Hotel Solar São Gabriel — Hotel in Porto

This hotel is very outdated. The rooms smell musty, people talk loudly in the corridors and in the outdoor area at the back of the hotel.||But that wasn't the worst. My friends and I arrived at the hotel around 12pm, we went to the small reception where it is locked, and you have to ring the bell for someone to open it for you.||Well, we were well received, the guy at reception was friendly in the Portuguese way. We parked the car right next door, and were informed that check in was only at 4pm. That was fine, as we would leave our things in the car and go for a walk.||We bought the hop on hop off ticket at the hotel reception, the guy explained to us where to go and everything. So far very helpful. He then said that when we returned he would no longer be there, but the room would be ready for the 3 of us, a triple room with breakfast.||We walked all day, and returned to the hotel around 10pm. A lady was at reception and welcomed us. She took our information and we went up. Arriving in the room, there was only a small, full size bed. I went down to reception and told the lady that there was a mistake there, as I had made a reservation for 3 people, two people could even sleep in a full Size bed. But the Third person would have nowhere to sleep. She said that the hotel was full and that she no longer had triple rooms. She was confused, and didn't know what to do. She called her colleague over the phone who had received us earlier, I don't know the conversation. But soon she came to say that she had a guest who was alone in a triple room and that she would ask to remove a bed from this guest's room. But the room that was available to us was very small and there was no room for another bed. She was totally lost and didn't know what to do.||She then asked one of us to help her move the bed from one room to the other. I have heart disease and other health problems, so I couldn't carry anything heavy. It was then that she opened the other guest's room, my friend and I right there outside the door. The guest was not in the room, and the suitcases were open, clothes were on the beds, and other items were scattered around the room. When I saw that, I asked her not to touch it, as it was an invasion of privacy, as the guest had left everything open and if it were me I wouldn't like it and I would call the police, as they invaded my room. Even so, she began to remove the guest's clothes from the bed she was going to transfer. I was Very tired, and horrified by what was happening, I started to feel very sick. I had to be helped quickly by my friends. And even so, the lady brought the bed to our room, where it was very close to each other, with only 10 inches between the beds. My friends had to call my doctor in Canada because I wasn't well. And I didn't want to call an ambulance, because I didn't want to ruin my friends' vacation and be in a hospital out of my country. But my friends, together with my doctor on the phone, managed to calm me down and medicate me according to my doctor's instructions.||The next day, I couldn't get out of bed, as I wasn't feeling well yet, and that would be the only day I would have to tour around Porto, so in other words I lost a day of vacation due to the hotel's mistake.||When I went to question the guy who checked us in the day before about what had happened. He said “a family of 3 people checked in and he didn't have a triple room at the time, so he took the bed out of our room to give it to the family, and forgot to put a bed back in the room”, that didn't happen It doesn't even make sense, because why would he take it from one room to put it in another, since as he said, he had an extra bed in the storage but forgot to put it back in my room. Yes, something that didn’t impressed me, because his reasoning wasn't the best, since he thought that way.||The only thing that was said to me. “I'm sorry for what happened, there's nothing I can do now, because it's already over, and what happened has no return and there's no way to compensate for what has been lost”, I was shocked by his response. I had no more arguments I was just tired. I went back to the room to rest, and leave early the next day.||||But what I really have to say is don't stay at this hotel. Old, smells bad, loud, dark and dangerous street. Avoid this hotel as much as possible. Also staff not very...

Very pleasant hotel. Welcoming staff: the breakfast staff as well as the front desk. The room was spacious and clean, loved their slim comforters/duvets, etxra covers in big closet, no safe in a room, but the hotel stores your luggage if you need to check out but want to explore. Hotel locks the main door all the time, which can be cumbersome if you always go in and out, but it does provide safety as random people would not be able to enter. We had a large window into the breakfast courtyard which was lovely. Small wall tv with many English channels. The bathroom was nice with shampoo and soap. Good water pressure, the only concern in our room - water was draining slower than pressure in shower head. So we had to turn the water off, lather, allow for water to drain a bit and turn on the shower again, otherwise we would have flooded the bathroom floor within minutes not crazy annoying but something to be aware off. We got lucky and the hallways and in general was quite at late hours. Hotel felt safe. Breakfast is not the biggest but you will not leave hungry. We asked the kitchen for a kettle and they were able to locate one which was incredible. We enjoyed our stay, this is a 2 star hotel with a fair price so one should expect a few imperfections. The beds were fine, no issues. There is a main shopping street on the next block, landromat on the same street a few doors down. There are supermarkets and stores through out with very cheap but tasty desserts. Our favorite was Pingo Doce which is a lighter version of Eately style store/cafeteria. It's about 5-7 min walk from hotel on your way from center, entrance is on Rua de Passos Manuel and exits right on the street of the hotel (Rua da Alegria). Has the best variety/selection from surrounding shops, cheapest from what we have seen: food, and Portugal chocolates as souvenirs (chocolate here ~€0.80-€3, in airport €10 can make a dent if you have a big crowd to...

Very pleasant hotel. Welcoming staff: the breakfast staff as well as the front desk. The room was spacious and clean, loved their slim comforters/duvets, etxra covers in big closet, no safe in a room, but the hotel stores your luggage if you need to check out but want to explore. Hotel locks the main door all the time, which can be cumbersome? if you always go in and out, but it does provide safety as random people would not be able to enter. We had a large window into the breakfast courtyard which was lovely. Small wall tv with many English channels. The bathroom was nice with shampoo and soap. Good water pressure, the only concern in our room - water was draining slower than pressure in shower head. So we had to turn the water off, lather, allow for water to drain a bit and turn on the shower again, otherwise we would have flooded the bathroom floor within minutes not crazy annoying but something to be aware off. We got lucky and the hallways and in general was quite at late hours. Hotel felt safe. Breakfast is not the biggest but you will not leave hungry. We asked the kitchen for a kettle and they were able to locate one which was incredible. There is a main shopping street on the next block, landromat on the same street a few doors down. There are supermarkets and stores through out with very cheap but tasty desserts. Our favorite was Pingo Doce which is a lighter version of Eately style store/cafeteria. It's about 5-7 min walk from hotel on your way from center, entrance is on Rua de Passos Manuel and exits right on the street of the hotel (Rua da Alegria). Has the best variety/selection from surrounding shops, cheapest from what we have seen: food, and Portugal chocolates as souvenirs (chocolate here ~€0.80-€3, in airport €10 can make a dent if you have a big crowd...