Porto Palácio Hotel by The Editory — Hotel in Porto

I booked 2 rooms on the same reservation, as we travelled with friends - another couple. We were expecting some luxury at this so called 5 star hotel, sadly we've stayed a much much better 4 star hotels! We booked based on previous reviews and we struggled to understand their rave ratings.||RECEPTION: To begin with the staff at reception got my back up, which wasn't a great start. Cold, detached, and smirky. He took great pleasure in a sadistic way informing our friends that they would be receiving an upgrade (turned out this wasn't just a simple one step up upgrade but a quadruple one). They had evidently oversold rooms and therefore had to provide them with the penthouse (We were given our standard room as booked). It was NOT nice that we were treated in very different ways and separated, and it wasn't about the rooms, just the principle of it all. (Just to state that having seen the penthouse room we were just as unimpressed so this isn't a sour grapes review. Whilst the space is obviously huge, it was just as dark and dismal as our standard room, and service of tea facilities, USB etc was just the same).||We weren't informed of important matters at check-in, very poor in this regard - such as how to use the lift (room key needs to be scanned upon entering the lift), breakfast times and location. |The receptionist we dealt with the following day, only perked up and became friendly and hospitable when we stated we wanted to purchase tickets for the 'hop on, hop off' bus. (I hate to say but maybe the commission Kerching sound went off in her head which brought a smile to the fore)||One nice thing was we were all provided as standard a voucher for a welcome drink of port, in the roof bar.||ROOMS: Very dark and dated. It's almost impossible to see light switches as they are also dark on dark wood. Carpet stained. Hairdryer in bathroom is extremily heavy, like drying your hair with a brick. Hooks in bathroom were loose, door handle of WC fell off. Just everything needs updating. |There is a kettle provided and very small cups, however the tea / coffee was stingy. We were provided with 2 small pods of milk, 1 regular teabag, 1 chamomile teabag, 1 regular coffee sachet and 1 decaf. So if 2 of you would like the same drink, it's not possible! These are also not restocked properly. It took 2 days to replenish items. Instead of a luxury feel, it felt more like they were begrudging providing this service.|There are only 2 electrical sockets in the room - neither beside the bed. No USB charging ports. Again showing how dated this hotel is.||The only nice thing in the room was the robe & slippers. There was no turn down service, no special little touches.||WIFI in the hotel was very poor and unreliable.||BREAKFAST: The waitresses were lovely, tried hard, were friendly, and interacted well, the waiters not so much.|Choices were limited. There was just one very very slow, grill type toaster for the whole restaurant. Hot drinks were served, so had to summon staff for refills. Pastries and bread were ice cold as if taken out the fridge / freezer, waffles were hard, none of this felt fresh. ||POOL: There is an indoor pool and jacuzzi included for guests use (swim caps a must). It is located at -2 in the basement. Both the pool area and changing rooms desperately need updating, damaged flooring, and just the general feel is of public baths rather than 5 star luxury. There is a sauna and steam room also but these are in the changing rooms and therefore single sex. We didn't use them, the whole environment just felt yucky. |Pool towels provided are tiny! Loungers are hard plastic, just very basic.||LOCATION: Not great, further out than anticipated. Limited restaurants in the vicinity if you don't want hotel dining. We got Uber's back from the center of town which were not expensive.|||ALL IN ALL - there was nothing shouting 'luxury' about this hotel, nothing making us feel spoilt, which as we had anticipated a 5 star, luxurious environment we were left totally disillusioned and wishing we had booked elsewhere. Would not return, and would not recommend to anyone. My husband wanted to give this stay 1 star, but I generously...

I am very saddened to write this review because I was so excited to stay at this hotel with my partner, but our stay was incredibly disappointing. This is not a one-star review because one thing went wrong, but it’s a one-star review because we had issues in almost every single area. Please check my review history, I never leave poor reviews and am usually so thrilled with my experiences.

We arrived at the hotel and were fortunately able to check in one hour early. This was where our luck ran out, as we arrived to our room to find stained carpets, broken fixtures, a Chromecast that did not work and a bathtub that would not drain (and also leaked through the wall onto the toilet paper rolls in the adjacent bathroom). We went down to reception to let them know, to which they replied that they would call a technician to have him make these repairs. That sounded nice, but we had to wait in our room for him to come, which took close to two hours. And when he came, he not only had no idea how to fix the TV issues, but he deemed the Chromecast “fixed” when we reached a new menu screen that we had previously not seen. He then left, stating that he had other rooms to take care of and would fix the bathtub in 1-2 hours.

We went down to reception to let them know about this and ask to switch to a different room. They obliged, but let us know that they needed the room as soon as possible for a new guest, so they asked us how quickly we could be out. We then rushed to re-pack our things and be transferred to another room — not very relaxing. We were also supposed to have a concierge meet us at our room to help us move, but the reception desk did not answer our many calls to let them know we were ready, so we had to take all of our luggage back down to the first floor to receive our new key and move ourselves into a new room.

In this new room, the Chromecast was also non-functional and the carpets were even more stained. We decided to cut our losses and not complain again. When we tried to crawl into bed, we were engulfed with the chemical smells of the bleach they use for their sheets. Nice to know they were clean, but it was overpowering and irritating. Throughout our stay we were met with more problems — an awful wifi connection, AC not strong enough and the need to buy swimming caps to use the spa facilities (where the cold showers were both non-operational, and no one was wearing the caps anyway).

When we checked out, the hotel surprised us with an additional 30 euro charge — on top of the 24 euro tourist tax! They said that we had not been charged the right amount when we checked in, but upon asking for the invoice, we found they were also trying to double charge us for the swimming caps we had already paid for. The front desk worker then said he’d be unable to give us our total invoice, but eventually did when we mentioned that we were not impressed. Overall, I do not recommend this hotel at all. I do not believe it is a 5 star hotel — it was so awful. Please save yourself the headache of booking this hotel and book elsewhere. It really left a damper on our otherwise great trip. We stayed at 3-star hotels in Lisbon and were looking forward to the relaxation and luxury of a 5-star in Porto, but this was anything but that.

And on top of all this, we were sent a feedback survey after one day, and we took that opportunity to voice all of our concerns. The form asked if we’d like to be contacted by a member of their service team, to which we said yes. We did not receive any contact. No attempt to improve our stay. Nothing at all. This is what you can expect from the Porto Palácio...

I am very saddened to write this review because I was so excited to stay at this hotel with my partner, but our stay was incredibly disappointing. This is not a one-star review because one thing went wrong, but it’s a one-star review because we had issues in almost every single area.||We arrived at the hotel and were fortunately able to check in one hour early. This was where our luck ran out, as we arrived to our room to find stained carpets, broken fixtures, a Chromecast that did not work and a bathtub that would not drain (and also leaked through the wall onto the toilet paper rolls in the adjacent bathroom). We went down to reception to let them know, to which they replied that they would call a technician to have him make these repairs. That sounded nice, but we had to wait in our room for him to come, which took close to two hours. And when he came, he not only had no idea how to fix the TV issues, but he deemed the Chromecast “fixed” when we reached a new menu screen that we had previously not seen. He then left, stating that he had other rooms to take care of and would fix the bathtub in 1-2 hours. ||We went down to reception to let them know about this and ask to switch to a different room. They obliged, but let us know that they needed the room as soon as possible for a new guest, so they asked us how quickly we could be out. We then rushed to re-pack our things and be transferred to another room — not very relaxing. We were also supposed to have a concierge meet us at our room to help us move, but the reception desk did not answer our many calls to let them know we were ready, so we had to take all of our luggage back down to the first floor to receive our new key and move ourselves into a new room.||In this new room, the Chromecast was also non-functional and the carpets were even more stained. We decided to cut our losses and not complain again. When we tried to crawl into bed, we were engulfed with the chemical smells of the bleach they use for their sheets. Nice to know they were clean, but it was overpowering and irritating. Throughout our stay we were met with more problems — an awful wifi connection, AC not strong enough and the need to buy swimming caps to use the spa facilities (where the cold showers were both non-operational, and no one was wearing the caps anyway).||When we checked out, the hotel surprised us with an additional 30 euro charge — on top of the 24 euro tourist tax! They said that we had not been charged the right amount when we checked in, but upon asking for the invoice, we found they were also trying to double charge us for the swimming caps we had already paid for. The front desk worker then said he’d be unable to give us our total invoice, but eventually did when we mentioned that we were not impressed. Overall, I do not recommend this hotel at all. I do not believe it is a 5 star hotel — it was so awful. Please save yourself the headache of booking this hotel and book elsewhere. It really left a damper on our otherwise great trip. We stayed at 3-star hotels in Lisbon and were looking forward to the relaxation and luxury of a 5-star in Porto, but this was anything but that.||And on top of all this, we were sent a feedback survey after one day, and we took that opportunity to voice all of our concerns. The form asked if we’d like to be contacted by a member of their service team, to which we said yes. We did not receive any contact. No attempt to improve our stay. Nothing at all. This is what you can expect from the Porto Palácio...