Numa Lisbon Rato — Hotel in Lisbon

UPD: After some back and forth, Numa refunded the first night of my stay so I consider the incident settled.

TL;DR: your booking might get messed up in the very last minute for whatever bogus reason and then you'll have to spend a lot of time on the phone attempting to get someone to fix it

On the day of check-in, at 12:00 PM, while I was already on my flight, support sent me an email that the room I booked had a malfunctioning fridge and that's why they unilaterally decided to move me to a smaller room. However, nobody bothered to send me any details on how to enter this new room, or just to suggest I refrain from using the fridge for a day (which would be the default option for any sane person). Imagine my surprise when I got up to the floor where my room was, after a long flight, in the late evening, and the code to enter it did not work. Moreover, when I called the helpline, they refused to let me into the room I booked and paid for, even though I explicitly stated that I wouldn't need the fridge! Instead, they made me wait in the corridor for a good hour because (wait for it) they said they had to wait for a confirmation from some manager just to reactivate the code. Funnily enough, they never managed to obtain that approval and therefore I was forced to spend the night in an inferior room, and the evening was completely ruined because while I was handling all these shenanigans, the shops and restaurants in the vicinity got closed. Next day support wouldn't even pick up the phone, but finally they benevolently allowed me to move to the same kind of room I booked and even claimed they would refund the 15% of the booking cost. But that turned out to be a lie - after I checked out, they sent me a message saying the refund amount would be a measly 11.40 EUR, which wouldn't even cover my cellphone roaming for calling their helpline (yes, their whatsapp simply didn't accept any calls). So not only the helpline is useless, it's actively misleading the customers (if you manage to get a hold of...

In a few words: Digitalization gone wrong. It started with providing the wrong online check-in link - clicked it and it said that we’re all set, we’re already checked-in, but it turned out to be someone else’s check-in link (so it was, basically, a security incident under GDPR). Hence, after we just landed in Lisbon we were informed that our prepaid booking was cancelled because of… not checking-in.

After long online discussions, they resetted the check-in process and sent the correct link, we checked-in and received the pin code that opens the front door, the elevator and the room door. We got through the front door, we used the elevator, but the code didn’t open the room door. So we waited on the lobby for another 30 minutes till they managed to send another pin code that really worked.

All in all, it is a nice hotel, it is pretty modern, it has very good sound proof windows, but it already has some small signs of heavy usage. We stayed for a week and they did not provide cleaning during this time, they didn’t even take the trash out - we had to dispose of it ourselves (selective collection etc.). I wouldn’t have wanted every day cleaning, but i expected a lot more from a four star hotel. Maybe someone should seriously review this classification.

If i we’re to return to Lisbon, i would not choose this...

the location is great and the online check in/out worked fine for me. don’t be discouraged by the look of the entrance and the hallways, the rooms look a lot better. my room was quite small and looked very used, the walls were stained and bruised and one of the kitchen cabinets did not close.

since the morning of my arrival, I kept receiving emails about window cleaning, saying that you have to let an external company into your room to clean your window. despite the many messages, nobody came and the window in my room was equally as dirty when I was leaving as when I arrived.

30 minutes after my arrival, there was a knock on my door and a cleaning lady let herself in to mop the already cleaned floor around me. the hotel states that there is no cleaning, so I don’t know what that was about. I paid extra for late check out until 1 PM, at 12, another cleaning lady walked in without knocking.

the rooms do not get cleaned during your stay, there is also no reception in the hotel. you get access to the half empty essentials closet in the basement. you can pay extra for breakfast in a different hotel across a very busy street.

if the location works for you and you only need a place to sleep at, Numa would work fine for you. I would not choose this...