Internacional Design Hotel — Hotel in Lisbon

We travelled to Lisbon as a family of seven (two grandparents, me and my husband, my brother and sister in law, and our 10 month old baby). We had stated in the booking that we were travelling with a baby and booked three standard rooms. On arrival, they gave us a free room upgrade to a bigger room with a cot for the baby. ||The hotel is situated in a great, central area which is busy in day and evening, and seemed very safe. It is next to a plaza and there are lots of restaurants and shops around, with a lot of foot traffic, so there is always people around. But the hotel itself was nice and quiet despite the busy area. ||Check-in:|On check-in, the reception staff were friendly and welcoming. They knew our arrival time and were ready to help with luggage and the taxi (as the taxi cannot park directly in front of the hotel due to traffic restrictions, so parked on the corner opposite). Check-in was quick and easy. We arrived slightly earlier than expected but our rooms were already cleaned and ready for us. You also get a ticket to a free welcome drink in the hotel bar which you can use at any time during your stay (and they substitute for non-alcoholic drink too). ||Cleanliness:|With a young baby we were worried about how clean the rooms would be during our stay, but our rooms were spotless and cleaned every single day, with fresh towels daily. ||Amenities:|It was very hot when we went, and the hotel provided free cold water for our rooms which were refilled upon request (and we requested a lot!). The rooms have a safe which is well hidden and very secure. We had no problems with setting codes, locking and unlocking. The rooms have a coffee machine and a kettle with selection of teas too. The bathrooms are modern and spacious and the shower is very nice. ||The restaurant: |The restaurant serves a buffet breakfast which sadly we did not try as we were only there for a few days so had breakfast elsewhere. Generally, for a buffet breakfast the cost was reasonable. But there are other places within walking distance which serve wonderful breakfast options - both the standard eggs, pancakes etc., and traditional Portuguese food. ||We tried the restaurant for dinner one day as it was raining and we were pleasantly surprised as to how delicious it was! It is a pan-asian restaurant with a selection of sushi and asian-inspired dishes. The staff are friendly, engaging and helpful. The food is reasonably priced. The atmosphere is great as you can look out into central Lisbon. ||Travelling with a baby: |The rooms are spacious for storing baby stuff. We brought a pram which was stored in reception on the ground floor. The reception is staffed 24/7 so there were no issues with the pram being left there. We also brought bottles and sterilising equipment (including a collapsable bucket!) and had no problem with finding somewhere to store these items when not in use. ||Overall: |Would highly recommend this hotel to families and anyone travelling with a baby or toddler. ||The staff are wonderfully friendly and helpful - and it made our stay...

This was our 2nd stay at this hotel in 4 years. The staff are attentive, cheerful and helpful--mostly. Some need better training.

The room we had was small. The bathroom was small too. There was only one hook to hang anything in the bathroom. There is a derelict building right in front of the hotel. This has been tarted up since our 2015 visit, so it doesn't look so off-putting anymore. The mattress was not that great. There was a good-sized TV with many channels, and the aircon, showers etc worked ok. There was a safe and a Nespresso machine in the room.There is free WiFi--although free WiFi is now standard in most hotels around the world.

The shampoo, shower gel, conditioner and soap had a hint of lovely herbal smells. The soap appeared to contain crushed lemon grass. The entire hotel had a gentle soothing herbal scent hanging in the air all the time. But don't get too excited; all that was in 2015. None of those delights anymore. We noticed that the balcony has deteriorated quite a bit. The putty has partially fallen off some of the glazings and the metal window frames were rusty enough to be ugly.

The hotel is in a good location, but there are many other hotels around here to pick and choose from.

It's about 150 metres from the Rossio Metro Station on the Green Line (Verde). Consequently, you could reach it in about 35 minutes from the airport for just 1.50 euros. Take the Red Line (Vermelha) from the airport and change to the Green Line at Alameda. Going back to the airport is just as quick and easy.

There is a railway station, also called Rossio, which is about 250 metres away. You can take trains from here to Sintra and Queluz. These are much-visited sites.

The Santa Justa Elevator is 150 metres away, and a nice slow 550-metre walk down Rua Augusta will take you to the beautiful Praca do Comercio through the Rua Augusta Arch.

Walk 100 metres from hotel to Praca da Figueira and catch the 15E Tram to the Jeronimos Monastery, Belem Tower, Discoveries Monument etc etc. You can also take the 759 bus from here to the Tile Museum.

The hotel is surrounded by restaurants, but the hotel itself has a restaurant called Bastardo. In my opinion it has gone downhill compared to 2015. The furniture is a mish mash of plastic and old wooden tables and chairs, which I found unappealing.

Overall, it's a hotel with small rooms, is in a good location, needs investment (e.g. the coffee machines in the restaurant keep breaking down every few minutes) and requires some improved operating procedures. I always emphasise the emphasis of this maxim:...

TRAVELER BEWARE!!!!! TERRIBLE SERVICE!!!!!

We checked into the internacional Design Hotel only to be disappointed after spending a lot of extra money requesting a Rossio Square view. We were directed to a fourth floor attic like room with window facing another building. See my photos for their supposed square view. No solution other than another room with a similar view of a nearby store was proposed. The manager on staff was unwilling to do anything else so we have to turn on our international roaming so the general manager can call us at 11am at their convenience.

We waited for the call all day and never got one. When we returned to the hotel to speak with the general manager, we got an arrogant, unapologetic, interrupting individual who showed us his one attempt to call us when we were waiting in the lobby for him. Probably just put it in his phone to make it seem like he was trying. So from 11am to 5:30pm, manager had not acknowledged our situation. He was quick to say we were constantly mistaken, that he has years and years of hospitality experience (irrelevant in this situation especially considering how rude he was) and how we were aggressive to his staff (whom we apologized to but never had him apologize to us genuinely). He did not offer anything and was extremely hostile. As a local guide and traveller, I have never come across such terrible behavior before. The attitude was very much that they did "not care about bad reviews". Use that as a caution not to stay here because if you are that one person having an issue, tough luck because they won't mind your one poor review.

I cannot recommend this hotel at all. In fact, bathrooms are old, hotel has zero amenities or nearby reasonably priced parking, restaurant is mediocre at best and the breakfast buffet was regularly running out of items. For the hefty price tag per night, I'd say look elsewhere and don't waste your money here especially considering the staff will do nothing to help you out. Read some other reviews as well, you will find similar themes of the hostile and terrible general management of this hotel.

STAY...