Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes, great hotel, great location.
Did have one issue but will explain later.
Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked cheapest room, 2 nights using AMB cert and then 3 nights on points. At first only received a +1 cat upgrade which they didn't tell me about. I had to go have a long discussion with the front desk staff. They said the hotel is full there is nothing that can be done. I wasn't so happy about this as the reservation was made several months ago.
They said they could upgrade me to the appropriate room on the 3rd day and would offer me a 80EUR discount on me room. I declined as I wanted to think about it.
In the end, on the second day early in the morning, they had a cancellation and a +3 cat upgrade became available so I took it. Sadly, this 'Junior Suite' was not as nice as the 'Executive Room' we were previously in but I held my tongue
.
In the end I took the 80EUR discount and didn't say any more on the topic as the rest of the stay was fantastic. The bit that irritated me most is that they tried to hide that I was only given a +1 cat upgrade, if they had said at checkin and offered the 80 EUR discount I would've been fine.
How are the rooms?
Both the Executive Room and Junior Suite I was in had fantastic views and were beautifully furnished. Really beautiful.
The Executive room had 5 small balconies across 2 walls of the room.
Both rooms have an ok-ish minibar with a bath and separate shower cubicle.
How is the exec. lounge?
N/A BUT they are doing the Club Life experience of whatever it is...which is fantastic.
1. Breakfast with reserved table (which was worth it's wait in gold as the hotel was full!!)
2. Afternoon tea between 15:00-17:00. Some nice canapé's with a large selection of teas and soft drinks
3. Drinks and Canape's between 18:00-20:00. Although the drinks menu on this is quite short, we talked with the bar staff and we tried many drinks that weren't on the menu. They give us a big Port tasting session with various Ports. Other nights we had some good Champagne. There is no limit to the quantity of drinks it seemed.
The Canape's are good and infact on the second and third night we requested some cheese on there, they added it with no issue.
4. 2 free items to be ironed per stay
5. Free soft drinks for the minibar (irrelevant as a RA but still...)
6. Club Host contact for all needs throughout the stay.
Did you receive a welcome gift?
Several...
1. Some nice Portuguese chocolates in a nice box
2. Bottle of Port
3. Nicely decorated chocolate / sweet plate
4. Pasteis de Nata
5. Another local sweet delicacy thing
6. Dark Portuguese honey with 23ct gold flakes in
How was the minibar?
Mediocre, nothing of note.
What was good and what was bad?
-Good
1. Service
2. Location
3. Beautiful hotel
4. Club life experience thing is fantastic
-Bad
1. The way they initially handled the lack of upgrade was really disappointing.
Value for $ or Priority Club Points?
Yes, at 45k points it is fantastic. The EUR value seems to fluctuate, I was there for a national holiday weekend so the cash rate was a little high. Still a real gem in the IC hotel portfolio.
Would you return?
In a heartbeat.