LUXa Charmhouse — Hotel in Sintra

Best thing I never had

TLDR: It was a bad experience and did not even make it inside the room. On top of it all, we were ghosted by the hotel staff.

We had seen all the negative reviews prior to booking, but even so we decided to give it a go - “it can not be that bad”, so we thought - the hotel decor was very charming after all.

We could not be more wrong.

The hotel does not have any physical staff on site as it works with a technology that uses your phone as the key to every door. Supposedly. Except, it did not work on either the front door or the room door. We tried to sort this out over the phone with the hotel staff (they were working remotely) but one hour later and after having changed room allocations, we still had not made inside any room.

At this point, all we get is “The system has crashed and we are going to have to refund you so that you find another place”.

Now, it’s 6.30pm. How are we supposed to find another place to stay in a decent location at a reasonable price for that day? Plus, apparently other guests had been struggling with this same issue, so why did they not call us beforehand to give us a heads up and solutions?

Anyways, we politely declined the refund, to which the hotel staff then suggested they would ask Booking.com to relocate us without any extra charge.

We got the offer from booking.com approximately 45 minutes later, which was to a hostel with worse conditions we had paid for. Again, we declined and tried to reach out to the hotel staff once again, given that they were the ones managing the whole situation. From this point on, we were not able to reach them, left them messages and never got a call back. We were left to our own devices.

All the bad reviews you may see online, old or new, they are all true. Do not be fooled like we were and stay away from...

BEWARE WHEN BOOKING!

I never thought I'd have to be the person who reviews a place without even staying there, but my husband and I lost over $1000 because this hotel charged us incorrectly. After 6 months of back and forth, and promises to correct the issue, they never actually gave us a refund. We ended up canceling the booking we made through booking.com in order to get our money back, but we still have not. Booking.com is still working on resolving the issue and said the property owner will not cooperate or provide a reasonable solution.

My intention is not to hurt a small business, and I'm heartbroken that we will never get to stay there, but $1000 isn't pocket change for us. We were reserving the rooms for us and a few family members and were not supposed to be charged until we arrived—at which point, each of our family members would pay for their own rooms.

All in all, I'm sure the hotel is fine, but be careful when making your booking. If possible, avoid giving any credit card information ahead...

Hola , para empezar que nos avisaron la noche antes menos de 24 horas tarde de que no podíamos entrar con el coche dentro Del centro histórico, aparte de eso no sabíamos cuánto había andando de donde nos dijeron que aparcáramos hasta donde estaba el hospedaje eran 13 minutos andando subiendo cuestas y escaleras con maletas y tú pensabas esto que criatura con un carro y un niño chico lo sube, tanto personas mayores. Cuando llegas a la puerta del hospedaje se accede con un código, no te encuentras nadie en la recepción y tienes que ir a buscar la llave a la taquilla con otro código que ellos te lo mandan por correo electrónico con tiempo (eso si como parte positiva),Posteriormente la subida a la habitación es solo en escaleras no hay ascensor imagínate subir todas las cosas después de hartarte de andar por todas las cuestas y escaleras hasta el hospedaje. Tienes que subir por escaleras hasta tu habitación (Llegas para ducharte) .Los peldaños de las escaleras son enanos . al entrar a la habitación no tiene televisión, la climatización de la habitación va por un calefactor minúsculo de frío y calor. Menos mal que estos días que hemos estado allí no ha hecho mucha calor, seguidamente la foto no concuerdan con la realidad de la habitación deja mucho que desear. Por último, pasamos a la zonas. el salón venía equipado con una tele para ver todo tipo de canales ( como parte positiva ), Pero en cambio la cocina o mejor dicho comedor solo tiene un lavabo y una máquina de café que encima tienes que echarle una moneda porque te cuesta dinero supuestamente dicen que te entra el desayuno incluido y a mí no me ha entrado desayuno incluido , no tenía cocina equipada solo disponía de una mesa y ya está no podías hacerte nada de comer. Tenías que salir afuera si o si a comer a cenar y a merendar no tenía tampoco nevera entonces claramente si tú llegabas después de tanta calor y querías coger tu botella de agua fría o lo que sea tenías que tener una nevera de playa o por ejemplo salir a beberte algo si o si fuera. Tiene un sitio especialmente para fumar, que eso es parte positiva y ya está me lo esperaba mejor sinceramente no volvería por su elevado precio para los servicios que otorga dicho alojamiento. otro dato también importante si te pasaba algo, no había recepción a lo que he dicho arriba entonces tenías que ponerte en contacto en contacto por Gmail lo dicho esto tardaban en contestar . Un...