Hotel Genesis — Hotel in Ourém

Strange that the reviews are a couple of years old, with no new ones. Fortunately I decided to ignore the average and below average ratings on TripAdvisor or we would have missed this gem! ||||For us there was only one 'con' and it is that the hotel is not easy to find, especially by car as our Garmin GPS did not seem to be able to find it. Detailed information on how to find the hotel would have been appreciated with our reservation confirmation.||||It had been a long drive and the Garmin just kept directing us round and around in circles due to the numerous one-ways and narrow lanes. It was not easy to tell which road the GPS wanted us to take due to roads over an underpass, small roads that we felt would not be open to vehicles and one-way systems that appear to change regularly. After about half an hour of futile driving around Fatima we parked up at the end of the one-way road that the hotel is located in; I walked up to the hotel to get directions on how to access it by car.||||Both the young receptionist and the lady in the hotel gift shop were very pleasant and helpful. The older lady even coming out onto the road with me to explain which road to take. The receptionist does speak English, the older lady (the receptionist said she was her boss) explained to me patiently in French. She also later obligingly took me on a tour of the hotel, showing me the restaurant, told me the opening hours of the restaurant, showed me the way into it from inside the hotel, showed me the bar on the ground floor etc. I have to say the path to the hotel was not easy to locate as it did not appear, to us, to be a road for vehicles.||||The location for visiting the Sanctuary at Fatima is ideal and was only a few minutes walk away from the hotel.||||The Reception area smells wonderful. We checked in fairly quickly and took the lift up to our room. The perfume in the elevator is also wonderful. ||||The room size is adequate. We were only there for one night. The bathroom was clean and the shower was awesome. I loved the toiletries.. "Aromes de Portugal" I think is what it said on the toiletries.||||The bed was comfortable, so I do not know why the other reviewer had an issue with the bed. There is a TV in the room, however I do not think that any channels were in English. We were too tired to watch television in any case.||||We had dinner in the hotel's restaurant. They have a menu which is in English, if you don't speak Portuguese. Dinner was tasty and we found the wine very good. ||||One CAUTION: At dinner the waiter put onto the table a selection of bread, cheese, olives and other things. Be aware that these things are chargeable even though they do not tell you in advance! This is all over Portugal, so be aware. In France, if you are severed a pre-dinner plate, it is complimentary... therefore, though we were surprised at the number of items, we assumed that was the case here too. ||||We asked the waiter if this is normal to eat cheese BEFORE dinner, and were assured that this is normal in Portugal... no mention of the additional costs, even though we were obviously tourists who had no idea. Those un-requested extras put up our bill by 10 EUROS!||||BOTTOM LINE : We would stay there again if we visited Fatima again and would heartily recommend it to friends, with the caution to be aware of the hidden costs at dinner. Even my husband who usually wants a minimum of 4**s agreed that I had done well in choosing the...

Firstly, I shall start with the pros. There was free wi-fi in the room and a very good selection of TV channels (around 30) although the TV reception for some channels weren't so good. Room and bathroom were clean. The hotel had a free, private open-air carpark. Location was good - 3 minutes' walk to the Sanctuary and near restaurants. The price per night was below €20 during this peak period, which was the reason we chose the hotel.||||Unfortunately, the cons outweigh the pros in this hotel. Staff were not that friendly (unlike the other hotels in Fatima), the carpet in the room was dirty, the room had nowhere to put our luggage unless we wanted to put the luggage on the floor or on the writing table. Either place would have inconvenienced us greatly so we ended up stuffing our small bag in the wardrobe! The worst part was the very lousy sound isolation in the room. Granted that most hotels in Portugal have poor sound isolation but this was terrible. We heard very, very clearly the toilet above our room being flushed and the water noisily running down the plumbing. Disgusting!||||Breakfast selection was poor but the thing that took away my appetite was witnessing the staff use a cloth to wipe the table where the food was and immediately after, use the same cloth to wipe the dirty, stained floor (black footprints were clearly visible) where some coffee had dripped onto! She went back to the kitchen, came back in a jiffy and continued to wipe the food table with the same cloth!! Given the time that she had taken, she would have probably just given the cloth a cursory rinse instead of a thorough washing. This kind of hygiene is so not acceptable especially when it comes to dealing with food for consumption. I would have at least expected her to use a separate cloth or a mop for the floor. Terrible! I rated cleanliness as 'poor' because of this incident.||||Suffice to say, we shall not stay at this hotel again. It is, without a doubt, the worst hotel that we have stayed...

We traveled in a group. Room and bathroom were clean. 3 minutes' walk to the Sanctuary. Staff were not that friendly, maybe because they were overworked. Never saw a smile on there faces and they looked tired all the time. The room had nowhere to put our luggage, there was small wardrobe. The worst part was the very lousy sound isolation in the room. You could hear every word which was said in the rooms adjoining, the flushing of toilets, the noise of the people getting up early morning. Breakfast was very basic, all four days we were in this hotel, we got the one same menu for breakfast and one same menu for dinner. Hygiene is lacking very much in the restaurant, We got this treatment maybe because we were in group and it was too much...