Hotel Roma — Hotel in Lisbon

This hotel is lucky that I was forced to stay here a second time, as it was part of the Exoticca trip I booked last month. Otherwise, it would have been my very first 1 star review, based on how bad my first check in was. ||This hotel should realize that most international travelers are coming in early. As such, this means that rooms should be ready for guests when they arrive, as they are jet lagged from a long flight. This was not the case here at the Hotel Roma. When I arrived at the hotel a little after 9, the front desk staff was rude in denying us a room and told us that check in was at 3. We asked if it would be available earlier and they said we had to check in as time went in. Well, we did, every hour with increasingly aggressive responses from the staff. At a certain point, we just gave up and went out for the day, massively exhausted and sleep deprived, before our room was available just minutes before 3. While they may have said that booking early check in was necessary for a room (something that was not the case on any tour I've done with Gate 1, where the hotels were always ready with a room when we arrived), a couple on our tour who booked early check in had to wait two hours for their room to be ready. They paid more than a standard night's rate for it and got their room three hours earlier than us. What a rip off. What made the whole experience even worse was that the staff reprimanded us for trying to sleep in the lobby and then tried to charge us for breakfast in the buffet (which I'll go into later). Terrible, terrible customer service. ||When we finally got our room, it was small, very noisy being right by the train tracks and old. It was clean, but that was about the extent of any positives about it. The bathroom had a weird button that was difficult to flush with. The shower had a weird glass panel thing that seemed like a person could get injured if they weren't careful. No bars on the side of the tub, which is a major safety hazard. People on other tours I've been on have fallen and injured themselves because of it.||The hotel breakfast buffet was the worst I had on a guided tour so far (only shockingly to be less bad than ones I had later in the tour). Lines were long if you weren't down by 7, food was constantly running out, coffee was not made in sufficient amounts and the quality was basically mediocre. Staff presence was basically non existent.||The dinner buffet was better and with a reasonable price. The staff there was nice, in comparison to the staff everywhere else in the hotel. ||The location is hit or miss. It may be very close to the airport, but it's too far from the city center. The metro was close by, which we used a lot, but it's not really in walking distance of any of the major sights; a major negative.||From just the first stay during my tour, I would have given this hotel a 1 star review. However, when I returned with the tour a week later, the experience was noticeably improved. Our room was larger and had both a couch and a balcony. It was also noisy and was right next to the elevator, but it was an improvement over the first stay. The front desk staff provided a breakfast box for our departure, but the food quality was worse than at the buffet and we barely at any of it. ||Overall, this hotel really is a must miss. I know tour companies like to plop people here (and there were a lot of other tours while I was there, including other Exoticca tours), but I wish they'd send people somewhere else. ||Oh and PS: One of your front desk agents uses hookup apps to communicate with guests at the hotel. Very inappropriate to be doing...

