Great boutique like hotel, great staff

This is the 2nd Hilton property in the area opened this year after an initial one a few years ago, a Curio Collection hotel and a 3rd Hilton profile hotel is planned (to open soon) in the area.  This property is therefore very new - from small chat during check-in, I was told that it opened in Sept '21 so it was only about 3 months into operation.  This property used to be an abandoned wine/port cellar and the whole property takes over the space of approx 2 cellars.  I stayed here for 2 nights for the New Year's celebration.

The property is located quite to the far end of the river walk boulevard.  It is located in Villa Nova Gaia - which is on the other side of Porto - and I like to refer to it as the New Porto.  It takes around 10-15 mins of walk to the other side of the bridge into the historical city centre of Porto.  There is no direct public transport that goes to over to the other side easily - there is a bus that runs but I guess it's infrequent and take a detour before reaching the other side.  The other option is to use the (expensive) cable car which is about 5 mins from the hotel, to the upper level and catch the metro over the bridge and into the historical city centre.  If not it will be about a 15 mins walk to the top level to catch the metro (which includes a steep climb).

For those coming from the airport, the only viable option would be by car (rental/taxi/shared) in my opinion.  For those with a car, the hotel does have parking, but at least to me it was on the expensive side - other options would be (if still allowed) to park along the street around the hotel or use the parking garages nearby which was much cheaper (but no in/out option).  

For me since I've been to Porto numerous time, the location was not an issue and in fact much better for me since I was mainly doing day trips out of the city.  I would say the location of the hotel is to visit the Gaia area - which in my opinion is by itself also an interesting area to visit especially with the different port houses.  

Even before check-in, I already saw in the Hilton app that I was upgraded to a King Duplex Suite.  This seems to be an mid-level suite at this property (it contains up to 5 different type of suites) even some with Riverview - which I believe would be on the 4th floor.  

I arrived at the property around 4pm, which seems to be a busy time in the lobby area but a very grand one with a high ceiling and great interior deco, all check-in desk (consisting of 3 different islands) were occupied.  This property does not seem to offer for now an option for digital check-in (which in effect is not useful these days due to the pandemic) and being Portugal, they would need to anyways have your ID information keyed into the system (all hotels seems to have to do this).  

As soon as I went into the queue (was one person before me) and a 2nd agent at the island I was standing became free, she immediately approched me and when I informed I was checking-in, I was brought to another sit-down separate desk to check-in.  From this point, I already had the feeling that the service level at this property would be great - she even apologized for the situation.  The whole check-in process was very professional yet casual at the same time - this is where I asked about the hotel and received info about the history of the property.

Sadly I was told that the room was not ready - which she again apologized profusely about it (since it was past the check-in time) - and as should always be, in my opinion - she offered several options while waiting for the room to be ready, one of which was to wait in the executive lounge or a drink at hotel bar - I accepted the latter as it was a beautiful warm day and she suggested to relax in the open terrace area of the bar.  After less than half an hour, she as promised came back to inform that the room was ready and that my bags would be brought to the room.  [Hilton Amsterdam can learn here - when the same situation happened, I had to request for this option, if not I would have been left waiting somewhere in the corner of the lobby or stroll around]  

Access to the rooms is activated via the key card in the open glass elevators.

This is the 2nd time as far as I remember, staying in a Duplex Suite type room - the last was at the Doubletree Cape Town.  The room was located on the 3rd floor - which is also the same floor of the Executive Lounge.   The room size was ok - much smaller compared to the one I had at the DT.

Located on the left side of the entry hall was the toilet and (separate room) for the shower area.  Along the entry hall, was the wardrobe and minibar/coffee/tea making items.   The coffee machine was a capsule system which seems to be from the local Delta coffee company.  The quality of the coffee was ok compared to the more mainline Nespresso.  The minibar/fridge was empty - so it could be used for personal items.  There was also 2 complimentary bottles of water provided (which was not replaced).  This lead to a small living room area - consisting of a 2 - 2 1/2 seater sofabed and a separate chair with an artistic table.  The TV here was of sufficient size. The interior deco although on the darker side worked well as the room had large windows and lighting was also good.  Again the theme was based on the Duoro area - with a large wallpaper with the terraces you see around the Duoro valley.   Next to this was the stairs leading up to the bedroom area.  View from the room was towards the interior courtyard of the hotel and some rock hills towards the Cockfoster Port house.  From what I observed quite a lot of the rooms in this property due how it has been built, will not have too much privacy if you leave both curtains open.  

The bedroom area was compact - with also a working desk and a smaller wardrobe. There was also a bathroom and (separate) toilet in this upper floor with the wash basin located next to the working table.  There was also a smaller TV.  All the light controls was luckily suited next to the bed, so there's no need to go back down if you forget to switch off lights on the lower level.  Although 1 improvement would be maybe label them.  The curtains were electronically operated (I only found the switch for this on the bedside - not sure if you can also do this from any other switches on the lower level).

