Quinta Physalis — Hotel in Ponta Delgada

This is going to be the review that will hopefully prevent you from booking a room with Quinta Physalis.||We had booked 6 nights and left after 3 (and a 15-minute shouting match over the phone with one of the owners).||For context: I'm someone who usually avoids confrontation and hates complaining. We’ve traveled for years without ever leaving a bad review. But this place managed to change that.||||From day one, we found ourselves lowering our expectations — especially when it came to hygiene — until we finally hit the floor.||The agreement between us and the owners was that we would receive a 50% refund for the 3 nights we did not stay and in turn we would not post any review about the place.||Since you can read these very lines, I'll let you take a guess on whether we received the promised refund.||||So, here's what brought us here:||||||First impressions? Damp.||||We arrived on Saturday, and upon entering our room, we were greeted by a strong moldy smell and the air dryer in one corner of the room.||The room and also the sheets felt moist, two of the ceiling lights were flickering (you better not be an epileptic, entering that room),||and in every corner lurked a spider or two, comfortably at home in their webs. Plus, there weren't enough towels for two people.||Upon pulling back the curtain from the street-facing window, the curtain rail crashed down on my girlfriend's head.||Wasn't a huge accident, but... unpleasant. The curtain rail wasn't mounted safely at all and would slide out of its mount, when pulling back the curtain.||With all that, we thought it was only fair to ask someone to please fix the curtain, lights and remove the spiders incl. their webs.||Thing is: Nobody was there. It took us 20 minutes to find the cleaning lady, who at least could help with the towels.||Hence, we sent a quick message to one of the owners (T.) and continued with our day on the island.||||We came back that evening, to find the curtain rail extended, so if you pulled back the curtain, one end of the rail would slam into the big beam that went across the ceiling, instead of sliding out of its mount.||Okay, not fixed, but at least it did not come crashing down. One of the two flickering lights had been disconnected, the other kept on flickering defiantly.||Spider webs were still there, including their inhabitants. The room was incredibly moist and since the window had been closed all day, the air was sticky and thick.||My girlfriend went on to search for a broom and removed the spiderwebs herself, while I engaged the air dryer and 15 mins later opened a window to let some fresh air in.||The air dryer was humming like a broken jet engine, there was no chance of finding any sleep, so we turned it off and went to bed.||We could not leave the street-facing window open either, since the cars and trucks that would go right by the window during the night were just too loud, rolling over the cobblestone.||This quickly made the air thick and sticky again. ||Since this is an old house, we could also hear every step of our upstairs neighbors (and later that night their snoring).||Something we realized was not in the owner's power to change, so we did not complain about it. But it is still worth the heads-up in this review.||||||Breakfast: The Culinary Low Point.||||The next morning, after letting the air dryer do its thing and letting some badly needed fresh air in, we went upstairs to have breakfast.||If there was ever a category for “most depressing way to start a day,” this place would be a strong contender.||||One type of toast - equally moist as our room - the cheapest juice, ham and cheese with almost no taste at all to them, and no real coffee (despite a capsule machine being present).||Instead, we were invited to use a jar of instant coffee and a small water boiler. ||The butter was shared between everyone, no individual portions. Just dig in with your own knife. The buffet counter was crawling with ants.||||I should add - before we went to Sao Miguel, we had stayed on two other azoric islands in similar accommodations - these were less expensive and had far better breakfast.||Okay, so I wanted to try the instant coffee.... trying one supposedly cleaned mug after another until I found a clean one to use.||In talking to the other guests at the breakfast table, they let us know that they always clean their plates, mugs and cutlery themselves before using them, as they knew they were not properly cleaned.||They also recommended bringing your own bread and things to put on it, instead of using what was provided.||Okay... so my girlfriend and I agreed to not complain (this breakfast wasn't gonna change and we already complained the day before - we did not want to overstretch it), and just pretend we didn't book breakfast and simply have breakfast in a nearby bakery from now on||(which sadly did not exist as we found out the next day - you have to go to Ribeira Grande or Capelas to find one).||||Security & hygiene issues? Yes, and yes.||||Fast forward to the next day, where we returned from our day trip in the afternoon.||There are two doors from the main hallway into our room: One directly into the bedroom, and one into the bathroom (from where you can get into the bedroom).||We arrived, tried very hard to ignore the omnipresent moldy smell, unpacked, went through a couple things and 10 minutes or so later, I needed to visit the bathroom.||Wondering why the door from the main hallway was wide open, I asked my girlfriend whether she had opened it - she had not.||Again we went on a 20-min search for someone who could explain, while in the midst of the day, the door to our room was wide open for anybody to step in.