Pousada St Patrick

This was awful. I booked for December in May, paid the full amount upfront, and confirmed the reservation at the end of November. When we arrived on Wednesday the 18th, they simply didn't have our booking available anymore. They put us in an inn far away, where we'd have to drive everywhere. We had no choice. They just told us the name of the place and disappeared. To make matters worse, they said it was a branch of this inn. When we got there, the woman who checked us in spoke as if what happened was our fault, and denied it was a branch. The other inn was far away and dirty, and they even ran out of milk at breakfast. I'm very disappointed. This kind of business gives the city a bad name.

The location really is good, about a 10 to 15 minute walk to the town center. I'd stayed here before and brushed off the shallow comments on Google and TripAdvisor, so here's more detail to help others avoid my mistake. The breakfast is meant to be simple, which is fine, but simple and poor are different things. When there was fruit, it was papaya and sometimes banana. There were no eggs except on the first day, and only a few tasteless slices of mozzarella, which ran out with no refills. On day one the cheese was grated. I think it may have been left over from the pizza at the owners' restaurant. The breakfast they show on Instagram isn't what we got. The worst part was cleanliness. Every sheet and towel had yellow and black stains, like eyeliner. I was told they came that way from the laundry. If so, they should change laundries instead of carrying on like this. The rooms all had some issue: a stuck door that was hard to shut, mold on the bedroom or bathroom walls, or swollen cabinets. Gramado is humid, so things need more frequent upkeep. The air conditioning was the only good thing in the room. Aside from Beatriz, who handles cleaning and sometimes works reception, the person on WhatsApp didn't know how to deal with guests. After a 10-hour trip, I couldn't get my wallet out to pay the remaining 50% at check-in. I'd put it inside my backpack so I wouldn't lose it between connections and transfers. When I left the room, nobody was at reception, so I waited a few minutes and went outside. Close to 11 pm, I got a WhatsApp asking if I was in my room and saying they'd send someone to collect the rest of the bill. That's bordering on absurd. Half the stay was already paid as a deposit, and I was there for several days. Why bother a guest at 11 at night when I could pay in the morning? I'd stayed at pousada cantinho da serra (formerly st patrick) before and came back because the first stay was great. This time was all disappointment. I paid 1,600 for 5 days, and it wasn't worth half that. There were better options with just as good a location for a similar price. In high season in Gramado everyone seems to want to charge more, but what you get doesn't match. For that price, they should at least serve a breakfast like the one on Instagram, maintain the rooms, and provide linens that don't make you feel sick.

We were left to fend for ourselves. The person in charge showed up when we arrived to collect payment, then we didn't see her again during the rest of our stay, not even at checkout. There was never anyone at reception, and they barely answered messages when we needed something. Even the toilet paper we asked for never arrived. There was just one employee handling breakfast, cleaning all the rooms, and covering reception when she had time. Breakfast wasn't much to begin with, and on the day we needed it most, before a scheduled winery tour, it was terribly late and we couldn't eat. Nobody was there to explain what had happened. There were several leaks in the room while it was raining constantly, and they said they couldn't move us. With nobody at the front desk and the door only pulled shut, we felt there was no security at all.

A horrible stay. The room was dirty, the pillows moldy, and the bathroom filthy with grime. Since we couldn't find anywhere else to stay, I had to wash the bathroom and clean the room with bleach. The person only showed up to take payment, then disappeared as soon as we got in. It rained into the room overnight and flooded the bathroom, and we lost all power. By morning, the person didn't seem to care about what had happened. It was the real lodging nightmare in Gramado. I wouldn't go back even if it were free.