HF Fénix Music — Hotel in Lisbon

My husband and I recently stayed at this hotel for five days in Room 401, and quite honestly, we’re baffled by the high ratings it has received.

Positives:

The hotel is in a great location. It is close to a park and within walking distance of the city center.

High tech, but unreliable.

The towels were new, clean, and fluffy.

The bed was comfortable.

The hair dryer worked well.

Negatives:

The shower leaked water directly into the toilet area every time it was used. This not only created a mess but also posed a safety hazard, especially since the floor tiles were white and made it difficult to see the water. Although this issue was resolved promptly after we reported it to the front desk, it’s something that should have been addressed before our arrival.

The caulking in the shower was dirty and black with mold. (And the tile grout could use a cleaning too.)

There was no separate light in the toilet area, so we had to turn on the main hallway light during the night just to use the bathroom which wakes up the person in bed. This issue was also mentioned by another guest in their review.

There was a noticeable smell of cigarette smoke lingering in the hallway on our floor, which suggested that someone had been smoking nearby. This affected the overall comfort of our stay. While I understand that it may be difficult to control the behaviour of other guests, it is probably a good idea the hotel look into possible ways to monitor or address this issue.

The elevators were unreliable and no signage to indicate this as also mentioned by another guest. At one point, we actually got stuck in one; the doors wouldn’t open. We had to press the emergency button to ask for assistance and when it finally opened, the young woman at the front desk reprimanded us. She assumed we were misusing it, which was not the case. Being met with that kind of response in a stressful situation was unacceptable, especially given the known issues with the elevators.

According to the card provided in the room, bed sheets could be changed daily by placing the card on the bed. We did this on day three, and while the sheets were changed, the card was removed and never replaced, which prevented any further requests.

One of our key cards was taken by housekeeping (we had left it on the nightstand), so I had to return to the front desk for a replacement. As well, one of room key cards stopped working at one point. Another visit to front desk was needed.

The air conditioning could not be adjusted, leaving us to choose between being too cold or uncomfortably warm at night.

The Wi-Fi was unreliable (also mentioned by another guest). We actually had to use the WIFI at the McDonald’s down the street.

Bottom Line: Our stay was frustrating and disappointing. We shared some of our concerns with the front desk but were met with disbelief, which made it feel pointless to continue raising issues. Between maintenance problems, poor service, and a general lack of guest care, we will not be returning and we cannot recommend this...

A notice to inform you about the dishonesty of HF Fenix Music hotel. I had a booking planned for April 2020 and I was not able to travel abroad (like the majority of the world) due to COVID pandemic. In March 2020 I contacted them to cancel my trip and I received a voucher from the hotel via an email, to allow me to do a reservation after pandemic crisis and travelling restrictions. Later on, I have contacted them back to extend the validity date of the received voucher because we were again confined. My huge surprise was to learn that my voucher was not valid at all because I did not cancel my reservation on booking website to activate my voucher (received via email) so the hotel considered my cancellation email not enough and I have lost my money ... 400€... When I received the voucher via email in March 2020, nothing was specified in it to inform me about their cancellation procedure !!! A way to steal people...really I am still shocked even when I am writing you this note. For me, my email was a proof of booking cancellation because they have sent back a voucher so I explained them that there is no sense here and they did not explain me how to proceed ... Furthermore, their initial email containing the voucher that I received at that time was not properly written in English and this misleads me ... anyway ! They said, I quote: “As you may understand, we prepared the staff, products for breakfast, etc according to the reservations we had confirmed, that unfortunatelly were only a few. When the guests did not show up, this means a loss to the hotel that has costs to be prepared to accommodate them.” I was shocked by these lies because the entire world was paralyzed and borders closed at that time, except for going back home ... no sense again!! Just an excuse to get my money « legally ». After several calls and emails, they finally gracefully accept to provide me with a voucher of 132€ .. I said that I would prefer have back 132€ reimbursed (of 400€ already paid) because Portugal is still confined as of today (restaurants, monuments closed etc.) and this is also not so safe and sometimes more difficult to travel abroad especially for staying at the hotel bedroom. So I would prefer being reimbursed and they refused. To summarize, first I have lost 268€ because they mislead me and now they do not want to reimburse 132€ because they said they are not obliged by the law to reimburse me... if you search for a human hotel where you would like to find people with empathy and sympathy please go on your way !!! No one would like to pay for nothing especially during these...

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the fenix music. They went above and beyond for my friend whose birthday it was whilst we were in Lisbon. We came back to the room to find a bottle of bubbles, scrumptious cream and chocolate cake and a touching note wishing her a good birthday. The staff here are absolutely fantastic and an honour to the hotel. Particularly ismeal and diogo on reception and Paulo on the pool who are so helpful and charismatic. Rooms are very clean and very well decorated, feels very upper class for the price you pay! Rooftop is lovely. Stunning views of the city. Location is good, right next to metro station and bus stop, lots of food and drinks places near by. You are right next to the big park and maques pombal.

Things that would have made me give a 5 star if they were fixed:

The pool is really COLD. And doesn’t really warm up once you’re in, but it is swimmable and you will see people using it. The lift is super slow, especially if you are waiting at the pool/rooftop for it. It can be a little noisy at night as it’s on a main road. We didn’t feel we were given enough toilet paper, some days it was not refilled and as we are two girls we use a lot haha! For some reason when we turned all the lights off in our room at night we had an intermittent green flashing strobe light? But it stopped if we turned a light on so that’s what we did otherwise we couldn’t have slept at all. Things like the music boxe and the headphones in reception don’t actually work.

Overall we would 100% recommend to anyone looking to stay in Lisbon even if you are not on a budget, it does not feel like a budget...