Janelas do Mar

The hotel is mostly good. I was recently here for a holiday staying in the penthouse suite of building 1. One woman at reception was always rude, though every other worker I spoke to was lovely. Room service woman was very nice. The shop closes, but you can ask at reception and they’ll open it. Except for the one lady that refused, and said to come back later. Rooms were tidy, beds were comfortable. It is very close to the strip. We came at a great time, can’t complain. The atmosphere was brilliant, anyone I spoke to there was friendly. Everything is on deposit, room, safe, gym, etc. the gym was small but did the job. There were two rooms on floor 9, it was relatively quiet. I would definitely return to this hotel. The hotel matters greatly to the trip, it’s where you eat and sleep. This place worked well for what I was looking for. I was amazed when I first walked in, I was in disbelief that that’s where I was going to be staying. It was beautiful.

Our experience with the receptionist, Maria, was extremely disappointing. From the moment we arrived, she was rude, dismissive, and appeared very frazzled. Instead of trying to help, she was aggressive and patronising throughout our interaction.

We had booked our hen party through a booking company, but Maria insisted that our reservation did not exist. Rather than investigating the issue professionally, she repeatedly dismissed us. In the end, a representative from the booking company had to come in person to resolve the misunderstanding and confirm that our booking was valid.

What made the situation even more uncomfortable was that Maria demanded we speak Portuguese because we were in Portugal, despite us being visitors from Ireland. We always make an effort to be respectful when travelling, but expecting tourists to speak the local language in order to receive assistance is unreasonable.

Overall, Maria was unhelpful, confrontational, and made what should have been an exciting start to our hen weekend unnecessarily stressful. Thankfully, the booking company was able to sort everything out, but the reception experience left a very poor first impression.

We were also told by Maria that if we wanted toilet roll, then we would need to find the cleaners ourselves and if we couldn’t, then to buy some. Extremely disappointed and shocked that this woman has a job as a receptionist.

Booked privately through Booking.com so apartment was not maintained by the hotel itself, so cannot comment on cleaners etc. Grounds well kept, but don’t come here if you like quiet relaxing or sleep! Place was full of stag and hen do’s. Top pool was taken over by them like a club 18 to 30 holiday. Thankfully we found the other quiter pool down the stairs. Very noisy in the early hours with all the above arriving back when the clubs shut. No local shops or bars, everything a good 20 minute walk or uber ride away.