Lisbon Serviced Apartments - Castelo — Hotel in Lisbon

As you may have noticed from my Instagram over the last year and a half, Lisbon has become a favourite place of mine to visit. ||I love the culture, the food, the shopping and of course the people, so when I found Lisbon Serviced Apartments - Castelo Sao Jorge online, while searching for a place to stay during my latest Lisbon visit, I was pretty excited. ||I arrived just after 10pm and having phoned ahead (unfortunately, my booking site had failed to send my email information to the apartments) so I didn’t have the entry code to the building. ||I explained my dilemma to night apartment manager Paolo, who reassured me all would be well, and he’d meet me at the property, instantly putting me at ease. ||Paolo was just the type of ambassador you need at a serviced apartment. Charming, warm, informative and strong - he carried both my suitcases up the stairs to my room.||After my long journey I great appreciated his assistance, as my apartment (located within one of a gorgeous traditional tiled townhouse) unlike the others nearby, didn't have a lift. ||**This is something I think you might consider before booking, if you have a lot of luggage or small children and to their credit, the apartments were completely transparent about this as they mentioned it on their website. ||He made sure my TV was setup and that I knew how to work the air conditioning/heater. It’s little touches like that, business travelers like myself really appreciate when arriving at a new destination. ||So what about my apartment - it rocked ! Like some super cool European crash-pad, that you can't wait to get to :0) ||First, I must compliment and recognize the artistry of the photographer who took the pictures for the apartment website. |||They were lovely and the primary reason why I booked my apartment, as well as the whole building being a no smoking zone. they totally matched the apartment I entered, which of course made my day ! ||As I entered the apartment, to the left, was a double bed, was framed by a cut out beam, with night side tables with lights on either side, and a powerpoint on one side of the bed, for easy night time phone charging. ||Opposite the bed, a smartly designed (for a relatively small space) clean contemporary bathroom (shower only, no bath), but it was the perfect size for me.||Just beside the bathroom, very generous wardrobe and luggage storage space, including wooden hangers (total gold stars all round from me here :0) and finally, in the corner, a table and two chairs. ||The apartment interiors were right on point, a lovely white walled oasis, with stripped floorboards throughout, complimented by some very nice design features.||Layout wise, I thought the apartment space was utilized perfectly. The living room / bedroom space, worked harmoniously together without feeling cramped. ||The wifi in the apartment was excellent and the password was wall mounted as a cool dual sign, above a no-smoking notice. ||In the living room / bedroom space aside, from the powerpoint by the bed, I noticed another one by the table and chairs and another one on the wall, as you entered the kitchen. ||The bright, modern kitchen (including dishwasher and washing machine), was set at the bottom of the living room / bedroom space, behind a sliding door, blocking out kitchen smells and creating an extra cosy atmosphere when the door was closed. ||The living room / bedroom area which I loved, contained a very comfortable double bed, and and had two shuttered windows, which when opened flooded the room with light, which was delightful. ||I was lucky enough to be present when Luis the day apartment manager was onsite. ||Once again like Paolo, he distinguished himself by being friendly, knowledgeable and willing to do anything to assist in making my stay a great one. ||Luis's behaviour was also matched by the excellent cleaning staff at the apartment, whose prompt, efficient service I greatly appreciated. ||Did I have any bugbears about my stay at Castelo Sao Jorge ? ||Only tiny ones :0) I would have loved a multi-language instruction card for the washing machine. Fortunately, one of the cleaners stepped in and helped me to get it working. ||I also think a quick guide of local info in my apartment would have been nice - nothing major just a "you are here, this is what's close by" and transport links information.||Bug bears aside, I would highly recommend Lisbon Serviced Apartments - Castelo Sao Jorge as a budget-friendly, comfortable place to stay in Lisbon with great, friendly staff who go out of their ways to assist...

We booked the studio for 5 nights very much looking forward to having a lovely view of Lisbon and a peaceful stay just outside the city centre. Our experience what unfortunately the complete opposite, customer service informed me that they only have one studio of our grade in the building and therefore were unable to relocate us from a ground floor room with metal bars over all glazing. We only had one window which wasn’t blocked off, unfortunately we were unable to open it due to the noise. We barely got any sleep due to the noise from the street and people staying above our studio.

Pros Excellent housekeeping, the cleaners went above and beyond everyday, we always got back to a clean room, that’s mainly the only reason I’m giving 2 stars. Following a complaint David (Property Manager) replaced the bathroom mirror the next day which was rusty.

Cons Location: The location made myself and my partner very uncomfortable, in order to get into the city centre you have to walk through a very rough neighbourhood. Extreme homelessness and substance abuse just as you go down the escalator. Personally I wouldn’t feel comfortable walking there at night alone. Sleep: We barely got any sleep as you could hear every footstep of the people staying above, loud stomping and chair moving all through the night to the point where I had to buy ear plugs, and I could still hear it! Bathroom: The bathroom wasn’t in a great condition, various areas were mouldy and rusted with a faul sewage smell. Privacy/ Noise: Unfortunately there wasn’t any privacy, no matter the time of the day we were constantly hearing people walking down the street which is literally outside all doors/ windows. Same applied to people staying in the apartment above. Checkin location: Many other visitors struggled finding the door to the hallway where you checkin, meaning on average we had 2 sets of guests trying to get in through our door. We constantly had to redirect other people to the correct door which didn’t have any directional signage. This made us feel uncomfortable as we thought someone was trying to break into our room.

Unfortunately we wouldn’t...

We stayed at these apartments for 4 nights. The location was good, a short walk to the centre of everything. Apartment was small but had everything we needed. Be prepared for for a lot of steps up to the building. No luggage storage for before/after you check in/out.. bit of a walk to the other building with your cases but a cheap option to store them for a few hours. Our room wasn't cleaned one day so when we got back from a long day trip to Sintra we came back to no clean towels for our shower. We went into the main building where we used the phone provided to contact a member of staff, but were told over the phone that the cleaners were gone for the day. Then he hung up on us, we were on a camera so obviously he could see us as we tried 4 times to ring back but he wouldn't answer. I had to go outside and ring a different number from my mobile. Another man answered and told me where we could find towels but the instructions were hard to understand and he was laughing and making fun of us.. this really let the accommodation down for us. We were on the ground floor, so the door to our apartment was right on the street and quite loud at night. Good value for money and a good location, shame the staff...