Hey travellers,

we have been at the W Algarve a couple of weeks ago for 9 days and I want to share some impressions of our trip.

As we‘re a big fan of the W brand, and have stayed already in about 15 hotels of the chain in the past years, we could not wait to go to the W Algarve. I booked it already pretty early this year, with a Half Board Rate because this was basically the best deal - the rooms have been around 750 W for the time where we wanted to travel. But as they didn‘t contact me until a couple of days in front of the stay, I was still checking for other rates and the Hot Escape rate popped up - so I booked it for 538 Euro per day in the end, of course without any food option. And of course, as the rate is a prepayed one, they contacted me right after booking it to get my credit card details.

As I am Ambassador, I was hoping for some upgrade, but actually my email which rooms they usually use for an upgrade didn‘t get answered. So I used my Suite Night Vouchers to secure a 2-Bedroom Mega Marvelous Suite. It got confirmed and we had a 200+ square meters suite with two bedrooms for us three.

When we arrived, the guys from the valet parking helped us with the luggage and the guy from the Whatever Whenever-Team checked us in. Unfortunately, he forgot to ask us about our Welcome Gift, so the free breakfast was not noted. That was leading to frustration every morning, because the girl at the Market Kitchen was always telling us that it‘s not included. After the 5th or 6th day, when I was already pretty upset every morning to explain again that I am not paying for it, finally someone was taking my Bonvoy number and maybe they fixed it - the days afterwards I was not bothered with any invoice.

The suite itself unfortunately has not so much style like a W should have. I think it could have been one of the „Residence“ Suites, even if we have been in the W building. It was clean, large and modern outfitted, but usually in W hotels, you want something stylish and cool. Just putting a hammock inside doesn‘t make a W in my opinion.

On day 7 we also found the air condition for the main bedroom, but we asked already when moving inside - no one could tell us where it was. The aircondition systems in three rooms also stopped working sometimes, so you had to turn them on and off again, then they have been cooling again.

The hotel needs still a lot of training for the employees, and also extremly add quality on the food side. Some examples of things that made us upset in the nine days that we stayed:

• We called the Whatever/Whenever once to tell that our wine fridge was making an alarm sound and we found no option to turn it off. They promised us that someone is coming to fix it. When we came back in our room in the evening, it was still making the alarm (even after the room cleaning was done…). So we had to call again and an hour later it was fixed.
• We called the Whatever/Whenever to get our car ready, but as we arrived at the front of the hotel half our later, the bell guy just got the message…
• We ordered a bucket of ice by chat, half hour later a guy was arriving at the suite with some ice cubes. We asked him to bring a bucket instead. 10 minutes later, I got the question in the chat if we want to order a bottle of wine. I asked for the ice bucket again. 20 min later, nothing arrived, so I cancelled…
• Sometimes, the turndown service came at 22:00 and if you forgot to put the Non-Disturb-Sign, then they rang and woke up our daughter…
• The ice cream at the pool was re-frozen and had ice pieces inside
• At the Paper Moon Restaurant, we returned two dishes. As the food came within minutes, it was clear that it was not fresh made. The oysters have been dry already and the chicken from my wife was still raw. They took it off the cheque, but it was still wrong as there has been more wine on it that we consumed. No real excuse here from the team…
• The breakfast looks the same every day - it‘s good, but not perfect. I was also missing local things… and you can order eggs and something at the table, but they don‘t tell you what they have. So no menu here - you have to guess…
• The food at the pool was also more or less pricy but not really of high quality.

In total, at the moment I can‘t recommend the W here - they need a lot more training. The facility itself is clean and big, but you have to like the design. It‘s looking a big like a parking garage, where they made a design hotel inside. The lobby, the W bar, and the restaurants are really styled nice inside. The beach is public and also cute, but it does not belong to the W. In the end, I complained during my stay to my ambassadors and they have been forwarding it to the hotel - but neither during my stay, nor afterwards, someone was contacting me. So actually they might be more busy with all their influencers that they hired currently to promote their hotel? I would definately return to the Algarve, but for this $$$, the Algarve has better options.

Happy travelling!