Saudade Guest House — Hotel in Lisbon

Lack of management and communication between staff members. I booked for three nights but had to book under two separate bookings (One under booking.com and one under air bnb). Prior to arrival I messaged the property to let them know it relates to the same booking but no one responded. The first night was booked in a double room and second & third in a larger family sized room.||First, we were handed keys to a double room which was currently occupied as there were bags in the room. this could easily have been overcome if the staff came with us to open the door to our room. We returned to the staff member to let them know that the room was Already taken. After some confusion, we were given a set of keys to a different room. The double room given to us was what appeared to be a current or ex staff room. It was very simple and average.||We had to check out the second day as was moving to the family room. This was expected as I had booked under two different platforms. So we left our bags with the staff and this was held in the room the staff are sleeping in next to the kitchen.||When we returned to check in, we were given another double room as opposed to the family room I had booked. I asked them about this and then they checked us into the family room. We were told later that they had not received the keys back from the previous guest so we had no key to our room. The staff told us they will have a key in 15 minutes. An hour had past and I have not received any updates, so I went to the kitchen to ask them. I spoke to someone different and they said they cannot get the key to the room. They offered us another room but it wasn’t available until the next day. So we stayed in the family room with an unlocked door. The communication was extremely poor and we were left in the dark not knowing what is happening. We also had to deal with a few different staff members so I felt like no one was following up on the matter.||The next day, we had to once again pack our bags and leave our luggage with the staff as the family room had no lock in it. That afternoon, I received a message from booking.com to say the owner had offered a refund for our last night if we wanted to look for accommodation elsewhere. I had not requested this and found it strange as the property staff had not spoken to me about this. I kindly declined as we were out sightseeing and didn’t want the hassle of trying to find last minute accommodation and move to another property.||When we returned to check in, the manager/owner Lilian came to speak to us. She said that they do not have the key to the family room and will have to place us in an alternative room. It turns out the room was a smaller room, not one that I had paid for. She stressed how our safety was her top priority and she said as she was feeling unwell, she could not contact me to explain directly (even though we had previous conversation on WhatsApp and she was able to contact booking.com and have them try cancel my booking indirectly?). I found this conversation all very strange. ||We were happy to stay another night in the unlocked family room as it was much more spacious and I had paid for that room. She Insisted we do not as she would not feel comfortable we stayed in an unlocked room and she very much cared about our safety. I felt like we didn’t have a choice so accepted her offer. later on, I found out that the keys to the family room had already been located and other guests have indeed moved in. I suspect we were told lies so they could cater for additional guests and used the “unlocked door” excuse to put us into another room. ||That evening, as our room was directly in front of the kitchen, the staff were joking and talking loudly at 2am and I had no choice but to go out and ask them to keep the noise down.||The rooms are located over two levels. One level has two bathrooms and the other level has one. The bathrooms were in need of renovations due to mould and overall lack of care. One bathroom didn’t lock properly and the third bathroom was out of order during the last two nights of our stay. There was a kitchen on each level. One was occupied by the staff whenever I needed to use it. ||My overall experience of this “guest house” was that it was very unprofessionally run, insecure (people could come and go as they please as the front door is never locked) and dishonest (as we were told lies so they could accommodate their needs). The place feels like more of a hostel so do not be fooled into thinking it is a nice “guest house”. The only thing going for it is the location, very central and...

I cannot recommend staying at this location. In fact I am compelled to tell you - stay away. There were multiple issues we faced, but the main ones were super simple - stained sheets complete disregard for covid safety with no mask usage in common spaces even though that is the norm (maybe even the law) here in Portugal no one is there to maintain quiet hours, and your room has 0 sound isolation, so people might (and did) cook, shower and generally just make daylight noise during the night. I had people cooking at 1-2am with complete disregard for other guests. But because the guest house has no one really there keeping people in check, I had to personally go and speak to people. The other issue that causes this is there are people living in this guest house (apparently) permanently, since it might be a central cheap place to live. Some of the people living there appeared to be food delivery drivers (Uber Eats) who would come in at the end of a long shift and cook a big meal. This is 100% understandable from their side just as it is 100% understandable from my side that I would like to sleep during normal hours. Because the place has no one to keep people in check, this creates an untenable situation of tension between guests. But you can’t have a place with 0 sound isolation accommodating both people who do long night shifts daily AND tourists and people who are coming through and would like to catch decent sleep.

we arrived at the guest house at normal hours but by evening we found out our sheets were VERY VISIBLY stained. This is 100% unforgivable and I was shocked that such a low hygiene standard would even be allowed.

Basically if you have no expectations for hygiene Have no expectations for covid safety Are ok sharing a flat with people who are doing night shifts and might want to cook a big meal between 1-3am Are ok with getting stained sheets on your bed on a regular basis

Maybe you’ll be ok with this place. But because I can’t imagine anyone who fits these descriptions, I cannot recommend this...

DO NOT BOOK. BEDBUGS (CHINCHES!!!) AND CARELESSNESS. When we first entered the building, there was a horrible GAS smell all throughout the entrance and the stairs. When they showed us our room the door was broken and we were expected to lock the room with a cheap padlock. We were supposed to receive towels and we did not, we had to buy some ourselves. The first night was HELL. The bed and matress were the worst we had ever slept on, but the worst was that we were ITCHY all night. The night after that we discovered plenty of BEDBUGS on the sheets and BLOOD STAINS caused by them bitting us throughout the night. We told the responsibles that were in the building and the german one LAUGHED on our faces and told us she didn’t know what to do. However, the one that spoke Spanish was super comprensive and tried to help us. We immediately called the owner, Liliana, and she told us she didn’t want to talk to us, that she would only talk to the responsibles in the building and we didn’t hear back from her. The responsibles told us she didn’t want to offer a refund and that the “solution” she gave us was another romm which, suprise, only had one bed and we were three!!! Because she didn’t give us the money back we could not go anywhere else and were forced to stay in that tiny room. When we walked through its door we were immediately disgusted. It was incredibly dusty and there were cigarrettes on the floor. There were plenty of hairs and stains on the bed. It was ashaming. Also, the door was broken and we had to carry the handle around Lisbon to be able to open the door when we got back. Not to talk about the kitchen which had clearly not been cleaned for weeks and with scary leaks from the ceiling. So much moisture all over. Just disgusting and insulting. And not even an intention to make the experience and...