Hotel Araxá

I arrived worn out after traveling from Belo Horizonte, hoping to rest before continuing the next day. Instead, the reception staff, Jordana and Adrielle, made an already exhausting situation much worse. Three executive rooms had been booked: a triple, a family room, and a double. The reservation form had mistakenly listed just one adult per room, even though the room types were specified. At reception, they wouldn't correct the guest count and charge the amount for the actual number of people. They insisted on one person per room, even though the rooms had other beds that could have been used. A horrible, unnecessary hassle when all I needed was to rest.

The worst experience I've had in my 33 years. I stayed from October 9 to 10 and had an essential business meeting planned for the morning of the 10th. Then the power went out, and I had to leave in a hurry to find somewhere with electricity and internet. Most hotels in town were full, and check-in elsewhere was after noon. My plans were ruined. I had booked in advance, remotely, but no one told me about the scheduled maintenance. I arrived close to 11 p.m., exhausted and ready for bed. When I asked at reception about the outage, the staff member just pointed to a badly printed A4 notice. Guests shouldn't have to discover something like that by reading a sign. They should have been told directly, especially when the booking was made ahead of time. The night receptionist was another problem. With the front door locked, she was asleep lying on the sofa. I went back to reception hoping to get water or ask something, but would have had to wake her. I turned around and went back to bed thirsty. Staff on duty should be awake and ready to help. It was an awful sight and an embarrassing situation. The room had stained or dirty looking bed linen, thin uncomfortable pillows, an old-fashioned key lock, an electric shower, and a minibar that was switched off and empty. There was no intercom to reception or soap by the bathroom sink. The hotel is in an old hospital building. Breakfast was very basic, the items meant to be served hot were cold, and there was only one powdered juice option. The parking lot is small, so depending on the situation you may need to park outside on the monitored main road, where you have to pay for metered parking or risk a fine. I can only guess the owner or owners aren't from the hotel business. If they are, they're doing a terrible job.

The way the night receptionist handled things was terrible. At 4 a.m. I got up to take medication, but there was no drinking water on the third floor where I was staying. After walking down three flights, I asked if there was a water fountain. The employee said no, only bottled water for sale. I didn't have my wallet with me, so I asked if I could take some water and pay when I checked out after breakfast. He refused to give it to me before payment, and said so very bluntly. Even if that's hotel policy, guests can be treated with more consideration. Thankfully, I wasn't staying long.

For the price they charge, this was awful. The bed and bath linens were old, torn, and stained. The towel was stiff when I took it out of the plastic. Breakfast was extremely poor.