Golden Tower Express Franca by Fênix Hotéis

The stay was horrible. I can't call it bad, because that would suggest it only needed a little improvement. I'm giving it two stars out of consideration, though the experience deserved one. We arrived on 26/05 and are leaving tomorrow, 29/05. We haven't even checked out yet, but I doubt things could get worse, and they're already very bad. Breakfast was a mess: dirty tables and piles of dishes, with too few employees to clean or organize the room even when tables were free. We were on the first floor facing an extremely noisy avenue. It felt like there wasn't even a window, the street noise came in constantly. The room had two beds, but on the last day I noticed housekeeping had cleaned only one and changed only one set of sheets. The other bed was left exactly as it had been. Getting towels was another problem. It felt like we had to beg for them. There were no hand towels, and bath towels were rationed. There were two of us in the room but they left just one towel. I've never seen that in a hotel. When I called reception for another, the employee told me to come downstairs and get it. I don't blame him, he was clearly alone at the desk and couldn't leave. The problem is the hotel's lack of staff and organization. I stayed here back when it was still Íbis, and I really miss those days. After the Tower chain took over, I hope I don't have to come back.

The room was okay, but the daily service was basically taking out the trash and changing towels. They didn't even straighten the bed, it stayed the way I'd roughly made it. There was mold in the shower enclosure, which needed a proper bleach cleaning, and the noise from other rooms was bad because the internal soundproofing was awful. Breakfast had no real protein choices beyond scrambled eggs, which I don't eat.

The service from Pedro was awful. He was rude and sarcastic, and kept saying he wasn't there to solve anything and that we should complain to whoever made the reservation. We arrived in our room with no pillows. When we called, he said we had to get them at reception. The pillows there had no cases, and he told us to complain to the person in charge the next day. Nobody should have to stay somewhere this abandoned when it comes to service and hospitality. Check the reviews before you fall for this.

I wish I'd read the reviews before booking. The place was terrible and had no basic hygiene. We even found an opened condom under the bed. The photos speak for themselves. The receptionists seemed to hate working there. They answered reluctantly, almost rudely. They charged me an extra fee when I arrived at night in the rain, when I didn't have much choice, so I swallowed it and paid R$ 150 more. They had wanted R$ 250. I insisted that the charge go through Booking, and I'm now fighting there to get back the amount they charged unfairly. There are much better hotels in Franca. Stay away from this one. P.S. This rating is for the former management, when the building was an Ibis. If you rated only this new one, I doubt it would get more than a 2.