TV channels were the usual local and international options.  The system behind it was ok - although sadly they missed the chance to include possibility to include the option of streaming your device to screen.  Internet speed at the hotel was ok - you need a (generic) code to use the wifi and there was no option for premium - for me, the one provided was sufficient.

Sleep quality was very good - with no disturbance from interior and exterior.  The climate control in the room was also very good - keeping the temperature as desired and the fan noise was minimal.  I actually did not use it but decided to just leave the window open - which did keep the room to the temperature I liked.

I used mainly the bathroom at the lower level which is the main one - this was a huge area,  It consisted of double wash basin and the shower area was separated - the area was huge, I don't think I have ever seen such a huge shower area - I bet you could even have a small shower party in the area.  Both pressure and temperature of the water was good and easy to operate,  Toiletries were the usual Crabtree and Evelyn Verbena items.  The bathroom on the bedroom level was on the smaller side and due to the angle of the roof (I believe) might be an issue for taller guest as it was not that high.  The only oddity of the main bathroom was the door - I guess due to the temperature different between the shower area and the room, it did not stay close and kept opening - for me it was not an issue, although might be irritating for other guest.  Also i think it would have been good to include maybe a hook in the shower area to hang the towels.  

The Executive lounge is open throughout the day.  Access is via the keycard - but problem is that quite a number of guests kept leaving the doors open.  So unless all guests staying on the 3rd floor (and only access to the 3rd floor) have access to the lounge, potentially non-eligible guests can also use it.  

The lounge area is quite small - at least during my stay this seems sufficient, even during Happy Hours.  I am not sure how it would be if occupany picks up and more eligible guests uses, how the lounge will hold up.  (I think that they might have a spill over area which I might have spotted within the lounge that was closed for now).  Happy hours are from 5-7pm - the offerings were quite limited.  With mainly small finger food, some local beers and 1 red and 1 white wine.  No spirits or liquor was offered.  For me this was sufficieint - especially in Portugal where you want to get out and enjoy the local cuisine.  

On my first night, (New Year's even), I saw that they only had 1 bottle of wine for both red and white available - which obviously was not sufficient - and indeed when they were empty, no one came to replace it - the same for the food.  However on the 2nd night - they did leave 3 bottles of both White and red wine and there was also actively someone coming to check on them once in a while - so it was much better.  

This is served in the hotel's main restaurant - Composto.  Again - as with the rest of the hotel, I found the layout and the decoration of the restaurant to be very elegant yet casual at the same time.  Coffee/tea is served only by order - through any of the associates in the area.  I find this to be a very good concept instead of having lines of people trying to get them and dirtying the area.  

The selection was very good and nicely presented - here due to the current situation - you are requested to use the provided personal food tongs or the provided one time used spoons at the buffet area - which I find so much better compared to the use of plastic gloves. 

Eggs to order were available at the egg station - which I saw there was also a possibility to order some simple pasta hot dishes (it seems to change from day to day).  One item I would truly recommend is their French Toast - one of the best I've eaten so far - but I am quite sure it is a calorie bomb.  however I found their version of (American) pancake and waffles to be weak - tried both and it was crisy and slightly tough - i believe it is the batter used, as even the fresh ones were like that - maybe it's just a personal preference.  

What I found a lost opportunity - was for the New Year's breakfast, I was actually hoping that they would have some complimentary New Year's bubbles, but none was offered.  Maybe they can take this as a suggestion for next year.

In general, I found the service level at the property to be very good.  There were a few small slips which could be due to them still trying to iron out or get comments for improvement.  The few small slips I think that they could improve on are

- why not replace the bottled waters?  

- the tea bags and coffee capsulse were not replaced - I did see that they replaced the used cups, but no capsules nor tea bags were replaced - so basically it was just an area to boil water.  For me this was not an issue as I could just pop by the lounge for a cuppa - however this means if I stayed longer I will always need to go to the lounge?

- Towels, I think that they could have presented the towels in a more elegant way, like just simply rolling them up?  

- I found it also strange, on the 1st morning for breakfast, while having breakfast halfway, another associate approached us to ask if we have registered, I would say would it not have been better for her to wait for her other colleague who registered us and check with him - just to do it in a much more elegant way

All in all, a very pleasant stay at this property - which I found all the associates I encountered to be very friendly and helpful.  I also loved the interior decoration and how they have maintained the historical purpose of the location - from the different public area to the rooms.  This has to me one of the few Hiltons which is not a full cookie cutter version of Hiltons - having it's own character and boutique feel to it.  

It is also great to see a Hiton property which treats elite members well - just hoping when the world opens up further, with the influx of credit card based elite members, they don't pull back in limiting the benefits.  

For me I will certainly need to return to this property - as this time I again ran out of time to try out the other in-house facilities and especially to check out the Panoramic bar.  For me the only minor drawback of this property is the location especially if the main purpose is to be around the historical centre of Porto.