This is a great location for exploring Porto. The kitchen is well equipped; I ended up cooking quite a bit. The bed is super comfortable, and the heat works great. I loved being able to open the doors to the balcony and hearing the musicians down the street. With the doors closed, it’s basically a cave in there, which is great for sleeping in. A few things to be aware of:
- You have two different organizations managing this. LovelyStay is the Airbnb team that responds to your messages, but Hotel Estoril Porto is the one who manages the day to day, so LovelyStay was not really able to resolve any of my issues.
- You have to checkin at the hotel, which is a couple of doors down.
- I did the required Covid test ahead of time and sent the results, but the requirements were not clear, so when I got there, I ended up having to do another self-test on the spot, at the counter in the lobby of the hotel, in front of everyone with all my luggage.
- To get to the apartment, you go through two locked doors and up a few flights of stairs. If you want someone to help you with your luggage, they have to be a registered guest.
- Only one key, which is massively inconvenient if you have more than one person.
- Only two towels, as well, for a month-long stay. 5 Euros to change them.
- Wifi was not 100% reliable, so I was very thankful for the hotspot on my phone. They did make a big effort to resolve the issue and offered alternate arrangements for Zoom meetings.
- For that, I had to deal with the hotel, which was not easy.
The checkin process was by far the most difficult, but then, after that, I was very comfortable and enjoyed my stay here.