I arrived at Hotel Roma after taking a serious fall while carrying my luggage, bleeding quite a bit from my hands and legs after landing on rocks. When I arrived, visibly injured and shaken, I explained my situation and asked if we could check in slightly early (it was 1:00pm) so I could sit down, wash, disinfect, and bandage my wounds. I completely understand that early check-in isn’t always possible, but I had hoped that in a situation like this, a little human decency would prevail.||Instead, the receptionist, Catarina Ventura, made it very clear that she didn’t care to help in any way. She told us our room “might” be ready by 3:00pm but that she had no way of knowing for sure. She didn’t bother to actually check, by the way. I asked her if she could think of any other solution and she refused. Lots of eye rolls. Less maturity (and manners) than the elementary school children I teach when I’m not on vacation. Despite my visible injuries, no first aid kit was offered by Ms.Ventura, and there was no gesture of kindness or assistance. Are first aid kits not standard in hotels? Most people would offer some kind of help to an injured person. Even just grabbing them paper towels from the restroom. Especially if that person is their guest. ||It also took over 30 minutes for someone to help us check our luggage. The man who finally did was incredibly kind and clearly overworked. He seemed to be doing the work of several people. I hope the hotel appreciates him, because his attitude was the only one that felt remotely hospitable. ||We ended up spending hours on the last day of our honeymoon searching for an urgent care clinic just to have a place to properly clean my wounds- something that could have easily been avoided if the staff had exercised a minimum of empathy (like bringing us a first aid kit…or showing us to a family restroom…). Instead the receptionist made it very clear that we were not her problem until “maybe” 3:00pm.||Based on other reviews, I’m not the only one who’s had a negative experience with this receptionist. Perhaps it’s time management took a closer look at who is representing them at the front desk.||The room was completely average. Yellow tint, across from a noisy soccer field. Felt more like a work office than a hotel room. The breakfast was a joke. Their facilities cannot accommodate the number of people staying here. We stayed in a comedically long line for 20 minutes until we gave up and got breakfast at the airport. I included a photo of the line at 7:47am for reference. The elevators are tiny, each time I got in we were packed like sardines against strangers. This place feels, looks and smells like a moldy prison and you will be treated like a prisoner. ||I sincerely regret booking this hotel and would pay double the price to go back in time and stay elsewhere. Avoid this awful place. ||Ps. I asked for a managers email so that I could do the decent thing and inform management about my experience instead of posting a public review. When I asked, the front receptionists handed me the email for reception....

I arrived at Hotel Roma after taking a serious fall while carrying my luggage, bleeding quite a bit from my hands and legs after landing on rocks. When I arrived, visibly injured and shaken, I explained my situation and asked if we could check in slightly early (it was 1:00pm) so I could sit down, wash, disinfect, and bandage my wounds. I completely understand that early check-in isn’t always possible, but I had hoped that in a situation like this, a little human decency would prevail.

Instead, the receptionist, Catarina Ventura, made it very clear that she didn’t care to help in any way. She told us our room “might” be ready by 3:00pm but that she had no way of knowing for sure. She didn’t bother to actually check, by the way. I asked her if she could think of any other solution and she refused. Lots of eye rolls. Less maturity (and manners) than the elementary school children I teach when I’m not on vacation. Despite my visible injuries, no first aid kit was offered by Ms.Ventura, and there was no gesture of kindness or assistance. Are first aid kits not standard in hotels? Most people would offer some kind of help to an injured person. Even just grabbing them paper towels from the restroom. Especially if that person is their guest.

It also took over 30 minutes for someone to help us check our luggage. The man who finally did was incredibly kind and clearly overworked. He seemed to be doing the work of several people. I hope the hotel appreciates him, because his attitude was the only one that felt remotely hospitable.

We ended up spending hours on the last day of our honeymoon searching for an urgent care clinic just to have a place to properly clean my wounds- something that could have easily been avoided if the staff had exercised a minimum of empathy (like bringing us a first aid kit…or showing us to a family restroom…). Instead the receptionist made it very clear that we were not her problem until “maybe” 3:00pm.

Based on other reviews, I’m not the only one who’s had a negative experience with this receptionist. Perhaps it’s time management took a closer look at who is representing them at the front desk.

The room was completely average. Yellow tint, across from a noisy soccer field. Felt more like a work office than a hotel room. The breakfast was a joke. Their facilities cannot accommodate the number of people staying here. We stayed in a comedically long line for 20 minutes until we gave up and got breakfast at the airport. I included a photo of the line at 7:47am for reference. The elevators are tiny, each time I got in we were packed like sardines against strangers. This place feels, looks and smells like a moldy prison and you will be treated like a prisoner.

I sincerely regret booking this hotel and would pay double the price to go back in time and stay elsewhere. Avoid this awful place.

Ps. I asked for a managers email so that I could do the decent thing and inform management about my experience instead of posting a public review. When I asked, the front receptionists handed me the email for reception....