This was my second time staying at this place. The place is nicely decorated with an elegant colour palette between walls and furniture. Also, the place is well-located within a frequently visited touristic area.
The first time that I stayed here, there was an unfortunate issue with the internet, which severely affected the internet stability and speed. In other circumstances, I would not have particularly care about it, but I was working remote while staying at this studio. So, I deeply cared about having a good and reliable internet connection and speed.
The internet speed and connection were awfully bad and unreliable. I had message the host from the beginning and before booking the place to make sure that the internet was in optimal conditions for remote work. He confirmed that they had 50 mbps and that previous guests had had no complaints about it. Sadly, I found out that was not the case. You could not do a videocall without it dropping two minutes after starting it.
The host provided alternative options, which also were not that reliable for remote work, but not as bad as the WIFI available in the studio. Finally, we agreed for me to move to another of their apartments with better internet, although this place was not as nice as this studio, but it suffice the internet need, which is what I care at that moment.
You may be wondering, why I stayed a second time after the experience of the internet that I am describing above. Well, the first two days I was enchanted by the decoration, location, and enthusiasm of exploring a new city, and I booked another reservation in this studio during this time. Besides, the hosts gave me their word that they were going to do their best to solve the internet issue before I got there for my second booking and after I gave them some IT advice of how they can solve the internet issue. We all deserve a second chance, right?
I came back to the studio for my second booking and the internet is still as bad and as unreliable as before, but the hosts got their internet service provider to replace the modem. Again, I tried to remain as calm as possible during the first days, despite that I had a lot of deadlines to meet and other work pressure. I explained them again what the issue was. One of their team members who I was initially dealing with was not as responsive and customer service oriented as my situation required. I had to get more demanding to see things moving from their side because my work required the internet and my deadlines were approaching. The hosts provided temporary fixes in the form of a 4G modem, which helped quite a lot, but after the credit expired in this modem, I was left stranded and I had to ask them again to recharge with more credit the 4G modem. It is quite an odyssey to get the chip and the recharge of credit for this modem.
Portuguese bureaucracy, the internet service provider infrastructure in the area, and the hosts business entanglement with the internet service provider complicated the solving of this issue quickly. Finally, they completely solved the issue one week before I finished my long-stayed reservation. They had to change internet service provider. The last week of my stay was an enjoyable and pleasurable experience for remote work. Great view, nice place, good coffee, pastel de nata, and fast and reliable internet. If this place has not had the internet issue from the beginning, this review would have been 5 stars.
What I did notice is that who did the difference in this whole interaction and solving of the issue was a new incorporation in hosts’ team, Anita, who had great customer service skills and was quite empathetic with my needs and giving the extra mile to solve this issue completely. Nuno, the other host, was a cool guy, friendly and as empathetic as Anita. There was another member of their team that was not as helpful and as empathetic as the situation required it to be.
Sadly, we had this impasse with the internet. Now, would I stay again? After the changes that the hosts did after my IT advice, of course I would!! Besides, some of the hosts’ team members seemed like cool people.
To future guests, I can assure you that now you have in this studio a great internet speed (100 MBPs) and the WIFI connection is quite reliable because the modem works in the right band to avoid interference with surrounding internet connections and other signals that would affect the internet connection. So, if you are a digital nomad and you need a reliable internet connection and great speed, this is the place to stay in Porto.