Palácio do Governador — Hotel in Lisbon

To start, I can say the customer service experience was unlike any I have experienced. Upon arrival I realized I had lost my purse on the drive from Porto. The bellman went above and beyond helping make calls to possible places I could have left it. He finally found the place that had my purse. I cannot express the relief of knowing my purse had been found. Thank you Leonardo. Also, the front desk staff (all of them) were so helpful in every request we had. I was not happy with our room due to the size of the actual room vs what it looked like in the picture on Hilton's website. As a Diamond member I asked if there was a room available for an upgrade. After searching, the desk agent said there was nothing for that night, but to check in the morning. In past experience that means, you are not going to be upgraded, but they give you some hope. However, I was pleasantly surprised. I stopped by the desk on the way to breakfast and asked for the manager as I didn't want to waste my time with someone who didn't have the authority to make the upgrade. The person at the desk was the manager and after I explained my issue, she immediately knew who i was and said she was currently looking at possible alternate rooms. She said to stop by after breakfast and she would have an update. We stopped by after breakfast and low and behold we received an upgrade to a larger room which was much more comfortable. Thank you Luisa!||Pros: Super friendly and helpful staff. Large bathrooms. Robes and slippers. Mini-fridge with some space for personal items. Complimentary 'port-type liqueur'. Wine glasses in room. Hop-on Hop-off bus stops nearby. Quieter neighborhood (as opposed to the centro historico part of town). 3 restaurants on the same block. 3-4 restaurants with a 10-15 minute walk. The tram #15 stop is on the other side of the street making it easy to access public transportation. The rooms were super clean. Parking is free and is located under the hotel.||Cons: Although near the Bay, I don't think any of the rooms have a view of the Bay. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get upgraded to one of the rooms with a patio facing south. Even after our upgrade, we still have a street facing room with no patio. There isn't much around the hotel as far as shopping or restaurants. The pillows were horrible. They have a pillow menu. The feather pillows are large, but pretty much flat. The best option we found were the Aquagel pillows. Basically foam memory pillows. We missed having a nice down pillow.||All in all, the hotel itself was very nice. As a diamond member, we received free breakfast which consisted of a small continental buffet as well as a menu...

Honestly, for a hotel that is luxurious, expensive, and Hilton-affiliated, I’m deeply disappointed in the overall lack of customer service—specifically in the dining experience.

To be clear, the front desk staff and housekeeping were fantastic—attentive, welcoming, and professional. However, the rest of the customer service experience fell short, especially in the breakfast and bar areas, which is the primary reason I’m providing this feedback.

The dining experience—both at breakfast and in the bar—was the most disappointing part of my stay at Palacio. The staff in these areas were neither attentive nor welcoming. Frankly, it felt like they didn’t want to be there. Their body language, lack of manners, and disengaged expressions gave the impression that guests were an inconvenience, rather than valued customers.

On Friday night, we attempted to dine in the hotel restaurant but were told it was fully booked. That was completely understandable, and the hostess kindly suggested we dine upstairs at the bar instead. However, when we arrived at the bar, the staff member didn’t acknowledge us for about five minutes—despite the fact that the place was empty. We had to ask twice for menus, and no one offered water, drinks, or starters. When we tried to get the server’s attention to place our order, he ignored us and prioritized another guest who arrived after us.

We ended up leaving and dining across the street at Nunes, where we received excellent service—prompt, courteous, and attentive. Unfortunately, this kind of neglect at the hotel wasn’t limited to dinner. It continued each morning during breakfast. The experience was so frustrating that my mother wanted to speak with the front desk about it, which speaks volumes about how we felt.

Sad part, this was the #1 place I wanted to stay at the end of my trip because, of the reviews I see here in Google. How misleading. I stayed at another hotel at the beginning of my trip in Lisoba and it was 100000000x's better than this.

This situation reminds me of the saying: “It may look pretty on the outside, but it’s ugly on the inside.” That perfectly captures our experience with this hotel.

I can’t understand how a hotel of this caliber, with such a strong brand affiliation, could deliver such poor service. If I hadn’t prepaid for my stay, I...

Vitor Horta & Margarida Costa, pay attention to the reviews you’re getting because “a lack of professionalism” by your staff continues to be an issue for guests and it’s not being addressed. When I first walked in, I was given a cold and unfriendly welcome, we had just come from the Hilton Porto Gaia where we had the most incredible 5-star stay, so immediately to be greeted so poorly made me feel a bit sick to my stomach. Our Suite was East facing, nothing special, but it was clean. I’m shocked that more people aren’t complaining, but the tram on the North Road in front of the hotel and the train at the South end of the hotel kept us up all night! You literally hear the rumbling in your pillow every 10min and it’s enough to drive you mad. The 5-star reviews with no mention of the Tram or Train, just blow my mind! Must be really heavy sleepers? After no sleep we went to breakfast where we were led to our table through a smaller than normal door (see pic), where my 6’1” husband hit his head and knocked himself to the ground. The response to this by our server was, “Yeah a lot of people do that” and then he said, “I did that as well on my first day”. The manager came over and also told us, “We’ve been telling “them” (upper management?) to do something about it as it’s happened to me and so many people”. Here’s an idea, why don’t you take initiative and throw up a sign, or even better, warn taller people to duck before you lead them along. Seems simple to me! At checkout the lady at the front desk asked us how our stay was, I literally had tears in my eyes, was absolutely exhausted and said, “we got no sleep due to the tram & train and we now are off to the hospital because my husband hit his head on your small door out to your patio and probably has a concussion (which he did). Her response was as serious as can be, “so it was just an ok stay”. I looked at her in absolute disbelief and walked away. This was how we ended our vacation, which was an incredible dream until we walked into this hotel and our nightmare began. Do yourself a favour, don't play Russian Roulette hoping for a good room and just stay...