Suite Hotel Eden Mar

We stayed in a half-board suite at the PortoBay Hotel Madeira and came away feeling disappointed. While there were some positives, there were too many issues for a hotel in this price range.

Suite

Our first impression of the room wasn’t good. We had been awake since 5 am due to an early flight and had already waited until 2 pm to gain access to our room, so we were simply looking forward to resting. However, as soon as we entered the suite, the bathroom smelled strongly of sewage. The smell was so overpowering that it filled the entire suite, making my wife feel sick and causing me to gag. Instead of being able to relax, we had to wait a few hours while the problem was investigated and repaired.

To the hotel’s credit, two maintenance staff spent around 45 minutes fixing the issue and the smell was completely resolved. However, it is difficult to understand how such a strong smell wasn’t noticed when the room had been cleaned before our arrival.

The bathroom itself was quite nice but was let down by the smell on arrival, the fact there was only half a toilet roll, no bath or hand towels (only pool towels), and a shower over a bath that had clearly seen better days.

Although we had a suite with a built-in kitchenette, it wasn’t really equipped as a kitchenette. There was a small plug-in kettle, but for a hotel at this level I would have expected a coffee machine or at least a cafetière rather than just two small sachets of instant coffee. There was no cupboard space at all to store food, making the kitchenette feel more decorative than practical.

Storage for clothes was generally good, but both wardrobes were positioned on the same side of the bed, making it awkward for two people to get dressed at the same time.

The bed was memory foam and very firm. I found it acceptable, but my wife struggled to sleep because it was much firmer than she is comfortable with. In our experience, very firm beds are quite common in hotels, so this isn’t something unique to PortoBay. Bed firmness is largely a matter of personal preference, but it wasn’t ideal for us.

Food

As we were staying on a half-board basis, breakfast and the evening meal were included.

The evening meals were of good quality, but the choice was limited and the restaurant felt cramped.

One evening I reached for the serving spoon to help myself to some rice to accompany my fish. The bowl was still almost full, but just as I reached for it, the chef picked it up and took it away. It was several minutes before he returned with it. It clearly wasn’t intentional, but it wasn’t very observant. In hotels of this standard I generally find restaurant staff to be very attentive to what guests are doing.

Breakfast was even more cramped than the evening meal despite the restaurant not appearing particularly busy. The breakfast area was very confined, making it difficult to reach the food without constantly getting in each other’s way. On one morning there were no juice glasses available, and even around 30 minutes later they still hadn’t been replenished.

The evening meal was good quality, but the overall food selection was limited. Breakfast was disappointing, both in terms of quality and choice.

Reception and service

Reception was unfortunately the weakest part of our stay.

One evening we ordered a single €5 drink with dinner. We gave our room number and were not asked to sign anything. At around 10:30 pm we found a note that had been pushed under our door asking us to return to the restaurant “at your earliest convenience” to sign the bill. By then the restaurant had already closed, so we intended to sign it the following evening.

The next morning another note was pushed under our door telling us to sign the bill as soon as possible at reception, which seemed inconsistent with the previous request.

My wife went to reception to sign it and was met by a receptionist who was miserable, grumpy and bordering on rude. She explained that we hadn’t realised a signature was required because we had already given our room number and nobody had asked us to sign. The receptionist wasn’t interested in the explanation and bluntly told her that we had to sign for everything. My wife then asked whether that meant we also had to sign for breakfast and was told that she did. It later turned out that this wasn’t true.

The incident upset my wife to the point where she didn’t want to approach reception again for the rest of our stay. Whenever we needed anything, such as additional toilet rolls, I went instead.

Overall, we didn’t find the staff particularly friendly, and the reception experience left a poor impression.

Final thoughts

There were positives. The maintenance team resolved the bathroom problem once it was reported, and the evening meals were of good quality.

However, the limited food choice, cramped dining areas, the poorly equipped kitchenette, the issues with the room on arrival, and the unfriendly experience at reception meant this hotel fell well short of our expectations.

Having stayed in many hotels at a similar price point, we have experienced far better facilities, service and overall value than we found here.

At first, I was a little disillusioned. The balcony of the sea view suite is a little dirty and the place doesn't seem to be aging well. Still, am on holiday in my favourite place on earth and there is an entire island to explore...

But then, I had a freak accident with a glass bottle. The only alcohol involved was that that was in the bottle that fell out of the fridge. It shattered on the edge of the fridge, smashed into smithereens, sending shards of glass and tequila liqueur everywhere, but also shearing the entirety of the top of my big toe off.

Within a few minutes, my husband had alerted staff that I needed help and they came crashing in like a wrecking ball and from that moment on I didn't need to worry about a thing.

They got me fixed up for emergency transport. I was bleeding a lot. They found a splint so my leg could stay at least a little elevated. They arranged the transport (I had a choice, taxi or ambulance. I chose taxi) and within 2 hours I was back at the hotel. Shout at to the hospital for seeing and treating me within half an hour too. The saga didn't end there though.

I've had to have a certain type of dressing and I need to have it changed every 3 days. I have been to the island before but never needed medical care so not a clue what to do. I got back, told Denise of my issue. Denise made a few calls and within a few minutes I was booked into a surgery to have the dressing changed, she had found a pharmacist that stocked the dressing I needed, and she gave us practical advice on how to get it sorted. She saved us a fortune and a LOT of hassle.

We'd been back a couple of hours and the phone was ringing. Someone somewhere had found me a pair of crutches and they had brought them to our room. They probably saved our holiday considering I've only been here 2 days lol. Am in tears. I am genuinely moved by their actions.

Oh yeah, and when we got back, absolutely no sign of the offending bottle and the blood was gone.

I don't care if there are a couple of weeds in the drain and an outdoor cushion has popped. The care, kindness and consideration shown to me by everyone who helped us was incredible. It was an unkind but much needed reminder of why we fell in love with this resort back on our honeymoon 14 years ago.

Thank you Eden Mar and Porto Mare for looking out for me. Especially Denise for making the aftercare so easy. I am so eternally grateful.

We chose this hotel due my previous great memory of staying here in 2004. The hotel was found very well maintained considering it is almost 40 years old and did not disappoint at all after 22 years.. The size of the pool area, numbers of sunbeds at different angles to the sun, garden area with a vast variety of plants, it is really standing up to its name Eden Mar. Being a frequent traveler who have visited over 45 countries, it is rare to have a hotel at this size with this garden/pool facility. We were accomodated in a premium room at the base floor next to the kitchen, which we experienced noise in the early morning from the kitchen. After addressing this to the reception, the friendly hotel manager were so kind to move us to 2nd floor accross the "horse-shoe". All rooms have seaview, which makes all rooms more equal when view is important. This hotel is very well serviced for couples and families, with cozy evening live music to give the kids great childhood memories from their family vacations to the pensioners having some fun moments dancing. Will definitely come back again soon.