H10 Duque de Loulé

Had a wonderful stay in this hotel. The reception staff was very helpful regarding some tour/restaurants recommendations. Had some snack and cocktail in their lobby and the staff in the bar was very friendly too. I will be back again for sure!

This is probably the worst experience I had for this year, or maybe second worst, among 20+ hotels I visited this year. Since most of them are in North America/ Asia, I will only compare between other 2 hotels I visited in Portugal. Let me start with the pros tho: 1. Location is quite convenient; 2. The shower is strong and hot. 3. The room is bright and has good view. Then let me get in to the uncomfortable part: 1. Unfriendly communication, I made the booking on a third party and for some reason the hotel wasn’t able to charge me. (But my booking in the 3rd party app showed “paid” which gets me confused), the front desk simply told me the payment wasn’t able to go through and asked me to pay and check my bank statements, she wasn’t pushy or mean but it’s not friendly either. While I understand this is not their problem, but I do think they can explain better and show a bit patience, cause this situation wasn’t new to them (I asked if similar situation happened before and they said yes), from my point of view, they are claiming something differently with my booking details and I was not able to distinguish who’s right and wrong, I did explain that I am not able to check my statement on my phone. They clearly know this situation better I do, I would expect them to be more patient and telling me this is an known issue they dealt with many times, it’s not the clients’ mistake but something to do with their payment system not work properly with the third party. They should bring me to somewhere comfortable so that I can communicate with the third party to confirm if the payment was charged. Honestly after a delayed flight and some drive, I am tired and thirsty, I do expect a 4-star hotel to think in clients’ shoes than simply tell the client what they need to do. 2. Lack of daily supply, 2 bottles of water were served as “cortesia of the hotel” on the first day and every bottle after that (during my 4 days visit) will cost. This is the first time I was asked to pay for water among 20+ hotels I stayed this year; no refill of toothpaste, when I asked for it, only 1 was given (we have 2 people and the toothpaste is probably only enough for 2 use); water boiler was not provided and has to ask for (smart move on selling the water I have to say); no body lotion, when I asked them they said it’s by the sink, I checked again and didn’t see it in the first day, nor in the second day. 3. Slow services, there were only 4 hangers when I visited, I asked for more, waited for half an hour and had to call again to get them. 4. Lack of adopters, probably a strange point, but guess what, both hotels I stayed in Porto and Faro have adopters prepared for North America travelers. 5. The hair dryer had some loud and sharp noise at the beginning. It gets normal after maybe 30 secs, but it was quite horrible.