Guest Urban – Hotel Design – Pinheiros

The location is pretty good, but €90 for a twin room felt expensive for the overall experience. The rooms were standard, and ours smelled of chemicals, like it had been painted just a few hours earlier. The sliding windows were well designed, but didn't have locks, which felt a bit unsafe, and outside noise came through easily. Breakfast was like a hostel's. They ask you to choose your food in the check-in steps, but then asked us for our order again, so that process doesn't seem to communicate well with the staff. Checking in was the worst part. It's time consuming, complicated, and poorly designed. You have to fill in a form, upload photos of your documents, and select breakfast in advance. After 6pm, you also have to wait 5-10 minutes for reception to unlock the door remotely. Then you need to set up face recognition yourself before you can come and go. If you arrive after 6pm, those steps are done on your own with only partial remote support. They didn't work well and were really annoying.

The garden was nicely lit and the residential area was great, but the stay was very overpriced. For the first two nights, we were cramped in a tiny room with just small bottles of shampoo and body wash. You had to buy everything else, and even the water cost a ridiculous amount. Then they moved us to an even smaller room in the garden, for the same price. It looked and felt like a storeroom. Check carefully which room you're getting. Not worth the price.

A decent option for younger alternative travelers or foreigners with a backpack, in a great neighborhood. They give out free fruit popsicles. My first night was rough because the air conditioning didn't work, and the drywall made things a little noisy. I bought a fan and managed to get through it.

A charming city hotel with a hip feel and very friendly staff. We accidentally left a bag here and came back the following week to get it. It was still there with nothing missing, and they found it easily. Great place!