Hotel Santa Maria - Fátima — Hotel in Ourém

A disappointment, from start to finish. At arrival my husband stopped to ask directions to the parking lot and eventhough it was night and freezing, they refused to let us park before all the family had been checked in - including the baby, that needed to be removed and replaced in the car, which was a hassle on its own. There are no signals poitning to where the parking lot is, and the description given by the employee was vague, which led us to the wrong place and the need to back up the car on a one way 50º inclination entry that almost cost the car it's gear box. Once we got to the room, the bins hadn't been emptied, there were wrappers on the unvaccumed floor, and the bathroom tiles looked filthy and precariously attached to the wall - which can be seen on the attached photos. The exhaust system also wasn't working, which led to a stay perfumed by baby poop - how agreeable. The New Year's Eve dinner was closed by 21h30 with the excuse of "not disrupting the local public celebrations" that were supposed to take place in the basilica square, according to the hotel employees - but took place elsewhere. Don't ask me where, I couldn't find them. The vegetarian options included a salad buffet that managed to have 8 dishes of which 4 had either ham, cod fish or chicken added to them, and the rest consisted of lettuce and cheese (which means I would have had one fewer option If I were a vegan), lettuce, chopped cucumbers, chopped tomatoes (that looked like they'd been there for a while, maybe chopped hours before the meal started) and shaved carrots. Warm vegetarian dishes included boiled cauliflower, brocolli and the occasional sparse carrot piece - and nothing else. Deserts were made up of custards, fruit, merengue or cake - again, a complete disregard for any vegan guests. At midnight we were forced to retire to our room, since we couldn't lcoate the local celebration, and my hisband tried to buy some beverages from the hotel bar, so we could have a toast in the room - the server was busy calmly filling the glasses of a table of tourists and asked my husband to "be understanding because he was working alone" and wait. My husband told him he'd slip upstairs to give me a kiss at midnight and come back for the drinks, only to return and find the bar closed - and our drinks and the server nowhere to be found. To his credit, he reopened the bar and eventually gave us the drinks, for a New Year's toast me and my husband enjoyed at 1h15. To make matters worse, the stay had been gifted to us by famaily staying at another room, but the note that we were not supposed to be charged the next day was only entered into one of the rooms, which prompted a whole new thing at check-out, because we had to "pay right here, sir, that's how the hotel works. You stayed, you pay", in the words of the less than friendly desk clerk. All in all, a big disappointment that I...

The lobby is well decorated and felt welcoming. Had plenty of seating area. The atmosphere felt like a 4 star hotel. ||The room has sufficient space. While the decor needs improvement. It was clean. The bathroom was good, except for the bath having a shower curtain. While taking a shower, the curtain kept blowing in, significantly reducing the space. It was very difficult to avoid. Other guests in our tour received two complimentary bottles of water. Our room did not. I called the front desk for the bottles of water. Also asked for extra towels. They never came up. Fail. ||The bed was adequate. Sheets were mediocre in softness. The A/C was on all night, set to the coldest setting. It never got cool. We didn’t have a good nights sleep. Another fail. ||Breakfast was included in our rate. They had plenty of selections for espresso and coffee. Food tasted average:|Scrambled eggs|Bacon|6 different juices|Fruits: pineapple, kiwi, watermelon, grapes and others. |Many different kinds of breads. The best and highlight were the seeded croissants. These were excellent. ||Upon arrival, we were told that the Hotel Santa Maria is a 4 star hotel. It clearly did not meet expectations. A couple of good notes, but overall an average to...

Location was close in proximity to the Basilica, so that was convenient. We were with a tour group that paid for "luxury" level rooms. Our group of 4 ended up in a standard adjoining rooms, that were mildly better than a hostel, instead of two Superior level rooms. Beds were hard and pillows were tiny and well used. While the Bathrooms were large, they lacked the luxury touches and did not have personal wash/body cloths. The room had very few outlets for charging items. I would definitely make sure you book a "Superior" level room. Stuffy Room temperatures could not be changed from heat to air conditioning because the entire system is run by the hotel. We had to open a window to let in cooler air. Morning breakfast buffet was decent. They did not have 'take-away' cups for...