||After all, we had our passports, money, and some other valuable things in there. ||Eventually we found the cleaning lady, who explained she’d opened the door to let air pass through. Admirable intention — questionable execution. Leaving a room open and unattended for 30+ minutes is… bold (obviously, nobody knows for how long the door was actually open and unattended before we came back).||Anyhow - the cleaning lady unfortunately did not speak much English, so we just left things as they were and sent a note to Tiago that we'd love for this to not happen again, please.||Again we turned on the air dryer and once that was running for some 30 minutes, opened the window to let some fresh air in.||We went to sleep again, accompanied by the upstairs neighbor's footsteps and snoring. However, in the middle of the night we had to get up and open the window.||There was just no air in the room anymore. The air dryer might have produced dry air - but it did not produce fresh air - let alone cold fresh air.||What this room needed was an air conditioning unit (like literally every other place that we stayed with on the Azores did). But alas...||||Anyhow - the next morning (Tuesday) we woke up with 4 cockroaches in our room - a charming addition to the ecosystem. That was just the last (yet massive) straw.||I called T. and told him that this was unacceptable and that we were leaving and expecting a refund - he immediately agreed to that, but asked us to not leave a review.||Okay, agreed. ||10 Minutes later came the call from his partner — a man whose customer service approach could be generously described as "combative".||||He mainly asked (yelled) about the breakfast and whether we have had any. I said that we tried it the first day, but then did not have any breakfast anymore.||He asked why - frustrated about his yelling I told him because the breakfast they served was a joke. Apparently I struck a nerve with that statement. ||The guy continued to yell at me, that their breakfast is not a joke (it is), that it is high quality (it is not) and that the other guests found it lovely (they did not).||He went on and on and on about the breakfast and kept interrupting me every single time I tried to say something.||He finally stopped yelling for a moment, when I apologized for calling his beloved breakfast a joke and that we can agree that it was just not to our liking. ||That our main issue was with the room and the hygiene - as well as with the door being open and unattended the other day.||He replied (again, yelling) that they do not have a security problem (well, I beg to differ) - and that this was the Azores, and that humidity is normal.||Well, then why was this not a problem with any other place that we stayed (including the one we went to the very same day)? Why was there no air conditioning unit?||The cockroaches according to him were also entirely our fault, as apparently they came in from the street (-facing window), which we should not have opened.||Apparently choosing oxygen over suffocation was a mistake.||If this was a known problem, why did they not take any measures to prevent cockroaches from coming in? A slightly stronger mosquito-net in front of that window would have sufficed.||(Assuming the cockroaches indeed came in through the (just tilted!) window, and not through the door that was left wide open for god knows how long the day before).||The guy on the other end failed to see the problem. ||Also the question as to why there was a 3D-printer stored in our bathroom popped into my head, but I decided to let that one go, as it really wasn't in the way and we had bigger problems to solve.||So after 10 mins of further yelling back and forth, I told him "Look, we're going to leave now, as we have things planned for the day and now also have to find another place to stay - can we expect ||a refund of the remaining 3 nights that we do not stay here?". And he answered (and I quote): "Yes, because I am a fair guy".||Great, thank you.||So we packed and left.||||An hour later we received a message via booking.com, that the accommodation had been canceled. No refund. ||So via the chat we asked about the agreed-upon refund. They replied that they will refund 50% if we did not post a review and that they needed my bank information.||I asked whether they could not do it via the original payment method (which was my credit card). Answer was a vague "no, not possible".||We also demanded that the refund was processed until the end of the week, which they agreed to. This was Tuesday morning.||||We sent another message on Thursday asking when to expect the refund. No reply.||Another message on friday - again, ignored.||Then an SMS and a WhatsApp message on Saturday, telling them that no refund had shown up so far. And - you guessed it - we were not blessed with a reply that day either.||So on Monday morning I called T. - he took the call, and said he needed to check with accounting, which is either a euphemism for ghosting or a particularly unhelpful imaginary department.||Later that day I sent him another WhatsApp message, asking whether he had any update. No reply.||||Coming to realize that they had no intention of refunding us, I did not care about the money anymore and decided the public deserved a little warning.||||In case you were wondering - we found a much better place in Capelas, just 2km away. Only slightly more expensive, but a world apart: clean, professional, no cockroaches, no yelling, and yes — actual coffee.||||As for Quinta Physalis: if your idea of an authentic Azorean experience includes moist beds, sleeping with spiders and cockroaches, flickering lights, shared butter, security concerns, ghosted refunds and post-breakfast shouting matches — by all means, give it a go.||||In any case, I hope this review gives you a good idea of not only the accommodation itself, but also the business practices of the owners.||And, since we're long past the point of politeness - YES, YOUR BREAKFAST IS A...

