Portal Beach - Rede Soberano

The setting in Bahia and Porto Seguro is beautiful, and the location has restaurants nearby, plus a pharmacy and gas station just a minute or two away. Breakfast had a decent range. But for a hotel rated four stars, this stay was hugely disappointing. I’d put it nearer two, perhaps pushing three, and wouldn’t return without major improvements. We had to change rooms twice before getting one that was adequate. The first had visible mold in the shower. The second had hair across the floor; the third was better, though nobody cleaned under the beds. Hair clogged the sink tap and was never cleared, and a used soap bar sat on the windowsill throughout the stay. The room had both a shower and a bath, but I wasn’t sure either was clean enough to use, so I stuck to the shower. Room cleaning seemed limited to what was visible, with no deep clean during our stay. The pools weren’t cleaned for the first three days, and leaves floated in a visible film of dirt. The adult pools were too deep for my short partner for all seven days. Even I found the water up to my neck, with no range of depths, so she had to use the kids’ pool. The doors felt flimsy enough that a little force might knock them over, making the key cards pointless. The sauna and gym were out of service for the full week, including our departure day. Service was short-staffed in several places. There weren’t enough people at reception during the day to handle questions, check-ins, and check-outs, though it seemed better staffed in quieter periods. At the restaurant and pool, usually only one or two staff were around, orders took ages, and we often had to go find someone to get anything. On our first day, I ordered a juice they didn’t have, chose another when asked, then was charged for both despite receiving only one. Twice we found hair in restaurant food, and twice we were served old chicken that smelled bad. Most breakfast plates were chipped. The beach club had a very limited food and drink menu, and service was poor even early in the morning when hardly anyone was there. It was quicker to go elsewhere, and the kitchen seemed to be out of some basic foods. The Wi-Fi was open to anyone, with no guest-only password, and barely worked outside the lobby or restaurant. It was extremely slow even for basic browsing. Staff used the same network, which made it harder for them to help people, especially around the restaurant and pool. They need a separate staff connection.