Pousada Arraial Lua Crescente

A nice, affordable place to spend a few days.

The location is great, and the room was clean with impeccable sheets and towels. The inn can clean the room every other day, and will change towels daily if guests want. Still, I wouldn't recommend it or come back. The room was very small, poorly lit, and had only two hangers. The cable TV was a joke, with only broadcast channels, and it wasn't comfortable to return to the room early from a day out. For the price, it's not that expensive compared with other inns, but paying a bit more gets you more comfort and security. The worst part was the noise. We were in room 2, about two meters from the pool. A group arrived around 8 p.m. and stayed until dawn, keeping us awake because it sounded like they were right in the room. At 00:06 I had to do the inn's job and ask them to quiet down, but they carried on. There's nobody at reception and no contact number to reach anyone. A staff member was there until 10 p.m. and walked past the pool without doing anything, even though pool use is supposed to end at 9 p.m. If you have an emergency in the middle of the night, there's no one from the inn to help. The bathroom was tiny. I weigh 68 kg and found washing my hair difficult; the shower water mostly hit the wall instead of me. Breakfast wasn't what the reviews had led me to expect, or maybe those reviewers aren't familiar with hotel or inn breakfasts. My first one was awful: green mango in tiny pieces, papaya cut into about 50 pieces, an overbaked hard cake in just one flavor, and a mini sandwich so bad I couldn't swallow it after biting into it. It improved over the following days, with cheese bread that saved things and two kinds of cake. The table was covered with little flies landing on everything, and they probably lay larvae. Coffee was always served after 8:00. My husband made the reservation.

We booked through Booking.com, and the rooms looked good in the photos, with spacious bathrooms. On arrival, they put us in rooms 1 and 2, both small, with hardly any space for clothes, tiny bathrooms, and a strong musty smell. I complained about my room and they moved me to room 7, which was much better and more like the one I'd seen in the photos. The other room wasn't changed.

It’s a lovely place in a great spot, just 50 meters from Rua Mucugê, but it feels poorly managed. The service was awful; the girls working there didn’t seem to know anything. The rooms weren’t cleaned every day, and the shower and toilet had weak water pressure. The internet was slow, the TV kept freezing, and the bedding was worn out. The breakfast was very basic, so I’d go down at 8, when there was at least something to eat. Once food ran out, there was practically no more brought out. The inn itself is nice, though.