Hotel Review: Downtown Residence byApartmentsEnjoy
I like to think that I'm a reasonable human being, and I know some things are beyond our control. However, I never even made it to this hotel. I cancelled my booking and decided to go elsewhere which probably already tells you where this review is going...
I’m going to stick to all of the general headings I use for reviews to ensure this is as fair as it can be and hopefully will help if you’re looking at hotels in Porto.
The price:
I didn’t think the price was too outrageous. They were charging £283 for 3 nights. However, there were hidden extras (I'll get into that later). Although it is on the higher side of average for hotels in Porto in January, it was for an entire apartment so I thought it would be worth it for the extra space (plus I was in one of those #TREATYOSELF moods when I booked).
When I originally started planning my trip, it was just for me to go solo. Then my brother wanted to tag along. I thought this would be fine as I had booked an apartment which had a double bed and a sofa bed. There was plenty of room and although he’d be 100% relegated to the sofa bed, he was pretty happy with the set-up. I let the hotel know out of courtesy, and so they knew who to check in on the day, but when I did they said I would be charged an extra €40 per night for using the sofa bed… that was listed as one of the key features of the room, that I had paid for.
This wasn't a surcharge either. I searched the same hotel, same dates and type of room with two people and it came up as the original price. No additional charges.
I asked why this was the case to no avail. I honestly felt like I was being ripped off.
Customer service:
I have a mixed view of this. Within 24 hours of booking, the hotel apparently was hacked. The hacker sent out phishing links, and I refused to play that game. I emailed them immediately saying I wasn't going to click on any links, can we please do this on booking.com, to which they replied with a panicked response telling me not to click the link. I went about my evening and woke up to a message, clearly sent to everyone explaining they'd been hacked and if you clicked the phishing link, then the hackers have all of your info and you need to contact your bank.
I appreciated the honesty but I was taken aback by the ‘there’s nothing we can do’ attitude. When I asked them follow-up questions they just repeated what they'd said. I know this can happen to anyone but I wish they'd taken more responsibility.
Location:
I haven't actually been yet, but from my Google map planning spree this hotel is in such a good location, and walkable to almost everything I want to do, which is why I was initially happy to pay the extra money. Thankfully I found a new hotel just five minutes walk away that was only £177 and looks just as good!
Overall:
Overall there were just too many things on top of one another that had happened before I’d even checked in for me to feel secure in carrying out this booking. It’s such a shame because it’s super quirky and fun-looking and looks like it’d be a great place to stay. If they ironed out the security, payment and responsiveness I think they’d have a great place here.
In the end, I booked here instead. I’ll be back with a review shortly!
