Casa da Baixa Downtown House

Not a great experience. Check-in instructions were not sent until we phoned (twice) to get code that was supposed to be emailed to us. The room would have been adequate, if not for the fact there is no actual bathroom. Only a glass partition separating the "bathroom" from the rest of the bedroom. Hence...absolutely no privacy. The balcony overlooking the main pedestrian street is nice, until you want to get some sleep. Very loud very late, and totally inadequate sound-proofing.

We had four rooms for a group of 12 so that means three people per room. The rooms were quite nice but probably a better fit for just two people rather than three. The location worked great for us on a pedestrian street. We didn’t need parking so not an issue for us. The city center location gave us great access to restaurants, bars and shopping. The rooms were lovely and the beds were very comfortable with good sized bathrooms and plenty of outlets. It was nice to have the little kitchenette but we didn’t really need it for our two night stay. The elevator is up one level from the street. We did have a couple of problems with the entry codes for the rooms when we arrived and had to have help from the housekeeping staff. I guess the system needed to be rebooted which was a bit anxiety producing. The staff did try to help us and were very responsive to messages and phone calls. Another thing to be aware of is that some of the street musicians like the location directly below the apartments for their evening performance and that can go on into the night for a while. Also, some cigarette odor in the stairwell from the cobbler on the first floor.

I really wanted to give this hotel the benefit of the doubt. The rooms were comfortable and well appointed. The location was excellent, well almost. Then there was this. I never met or talked to the staff. All was done through What'sApp. It is in the old part of town. If you are in a car, there is no place to park. We parked in a public parking lot 1/2 mile away. There is nothing convenient even to drop off people and bags short of a 100 yard walk. Once you get there, the elevator is on the second floor, meaning you need to carry your bags up a flight of stairs to get on it. Once there and situated, everything was great. Really didn't need much more.