Quality Inn Porto, Portugal

100   Recommended
Room 203
September 9, 2018 by EXPERT

 Map | 1 Review | 100% Recommended
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Quality Inn Praça da Batalha Porto
 Map | 1 Review | 100% Recommended

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Room 203

Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
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This is an older hotel with well-appointed rooms. The room size is small by American standards but not for Europe. It's quite adequate. The mattress was great.

My one complaint is a big one: When I woke up the bathroom smelled like sewage. And I am not sensitive to smells. This was STRONG.

The bathroom has no fan, so I opened the outside window and in an hour or so the smell was mostly gone.

As far as I know, every fixture in a bathroom has a water trap in the drain path to stop air flow. I'm pretty sure one of those traps had a leak, letting the water depart and then the air to flow in. One possible solution was to run water continuously down each drain. I settled for using the drain stopper in the tub and bidet (yes, there's a bidet) and covering each stopper with a wet towel. That was only partially successful, presumably due to the uncovered overflow drains. I decided not to ask for a room change because I wanted to spend my time touring rather than packing and unpacking. But if they try to give you room 203, ask for another one.

A full breakfast is included in the rate. The desk clerk tried to tell me that points reservations did not include breakfast, but his associate told him otherwise. The first guy said it was not included until very recently, which seems unlikely to me. Just in case, bring your reservation printout showing that breakfast is included.

The breakfast buffet was surprisingly complete. Toast, croissants, cake, cereal, yogurt, fruit, scrambled eggs, goofy European bacon and sausage, 4 kinds of juice, and a huge beans-to-brew coffee and espresso machine. You can even make a turkey or ham and cheese sandwich to hold you until dinner. You will save a bundle here.

The best parts of Porto are within a 15-minute walk of this hotel. That alone makes it an excellent value. The Metro is about a 7 minute walk, and the Funicular down to the river is about 4 minutes away. You could see the whole place in a day, but take at least 2 days to be relaxed about it. I rode the red tour bus, but the Yellow bus line looks nicer and has free Wifi so you can post on FlyerTalk during your ride!

I spent 20k points for the room rather than $134, but the points price decreases to a bargain 8k in the off season. I would definitely choose this hotel again.

If you want to add another cheap destination, fly RyanAir to Carcassonne, France for $25 and stay at the Best Western hotel (Donjon) which is INSIDE the spectacular old walled city. You can walk its streets early in the morning before the tourist mobs arrive.

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