InterContinental Porto - Palacio Das Cardosas by IHG — Hotel in Porto

This was a special and once in a lifetime trip for our 10 year wedding anniversary and my 60th birthday. It was ruined by having to stay in this hotel. I was embarrassed in front of my wife for booking this hotel. This hotel is almost uninhabitable.

This was the worst hotel stay I have had in hundreds of hotel stays in my life. The hotel website does not mention the incredibly loud and intrusive construction going on, right in front of the hotel. On top of the myriad issues the construction caused, there were other issues.

There was little to no air conditioning. The room was very warm, and we could not get the AC to turn on most of the time. When it did, it did not cool the room down at all. A maintenance person explained something about how the outside temperature was overwhelming the ability of the AC to cool the rooms. All I know is the room was hard to sleep in due to the temperature, and we did not get one night of good sleep during a 5 night stay.

The car traffic due to the construction right in front of the hotel makes taxi/Uber pickup and drop off dangerous and difficult.

The foot traffic due to the construction right in front of the hotel is overwhelming, and unsafe. There were hordes of people near the front entry of the building due to the construction.

Due to the construction in the front of the building we were told sometimes to exit in the back of the building to reach certain parts of the city. We'd walk through a maze of homeless and drug users in the back alley of the hotel. Very dangerous.

The room was not very clean.

Our safe broke with my passport locked inside! But it was fixed quickly.

The bathroom sink backed up due to a clog.

The shower stall had broken handles inside it. I could go on.

When I complained after our stay, they did not reply. When I followed up, 8 days later, they said a manager would contact me, and they added 20,000 points to my IHG account. According to NerdWallet's analysis, 20,000 IHG points are worth about $140. That is an offensive offer after they destroyed 6 days/5 nights of vacation. Those are important memories lost and ruined. This hotel should be closed until the construction is completed.

A manager did call me eventually, and left me a voicemail. At that point I was already back in the U.S. and a phone call would be diffcult, and I was too busy catching up on work to waste time on a phone call. I asked them to email me if they had any reply or solution, but I never heard back.

I am going to write off my 5 nights in Porto. Bottom line is DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL UNTIL CONSTRUCTION IS COMPLETE! I hear that may not be until 2025! If you want to enjoy Porto, and a have safe and quiet stay, pick...

Myself and my wife stayed at InterContinental Porto - Palacio das Cardosas for a night as part of my wife’s birthday celebrations. The location is superb, ideally situated to explore wonderful Porto on foot. I should mention that there is major construction taking place to the metro, looks terrible however we did not hear anything in the room and there was no issue with it at all. InterContinental Porto - Palacio das Cardosas is set in a renovated 18th-century palace, a lovely feeling of luxury on entering the reception area plush deep pile carpet that sinks underfoot. The interior is top of the range, beautiful floral arrangements, with impressive Swarovski chandeliers illuminating the marbled floors.

The check-in was okay and fast with a professional attitude, run of the mill service, staff slightly cold and impersonal.

Our room was a premium room on the fourth floor a nice big room, very clean, comfortable, quiet, with good facilities coffee maker, and well stocked minibar. Bed was of great quality. On the down side unfortunately the room lights were incredibly poor, disappointed about the inadequate lighting, far too dimly lit. No full length mirror present in the room, although there was one concealed in the wardrobe door, but annoyingly whilst the door was open the wardrobe light made a buzzing/humming noise very frustrating! It was nice to have a single armchair in the room to place stuff on but would off preferred hooks in the room to hang our wet jackets up. The airconditioning wasn't strong or cold enough. The bathroom was a good size with a big sink with plenty of counter space, separate toilet and a walk-in rain shower but found the water pressure to be poor. Bathroom products on offer were Bal d'Afrique from Byredo, a scent I really like.

Enjoyed drinks at the classy Bar das Cardosas such a pleasant bar, a relaxing place to sit with a beer accompanied by excellent service.

Breakfast was satisfactory with nothing really outstanding the variety of breakfast was not good enough, it was served in the Astoria restaurant which had a beautiful and decadent atmosphere but the food was not that typical of an InterContinental. The coffee during breakfast was undrinkable.

It's has been a very mixed experience, a perfect location, but this InterContinental hotel felt a step down, not the best from most that I have...

Worst 5* hotel I’ve ever stayed at.

Construction was happening right outside the hotel 24/7. I understand this is unavoidable and not the hotel’s fault, but they made no effort to try and make the stay better. There was no notification prior to the trip to inform us, all they did was give us ear plugs and expect everything to be ok. The construction was happening 24/7 (all through the night). It was impossible to sleep. On complaint, the reception didn’t even seem to care. We heard many guests complaining about the noise.

On arrival, the reception staff is very rude - they were doing multiple things whilst trying to check us in, we had to repeat our name 3 times to the reception staff because they kept on getting distracted. The concierge were also very unwelcoming, didn’t say hello once.

The room was ok. However on the first night, we came back to the room & it smelt of cigarette smoke. We informed reception & they were already aware this happened (it was due to the connected ventilation system from next door). How can you give us a room knowing it came with this fault. Especially if we are non-smokers, the smell is unbearable. The room was badly ventilated in general, very humid and stuffy.

The shower pressure is also terrible, it was like a slow dripping tap. It took me twice as long just to take a shower.

The breakfast is also quite bad - flies were swarming the breakfast buffet and the waiters did nothing about it. The coffee is also filter coffee, not from a machine.

The bar is very nicely decorated, drinks are also ok. But the bar snacks they gave were beyond terrible. The crisps were stale, the grapes were all black. I don’t know how they have the nerve to serve this to customers.

I definitely would not expect this many faults from a 5* hotel, especially from a hotel such as The Intercontinental.

Porto is such a lovely city but the hotel stay definitely ruined the trip for me. The only thing that has earned a 1 star from me is the location - it is close to the centre and restaurants, and convenient to visit...