Old City Design Apartments — Hotel in Porto

We turned up at 11am and stood in the rain for 30 minutes trying both phone numbers (15 calls) on the door - one said disconnected and the other went straight to voicemail. Our booking said ‘the front desk would be open at 11’. There is no front desk.| The apartment is opposite an abandoned carpark which is home to many homeless people including several who approached us for money. I was glad I (female) was there with my male partner. |Another guest finally let us in and I found a cleaner in one of the apartments who managed to message the owner. He said he was in meetings and couldn’t let us in until 3pm. The cleaner let us leave the bags in our room and we went to find lunch. When we came back at 3pm there was still no one there to meet us. I rang the owner (again) and he answered, didn’t apologise for not being available. He then texted me the door numbers and told us to go in. I don’t know why he didn’t do that earlier.| The apartment was supposed to have a Queen and double bed. The queen bed was a fold down from the ceiling and incredibly uncomfortable and the double was a sofa bed. The apartment was cramped and to get into bed you had to brush past the dining table. |The bathroom was dirty with previous guests hair on the floor. The wifi didn’t work, the room was run down and the aircon is above the front door away from the bed/lounge room. We stayed long enough to book ourselves another room in a hotel. The owner had no idea we left until he texted me asking to leave money for the tourist tax. We felt unsafe, uncomfortable and that the owner doesn’t care about guests - just his current job in an office and getting money from the apartment with minimal effort. It is not worth booking...

We turned up at 11am and stood in the rain for 30 minutes trying both phone numbers (15 calls) on the door - one said disconnected and the other went straight to voicemail. Our booking said ‘the front desk would be open at 11’. There is no front desk. The apartment is opposite an abandoned carpark which is home to many homeless people including several who approached us for money. I was glad I (female) was there with my male partner. Another guest finally let us in and I found a cleaner in one of the apartments who managed to message the owner. He said he was in meetings and couldn’t let us in until 3pm. The cleaner let us leave the bags in our room and we went to find lunch. When we came back at 3pm there was still no one there to meet us. I rang the owner (again) and he answered, didn’t apologise for not being available. He then texted me the door numbers and told us to go in. I don’t know why he didn’t do that earlier. The apartment was supposed to have a Queen and double bed. The queen bed was a fold down from the ceiling and incredibly uncomfortable and the double was a sofa bed. The apartment was cramped and to get into bed you had to brush past the dining table. The bathroom was dirty with previous guests hair on the floor. The wifi didn’t work, the room was run down and the aircon is above the front door away from the bed/lounge room. We stayed long enough to book ourselves another room in a hotel. The owner had no idea we left until he texted me asking to leave money for the tourist tax. We felt unsafe, uncomfortable and that the owner doesn’t care about guests - just his current job in an office and getting money from the apartment with minimal effort. It is not worth booking...

LOVE IT!! They thought of everything! Nice apartments with keyless entry, which is sooo nice because the people in your group can split off and go to different places without worrying about who has the key; they have comfortable beds, nice kitchen (equipped with a coffee maker and coffee which I loved!) nice bathroom, they even have an iPhone in the room that you can use while you're there which is especially nice if you're visiting from out of the country and don't have international minutes on your cell phone. You can have breakfast delivered to your room but keep in mind that because they are apartments, not a hotel, and meant to be used the way you would you're own apartment breakfast and housekeeping services are available, but NOT included in the daily rate. They have umbrellas you can use while you're there, you can contact the very kind and helpful staff members via WhatsApp (call or text) in addition to phone or email. We were arriving late, so the keyless entry afforded us the chance to have a late arrival without worrying about a staff member needing to be there to check us in - they just emailed us all the info and key codes. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND...