Rivoli Cinema Hostel — Hotel in Porto

I rarely write nor read negative reviews, particularly related to money or booking. I will no longer be doing that… If even just one future traveler is potentially spared an experience like mine here, I will be glad.

Summary: An extremely distressing experience due to the front desk workers’ incompetence and attitude, hostel’s lack of staff-to-staff communication, and lack of electronic payment system and record keeping. Tried taking my money twice and I was treated like I was stupid and a liar, despite having a logical case and surveillance footage showing that I paid. What a horrible headache and frustration, and loss of time as well as money. A triple jab to end a trip.

More details: Checked in March 5th, informed that I needed to pay remainder of booking as only part of it was covered when booking online. Understood. I returned with cash and paid in full on March 6th, as they apparently do not accept card payments in-house. Thought that was the end of it… I should have been given a receipt. Instead, I was given a mere false sense of confidence that all was good on my end.

Attempted check-out on March 8th at 3-4am as I had an early flight. Instead, I was informed that I had not yet paid… What? Where had my money gone then? I reviewed the surveillance footage with them, where we did see the money exchange occur. Worker said I only gave $5 as they said that’s the only bill denomination that they could confidently determine in the video (yet a couple coins were handed back (this was the change expected because the full booking price did not land on an exact integer)… firstly, in what world would I apply only $5 towards a much larger booking cost? and then ask for some odd change back, so that less than $5 could be applied toward the booking?). The worker then said that they could text the worker that had handled the payment in the video… like as though at 4am, someone would be expected to promptly respond and remember the exact sum a guest had already paid two days prior while apparently also having no physical or digital record of it.

At this point, I was in quite an ordeal of frustration, given a tight traveling timetable ahead, and I was in emotional shambles by the time I was dismissed by the worker. No apology, kindness, or empathy given.

This worker knowingly caused me to miss my $14 pre-booked Uber, caused a 25 minute delay, in addition to incurring an automatic $8 Uber cancellation fee. I then also had to book yet another $15 Uber to get to the airport. (To add insult to injury… and address that particular worker at checkout. No, I did not get a refund for these losses/misses- contrary to what that worker said would happen. I’ve used Uber for years, so thanks for the haughty patronization, hollow tonality, and lie on top of everything else already breaking my heart at that point.)

I would never stay here again and will continue to caution and dissuade all travelers against it across every platform I can find until the owner or manager makes this right. I will also be reporting such business practices in full extent to whatever business bureaus are in Porto and Portugal as a whole. I would never want another traveler to be treated as such and to experience this as a sour end to an otherwise...

This is not a safe place! Especially if you are a solo traveler. If anything bad happens to you,this hostel would not help you, nor take any responsibility and actually would not care at all. That was exactly what happened to me when staying with them.||||I booked a mixed room for 5 nights. One night, in the middle of my stay, a sexual harrasment happened in my room conducted by one of the man staying in the same room. He got very drunk. In the middle of the night he started to shout, laugh and finally....masturbated (in a shared room). I was scared to death, my bed was just in front of his, I was sacred he would rape me or hurt me in another way. Suddenly, he went close to the window, and I could hear he was urinating on the floor, on my shoes.. I used the moment that he was across the room to get up and ran out as fast as I could to inform the reception about the incident. I spent the rest of the night in the reception area, was too frightened to go back to the room, I begged them to find something else for me, saying that after all of this, I would not go back to the room. I was asked to pack my belongings as they would check with a manager what they could do for me. On the next day I got the message saying that this man had checked out, and I was offered to stay in the exact same room, in the same bed...or I could leave if I didn't like the idea of staying there...||||I booked a room in a different place, as I felt disgusted with their behavior. The hostel failed to refund me ANY money for my unused bookings and my destroyed shoes. What was even worse, they never said or charged anything to this man. Nobody called the police. The man ate breakfast and was permitted to check out as if nothing happened. After few days of back and forth with the hostel, they offered that I could cancel the reservation overall to claim a refund - meaning I would not be able to give a review of the place... I refused and decided to give an honest review that this is NOT a safe place to stay, especially for women who...

The rooms are great, have curtains to have privacy and and lights being switched on. Each bed comes with a built in shelf to pop items in neatly and conveniently. The plugs were also located well so that irrespective of cable length you could plug in anything you wanted knowing it would charge. The rooms were a bit difficult to get into as the room cards were very fiddly and particular way to make them work on the 3/4th attempt. Bathroom is small but clean and well built. None in common area however. The common area is a little run down and the sofas didn't look very clean. The kitchen was clean and the breakfast spread was simple but very good, with bread and a few different spreads and jams, and some cheese and ham slices. 2-3 cereal choices and coffee and orange juice to choose from. The rooftop area was not very pleasant to sit on during the day as the bar has all of the cushions and opens in the evening. The swimming pool is a nice touch, more of a plunge pool to cool off at around 8ft wide and about knee depth, and has fantastic views from that height, you can see all over the city and is gorgeous at night. You get a discount at the bar, meaning drinks are very reasonable at the bar and a fantastic atmosphere in the evening to hang out in The staff are friendly and helpful.

For the price it was really worth it and would...