The new Porto hotel had only been open for two weeks when I checked in on December 5th. I was eagerly greeted at reception, offered a glass of port, and introduced to the manager on duty. All were very happy to see a paying guest I guess. I was informed that only two of the hotels floors were open, the suites were occupied by the owner and his invited guests, and the club floor was not yet open. But, I was assured I would like my room. The guest service manager escorted me to my room which had a bottle of water and a bowl of fruit waiting for me (my platinum amenity). She was correct, the regular room was very nice and I was not disappointed. The room is done in dark wood… including one entire wall… and had the look of a W hotel or modernized Westin. The bed linen is from the Sheraton Sweet Sleeper line, but the mattress is VERY firm as were all of the mattresses I slept on in Portugal. The bathroom is the centerpiece of the room and is similar in design to the Westin Sydney. For those not lucky enough to have stayed at the Westin Sydney, as you enter the bathroom through a frosted glass door you see the vanity straight in front of you (modern, simple design with metal legs and high quality marble top). To the immediate right is a separate shower with large rain shower head. To the far right is the separate room for the toilet and bidet. Both of these compartments are of white marble and frosted glass. To your left are the bathtub and the window wall to the bedroom… with motorized mini blinds if you want privacy. The effect of this white marble/frosted glass bathroom lit with halogen lights is quite a sight from the bedroom. It seems to just float there.
When I returned to my room later in the evening the manager had left me a note that since the club floor and lounge were not yet open they would offer me complimentary breakfast in the main restaurant. I took advantage of this in the morning. It was a very nice spread. The croissants were flakey (buffet croissants usually suck), my made to order eggs perfect (great eggs in Portugal), decent sparkling wine, even a wood fired oven (I think they did the bacon in there).
I was so impressed with the hotel that I returned on the 7th for one additional night. An additional floor was now open and this time I was put in a suite located at the end of the hall thereby affording views in two directions (corner room). The bedroom/bathroom section of the suite was almost the same as a normal room, but the bathroom was slightly larger (2 sink vs. 1 sink vanity) with the entire wall between the bedroom and bathroom a window rather than 2/3 of the wall as in a regular room. The living room was ok with a couch, chairs and a dinning table plus desk, but the space was a bit awkward. Both the living room and bedroom also had a 37 inch flat screen LCD TVs mounted on the dark wood wall. The bathroom amenities were a giant leap up in the suite. The regular rooms have generic stuff in those hideous Sheraton bottles, but the suites had Agua de Loewe toiletries.
The hotels lobby and bar are also very modern in design and W Hotelish (minus the attitude).
My rate was 95 euros (don’t forget to add the annoying 1 euro UNICEF tax).
There were a few problems… My suite (I was probably the first guest in it) had a layer of construction dust on the windows. The hot water in both rooms smelled really, really bad. It was a solvent smell, not the water itself. This really cut into the enjoyment of the fabulous shower. I hope this is only temporary. The hotel is not in the old center of town, but about 2 or 3 km to the northwest (next to the Le Meridian). This is a bit inconvenient if you are a tourist. I took the city bus to the hotel and it took about 15 or 20 minutes from the Sao Bento train station.