for anything they asked, as a response Like a blanket statement. This place really lost credibility!!! I really hope this review helps people plan accordingly since when you travel and spend money you want a good time. Those great reviews are not true and I trusted those when I booked to stay here. The hotel will probably reply below as a fake courtesy…. They ARE NOT and you can believe me on that. I will def travel again to this town but never stay here that is for sure. $450 a night is what I paid for a sewer smelly room, lying blaming staff. Check the non 5star reviews below you wil read people saying the staff lies more than one time. Btw 5days stay no restock on the mini bar even once. Yeah this place is not 5 star...

This hotel is a 2-star property with a 5-star view—and unfortunately, that view is the only real highlight.

Check-In Experience

We arrived at 12 PM and were told our room wasn’t ready, which was understandable. We were assured that we’d receive a call when it became available—but no call or message ever came. When we returned after 3 PM, we were shocked to find our luggage and personal belongings—including passports, phones, and other valuables—left unattended in reception for three hours, completely visible to anyone walking by. We were originally told the bags would be stored securely, which clearly didn’t happen.

The receptionist noticed us spotting the bags and quickly checked us in. No information was provided about the hotel, facilities, or even where or when breakfast was served. He simply stated we had been “upgraded” to a partial view room as a gesture for our 10-year anniversary. However, I had already booked a superior room with a terrace and had specifically requested a double bed.

Room Issues

What we received was a twin room with two single beds and a locker in between. We had to rearrange the room ourselves to make it more suitable. Given the receptionist’s attitude—acting as though we were lucky to get what we did—we didn’t feel comfortable complaining, for fear of being moved to something worse.

To make matters worse, the air conditioning didn’t function properly at night. It became increasingly warm and stuffy, and the unit just made noise without cooling the room, leaving us waking up with headaches each morning.

Pool & Facilities

The pool area is overcrowded and poorly managed. Sunbeds are “reserved” by guests placing towels on them from 8 AM, and these beds often go unused for hours. At a hotel marketed as luxury, this should not be acceptable. There should be a system where unused towels and items are cleared and stored, allowing fair access for all guests.

The VIP cabana area is a joke. You’re charged €75 for a bed that faces an ugly green fence, with no food or drink included. It should either be included in the price of your stay or offered at a more reasonable rate with better value.

Staff & Service

We witnessed rude behaviour from several staff members, particularly at breakfast. Some guests seated themselves due to a lack of staff presence, which led to visible frustration and dismissive body language from senior staff. There’s clearly a lack of hospitality training, especially among those who seem to be in supervisory roles.

The overall atmosphere was chaotic and impersonal. It felt more like being herded through a system than enjoying a relaxing getaway. For a 7-night stay at €2800 with only buffet breakfast, this was far from the premium experience we were expecting.

Final Frustration at Check-Out

To top it all off, check-out was equally frustrating. A young staff member spoke in Portuguese to her colleague about our reservation and seemed uncertain about what to do. She then informed us we had $150 in credit—which we couldn’t use because we had only spent around $30 at the pool bar. This was the first time we heard anything about having credit included in our stay. No one mentioned it at check-in, reinforcing how poorly the process was handled from the beginning.

⸻

Aside from the stunning view, our stay was riddled with poor service, disappointing facilities, and a lack of professionalism. Sadly, we won’t be returning, and I cannot recommend this hotel to others expecting a...