Park Hotel Porto Aeroporto — Hotel in Maia

(Note): This review is based on our 1st two nights of stayed in this hotel. We checkout after 2 nights but for personal reason we needed to stay 1 more night. We made a new booking and we were given a different room (no.74) and it was SO much better. The room is bright, there is a power plug next to the bed, there are plenty of luggage space, and even a table for two. It was fantastic. The guy behind the reception was friendly, he was helpful and cheerful. Not forgetting to mention, he was really pleasing to the eye. Also, I want to give a huge thanks to Anna at the reception, she's friendly and professional, and she's been super helpful.

Anyway, here is my review...

There are quite a few hotels very near to the airport and this hotel is one of them. It's about 10 minutes walk from the airport. But to get to the hotel, you have to walk all the way around the intersection, rather than a direct road.

Inside the hotel, there are lots of vending machines for snacks, drinks and some essentials like shampoos, gel, nail clippers...etc. Something are reasonable price, something are over priced. Also, have some coins prepared because the machines don't take notes.

Checking-in was pretty straight forward, and it was very easy to find our room (no.130). The room is very clean but it does feels a little small. However it is big enough for what it is. The room could do with more lighting at first as it was very dim but because the bulbs are energy saving bulbs, it takes a little time to brighten up. There is air conditioning in the room (unfortunately, you cannot regulate the temperature), as well as a wardrobe, a desk, a chair, a TV, a safe and a bed of course. However, power plugs are not next to the bed which was inconvenient. The bathroom is small but it has a toilet, a sink, a large mirror, a hair dryer and a shower cubicle. Basically everything you need for a bathroom.

The bed is nice and firm but the duvet is a little thin. However, there is a blanket in the wardrobe if needed.

Since we arrived on a Sunday evening, there aren't many option for dining out, so we had the dinner buffet at the hotel. It's €18.50 per person (drinks NOT included). There was a selection of cheeses, sliced sausage meat, ham, bread roll and vegetable soup for starter. They were all pretty good. There is also a pasta/cold counter with a few selections such as tuna salad, chick pesto pasta, cold prawns. Chicken pasta was nice and I love pawn, so it's all good for me personally. For hot food, it was serving roasted veal, roasted cod fish with meshed potato, rice, boiled carrot and cabbages. Veal was delicious but the codfish was over cooked and contain quite a few bones. As for dessert, there was jelly cups, lime mousse, chocolate mousse and nata do céu (cream of heaven). The lime mousse is delightful, the chocolate mousse is dense and heavenly, and the nata do céu is sweet.

Note: There is a light buffet option (€15.50), which you'll get everything but the hot food. To be honest, I don't think the €3 extra is worth it. If there was a couple more hot food option, it will be better.

The next morning, we had the buffet breakfast at €9.50 each. There was croissant, pastel de nata, cheeses, bread roll, cold sliced ham and turkey ham, fresh cheese, fruit bowl, selection of cereal, scrambled eggs, sausages and bacon. As well as fresh orange juice and hot beverages. Honestly, for €9.50, I would expect much higher quality food. The croissant was actually brioche croissant. It would have been so much nicer if it was butter croissant. The scramble egg was over cooked and the mini sausages tasted like the cheapest jar sausages you can find from a supermarket. Surely it won't cost much more to have real frankfurters. The sliced ham and turkey also tasted like the cheapest kind from a supermarket. I was surely disappointed with the breakfast consider how good everyone said it is! Totally not worth it.

Overall, if you need to catch the flight early next morning, this is...

We were in Portugal for 2 weeks and stayed in Porto for 2 nights at the start of the trip. After heading to Lisbon and a few other towns, we came back to Porto for one night before our flight home. Since we were arriving back to Porto late in the evening and had a very early flight the next day, we wanted to stay somewhere near the airport to make our morning a bit easier. To be honest, there are not a lot of options near Porto’s airport. Of those available, Park Hotel was the closest to the airport and seemed the newest & nicest from the reviews we read.

On the location, it is fine if you are planning to stay there before flying out early the next day. It is directly across the street from the main terminal. There is a large intersection between the airport & hotel though, so the walk over is about 10 minutes as you have to go around that intersection. Also, while we didn’t test it, some of the sidewalks are kind of narrow, so if you have a lot of luggage in tow, the walk may be a bit annoying. But, there is a shuttle in the mornings, running once per hour. If you are planning to visit the city at all, and/or don’t have a very early flight, you might at least consider staying somewhere closer to the center. The metro runs to the airport, but is not very frequent at night and a taxi from the hotel to the center is about 20-25 EUR each way.

As for the hotel itself, it is fine. We are not talking the Four Seasons here, but the rooms were a decent size and were clean & adequately furnished (think of something slightly nicer than an Ibis). The bathroom was actually very nice. Very clean and new. To be honest, it almost seemed a bit out of place in the room.

Check-in was straightforward and the staff friendly.

Internet was good; I was getting more than 20 Mbps up & down.

There was no mini-fridge and I did not see a room safe (but I didn’t look for it either).

On the price…honestly, it was a bit high (~60 EUR). For the quality of the hotel, I would have expected it to be a bit cheaper, especially given how inexpensive Porto is overall (I could book something quite nice in the center for not much more than that).

Under similar circumstances, I would...

By far the most horrendous experience I have had in a hotel. I booked a night for two people, after the reservation was made I had to modify the reservation and needed to add a third person . I sent them an email with the request as there was no option to do it through the app ,and also after ringing several times they never answered the phone either

They replied promptly and explained they had the last room for 3 people and they needed confirmation and the difference to be paid on arrival at the check in time. I replied back confirming we wanted the room and to go ahead with the reservation we would pay on the check in.

We arrived at midnight after a nearly 3 hour drive, to be told that they could only check in 2 people, the room for 3 was never confirmed or booked and they were fully booked for the night so only 2 of us could stay. I rang all hotels nearby and of course all of them were also fully booked. I had no choice but to stay as I had a flight to cath early in the morning. Sadly ,my family had to drive all the way back home in the middle of the night. That is a 58 year old and a 75 year old in the middle of the night for 3 hours. I cannot even begin to tell how disgusted I feel about the way they treated us.I explained the situation but the receptionist could not care less and was not helpful at all,insisting he could only book 2 people in and gave us no solution. Absolutely outrageous and the worst customer care I have ever...