HD - Duecitânia Design Hotel — Hotel in Penela

Dear Duecitania owners,|Your hotel is magnificent and I LOVE it. The architecture, the details, the workmanship are superb. Your natural pool and surroundings are stunning, and, very importantly, your staff are lovely, nice, helpful.|Ah yeah, also the spa!||Unfortunately, you need to look for another chef and another maintenance manager. Why change them?||Because food and hospitality require love: love of taste, love of detail, love of choice, love of attention to detail.||Because maintenance needs love for things that work, are clean, have square angles where required.||And the love is lacking in the food and in the maintenance.||1. We arrive in our room on the 3rd floor; the wifi is abysmal, the fridge does not work, the water pressure is miserable, and the towel racks need to be tightened and squared up.||And in the spa, the barrier to walk down into the jacuzzi must be put back in, the sauna and the vienne shower are still not working since last time we came. Also, can men with long feet have appropriate slippers?||Your maintenance manager (if you have one) does not walk around looking at what works and does not work. And does not teach your staff to do the same and tell him or her “hey the towel rack in room 314 needs tightening “. There is no love.||2. For a place like the Duecitania, the menu is really poor. And the quality of the food average. The cheeses/sausages in the mixed platter do not honour the richness available in Portugal, the chicken in the (very small) Cesar salad is sad and dry. The bread of the hamburgers equals in quality what is found at McDo.||When we arrive at breakfast, there is no brown bread. Yes, it comes just later. But why do we have to wait? Same with the bacon.. arrives later. And why have to ask the staff to cut the grapes bunches into manageable sizes?|| Here as well, the chef does not care and does not teach the staff how a well managed restaurant runs. No love.||So, please, get your act together. It is not difficult, if you...

Visiting again as quite good price taking into consideration what services can offer and to compare with nearby, much poorer accommodations either bigger or private settings. Continental breakfast with good choice of cereals and sprinkles, sweet starters or ends, fruits, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, backed York- type bacon, cold meat and few tyres of cheeses. Tasty coffees and teas. Variety of bread, pastries, etc. Place for kids to enjoy their time. Staff very nice as always but a bit delayed during breakfast with filling up disappearing food. But acted immediately when asked for These were cons😉 Now.. bad points: be prepared that if wanting to use pool or jacuzzi you either need to have your own swimming cup or pay €3 to buy at reception- no warning during reservation process. Room (at least the one we stayed in) quite dated with not nice spots on the carpets, mould on walls, running water on windows . Booked Superior room but no face mirror next to big one in bathroom. Gaps between the bath and wall. Not properly fitted toilet sit. White stool in bathroom would benefit from proper scrub. But actually you can expect more taste from the interior design and furniture used (see photos)- total miss-match. Nothing "Roman". Horrible plastic, hard chairs. Modern table lamp.. The Hotel would do, not necessarily with expensive designer, but someone who knows the basics. Yeah, and the safe box 😂 Inside one of the cupboards but.. NOT fixed- a theft doesn't need to break in into it- the whole box can be...

A bit of an odd hotel, really wanted to like this place but couldn't for the following reasons:

1. Food staff are the same people who checked you in. Everything is very slow, around 90 minutes for ordering, one main course each and to leave. Staff are friendly and look like they are doing the best with what little they have. Worst waiting times I've ever experienced.

2. After the very long wait, food is absolutely nothing to shout about. I had steak with chips. Steak was somehow well done in parts and rare in others, absolute 0 seasoning on anything. Fries consisted of 5 thick cut chips (these were pretty good). Partner had some fish dish which consisted of lots and lots of bones. 2 mains, 2 drinks. Around 40 euro. Worst value for money meal I've ever had... In my entire life.

Hotel rooms themselves are fine, a bit dusty in parts and in need of some repair. Bathroom was pretty special and the View was spectacular. Pool is good, Turkish bath smelled of sweaty socks but overall OK, no entry unless you have a swimming cap (never had this issue at any other hotel)

And lastly, breakfast. Once again, poor! Cakes are dry, bacon is meh. But scrambled eggs are unbelievably terrible. So much salt in the eggs that your gasping for water 2 hours down the line.

An absolute shame that food (dinner and breakfast) ruined what could have been an OK hotel (far...