Ah, Quinta Physalis. A stay so memorable, we left halfway through and still felt it was too long. We booked 6 nights at Quinta Physalis. Left after 3. That alone should tell you plenty — but here's the full story.

From the moment we walked in, it was clear something was off. The room smelled strongly of mold, and everything — sheets, air, walls — felt damp. A loud air dryer sat in the corner humming like a broken jet engine. Two ceiling lights flickered (epileptics beware!), and spiderwebs with live spiders decorated most corners. Towels for only one person. We pulled back the curtain and the rail fell on my girlfriend’s head. Not a huge accident, but still — unpleasant.

Nobody was around to help. After 20 minutes, we found the cleaning lady, who gave us towels. We messaged the owner (T.) to fix the rest.

When we came back later, the curtain rail had been extended so it no longer fell, one flickering light was disconnected, and everything else was left as-is — including spiders. The air was still musty and sticky, with no way to ventilate except opening the street-facing window. But that meant non-stop traffic noise over cobblestones — not ideal for sleep. Every step and snore from upstairs guests echoed loudly. (Not the owner’s fault, but still worth noting.)

Then came breakfast. Possibly the worst part. Toast, just as moist as our room, bland cheese and ham, shared butter (yes, one communal tub for everyone to dip into), and ants crawling across the buffet. The coffee machine was there, but not in use — instead, guests were invited to use instant coffee with a kettle. Other guests told us they brought their own bread and cleaned dishes before use because hygiene was so bad. We decided to skip breakfast going forward and eat elsewhere — a decision complicated by the lack of nearby cafés.

Then came security issues. We returned from a day trip to find the room door (which connects to the main hallway) wide open. No staff, no explanation, and our valuables — passports, money, electronics — inside. After another long search, the cleaning lady said she had left it open “to let air through.” Admirable intent, terrible execution.

Next night, same damp air. We turned on the dryer and cracked open the window for oxygen. The following morning, four cockroaches in our room. That was it. We called T., told him we were leaving. He apologized, said we’d get a 50% refund, and asked us not to leave a review. We agreed.

But then his partner called.

He spent 10+ minutes yelling at me for calling the breakfast “a joke.” (Sorry, but it was.) He kept interrupting, got aggressively defensive, blamed the cockroaches on us for opening the window (yes, we chose oxygen over suffocation!), and claimed this was “normal humidity” for the Azores. Funny — none of the other places we stayed at had this issue. They all had AC.

He eventually said, “I’m a fair guy — you’ll get your refund.” We packed and left.

Then… nothing. The listing was canceled on Booking. No refund appeared. We followed up — they claimed they’d send 50% if we didn’t post a review and asked for bank details instead of using our original payment method. We reluctantly provided them and asked for confirmation by Friday. They agreed.

Friday passed. Nothing. Messages ignored. Called again Monday. T. said he’d “check with accounting” — code for: that refund’s never coming. More messages. No reply.

At that point, we stopped caring about the money and decided people deserve a heads-up.

We found a FAR better place just 2km away in Capelas — only slightly more expensive, but infinitely better: clean, professional, quiet, with actual coffee, and zero cockroaches.

Quinta Physalis, on the other hand? If your idea of an “authentic Azores experience” includes moist beds, moldy air, spiders, cockroaches, flickering lights, open doors, shared butter, ghosted refunds, and aggressive phone calls — by all means, book it.

Otherwise, you’re better off...

It is located in a quiet sleepy village. Nothing really much to see or do in the area. It is not so bad though. However, some cars passing by the one way street drive so fast and it can be loud as the street is covered with cobblestones.||||Our room is in the attic hence it is nice and breezy in the morning and at night. In the afternoon, it can be a bit warm though. A few disadvantages of the room are the steep stairs and the bathroom which is in the ground floor. Late night visit to the bathroom can be a nightmare. Carrying your luggage is also not easy due to the stairs. The whole place is very clean though.||||The breakfast is simple and you can just help yourself as it is served in the dining area every morning. You can also eat outside on the terrace or garden, which is nice. You are also free to use the kitchen.||||They got cute dogs but if you are allergic to pets, it may not be good for you. Also, the stairs are not good for people with limited mobility.||||I think there are no perfect rooms as it is an old farm house. It is very nicely renovated and decorated though.||||We had our your own bathroom and it was clean. It is just outside our room and one used bathrobe has been hanging there the whole time. I wonder if it is...