Review of MGallery Santa Tereza Hotel - Rio de Janeiro
Feb 11, 17, 10:35 am
Santa Teresa Hotel - MGallery Collection by Sofitel
Rua Almirante Alexandrino 660 Rio de Janeiro, BR 20241260
Review of MGallery Santa Teresa Hotel - Rio de Janeiro (41 Photos)
Santa Teresa Hotel - MGallery Collection by Sofitel
A stay that I could qualified as top notch all the way in a beautiful boutique hotel which joined Accor MGallery network about a year ago (very good idea from them !). I had to choose between this hotel and the Sofitel Copacabana and Caesar Park on Ipanema. Those 2 hotels have mixed reviews on this forum and on TA (I believe the Sofitel has just started a renovation). Add to this the bad lounge policy for Platinum members at the Sofitel, I have finally choosen the MGallery santa Teresa and I don’t regret it at all.
To the very nice hotel, you add good staff, an excellent restaurant and a perfect platinum treatment and you obtain a great stay and a very happy customer as a result.
The hotel has only 44 rooms and is located in the Santa Teresa area/hill. For those of you who have never been to Rio, this is a quiet residential area with a boheme village atmosphere. A kind of Montmartre in a more exotic form of course (and much warmer in february J ). From Santa Teresa, you are never far from anywhere but in a quiet neighborhood so you feel very far from the « crazyness » of Ipanema or Copacabana.
The lobby and corridor to my room:
Check In
I have requested before my arrival an early check-in because I was arriving in GIG at around 8 am on the AF flight from CDG. The hotel responded that they could not guarantee it but that they would do their best and that, as a platinum member, I would have the priority. Arrived at the hotel, the early check-in was granted along with a double upgrade to a junior suite (from a superior room booked). Staff was very kind and helpful to give hints for visiting the city. Drink voucher was given at check-in (spontaneously).
Room
The room was really lovely. To be honest, I don’t know if it really qualifies as a junior suite because it doesn’t have a separate living room area, but it doesn’t really matter as it was a nice room. The bed was huge. The room has a safe, an espresso machine, a minibar containing only free mineral water. There was a balcony with 2 armchairs and a hamac and a nice view on Santa Teresa hills. Very peaceful !
A welcome gift was placed on the bed : two pairs of flip flop shoes !
The bathroom had a bathtub with a rain shower. Toiletry products were L’Occitane. Separate toilets.
Garden and Pool
The outdoor parts of the hotels include a garden, with the pool and the pool bar.
I used my drink voucher there for a very good Cahipirinha. Cheers J
The view on Rio from the pool deck
Dining
The hotel restaurant is called Térèze and that’s were you have breakfast. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner and is an excellent gastronomic restaurant. You can trust me when I say that because I am French J. I had a great dinner during my stay. It is open for outside customers of course.
The breakfast was of good quality with a buffet and a menu was available to order warm (eggs of all sorts, pancakes, etc) and additional cold items (cheese, smoked salmon, etc).
There is another bar in the hotel which opens when the pool bar is closing. Looks very nice but I haven’t been.
Overall
I requested a late check-out at 2 pm which was granted without problem. Check-out formalities were promptly expedited and the points posted correctly within 48 hrs.
Overall a 0 problem stay, in a beautiful hotel whith a perfect application of LCAH rules. No need to beg for anything. All was spontaneously proposed in a very kind and professional way.
So a highly (++++) recommendable Accor place to stay in Rio. I would return without hesitating a second.
Feb 11, 17, 11:03 am
Feb 11, 17, 11:34 am
Great to see L'Occitan products (my all time favourite).
Thanks for sharing...
Feb 11, 17, 12:54 pm
Great to see L'Occitan products (my all time favourite).
Thanks for sharing...
Mar 30, 17, 10:46 pm
On my last stays they upgraded us from a junior suite to the presidential suite, it is definitely in the top 3 stays in any hotel we had with my wife, fantastic property in a fantastic neighbourhood
Dec 28, 19, 7:54 am
The one thing that bothered me personally though is the violence in the area. We never experienced anything physical ourselves, but one night we heard a few gun shots right below us on the street (we were sitting in the bar of the hotel at night and the barkeeper waved at us to move away from the balcony) and at night you hear heavy gunshots from the favela close by to the West. We did walk back from the famous stairs (Escadaria Selaron) and met one of the hotel concierges on the way - otherwise, it was a deserted walk at day time like 3pm and right below the street the favela starts. Not sure what I was thinking and I would not do the walk again - we were really asking to get robbed, but somehow nobody approached us on the way, so we got lucky.
Having said that, all of this was about a year ago, maybe the situation has improved by now. Taking Uber in and out was safe and if you stay at the hotel it really is a beautiful property. As a plus, you can use the beach of the other Sofitel down in Leblon area, they will provide you with towels etc. if you tell them that you are coming from the other Sofitel in Santa Tereza.
Dec 28, 19, 4:29 pm
The one thing that bothered me personally though is the violence in the area. We never experienced anything physical ourselves, but one night we heard a few gun shots right below us on the street (we were sitting in the bar of the hotel at night and the barkeeper waved at us to move away from the balcony) and at night you hear heavy gunshots from the favela close by to the West. We did walk back from the famous stairs (Escadaria Selaron) and met one of the hotel concierges on the way - otherwise, it was a deserted walk at day time like 3pm and right below the street the favela starts. Not sure what I was thinking and I would not do the walk again - we were really asking to get robbed, but somehow nobody approached us on the way, so we got lucky.
Having said that, all of this was about a year ago, maybe the situation has improved by now. Taking Uber in and out was safe and if you stay at the hotel it really is a beautiful property. As a plus, you can use the beach of the other Sofitel down in Leblon area, they will provide you with towels etc. if you tell them that you are coming from the other Sofitel in Santa Tereza.
To come back to the hotel, this is truly a great property and you seems to have enjoyed it as much as I did.
