Pousada Platôdasilhas

There were problems with the service from the start. Nobody replied when I tried to arrange the booking, and then there was another struggle afterward. They told me they'd contact me by the day before check-in to collect 50% of the reservation. I said it had already been paid, but the woman kept insisting that a booking made through Booking.com didn't charge the card and that I had to pay through their link. I explained I'd booked and paid on their own website, not Booking.com, but they still insisted. I was worried about traveling and finding out my reservation wasn't actually guaranteed. On the day, they confirmed it was paid. When I arrived, they tried to charge me for parking. I said that fee hadn't been disclosed, but the man insisted. He said his boss wasn't answering and that I could only enter if I paid for parking or moved my car. He wouldn't give me the key to the room I'd already paid for. He said everyone claims they didn't know about the fee and that it was listed on Booking.com, even though I told him I'd booked through their website. It seemed the staff didn't know the inn took bookings on its own site. I said the room had nothing to do with the parking dispute, but he still wouldn't release the key because the owner had instructed him not to. When I asked for my money back, he said canceling would mean a penalty. We went back and forth for a while. They listened to all my conversations with the inn, looking for a message about the parking charge, but didn't find one. Eventually he gave me the apartment key. Later, his boss said I could stay without paying for parking, but I'd have to put the car in a different, uncovered lot. I did what they asked just to end the argument. There was also a safety concern with the pool drain that feeds the waterfall. It pulled strongly, and I was there with children aged six, including a girl with a lot of hair. I reported it, and they turned off the drain, which also stopped the waterfall. An employee came to the pool and announced that someone had asked for the waterfall to be shut off. I said it was me, and he told me the drain wasn't strong enough to pull anyone in. I said it was. Then he told the other people there that nobody had even complained about the waterfall being off, as if they should have understood that it wouldn't run. Breakfast was only from 7 to 9. At about 8:20 I asked for some cheese bread for my son because the little that was there was cold and hard. They said they couldn't make more because it might not be ready before 9, and they couldn't serve it after breakfast ended. It was absurd. The only things my son ate from the menu were carrot cake and cheese bread. They wouldn't make the cheese bread, so he ate all the carrot cake.

The access is awkward. The inn sits high up, and the roads are narrow and very steep, so some drivers may have trouble getting up them. Breakfast was good, though nothing special. The room had dampness and an old, very soft mattress. Also, reception isn't open 24 hours.

I wouldn't recommend this awful place to anyone. The rooms smelled bad, and they asked me to pay for the nights before showing me the room. After I paid, they showed me a horrible basement room across the street. I took my things and left, and they didn't refund any of my money.

We booked two nights through Booking.com, but were so disappointed when we arrived that we couldn't stay for both. The inn is up a huge hill on an extremely narrow street, the rooms are in poor condition, the smell was overpowering, and the bedding was poor quality. After we parked and went inside, my husband noticed an extra charge. They had charged us to park the car, something we hadn't seen listed in the Booking.com app.