Pousada Maanaim 1

Great.

Great.

The beachfront location is wonderful, but I was shocked at how run down the pousada has become. I knew it more than eight years ago, when it was a reference point, and was very disappointed this time. I regretted booking here. Most of the guests were making the same complaints and said they wouldn’t come back. I feel the same. The TV has no cable antenna and relies on internet, so when the connection goes down, there’s nothing to watch. Old, faulty windows let mosquitoes in easily. The bath towels are worn and dingy, and the bathroom is in very poor shape, with a bad shower, broken shower enclosure, and a smell that often spread into the room. Everything looked dirty, and the doors and walls need repairs. Breakfast is tasty, but starts late, only at 8 a.m. The roof tiles over the snack bar’s covered area are mostly broken, so you can’t sit or eat there when it rains. The paving, pedestrian entrance, and outdoor shower are all broken and pose a risk to people. Parking is terrible.

There’s potential here, and the location and a few features suggest it could be a really pleasant place with some investment and better management. As it is, though, the stay was defined more by what was missing than what was there. The service didn’t make up for the structural problems. The receptionist who greeted us was notably rude, leaving a first impression that took a while to fade. At lunch, our orders simply weren’t written down, so we waited more than an hour and nothing came. Dinner went the same way. We started eating at the neighboring pousada instead. That worked, but it points to a serious problem with the food service. The basic setup itself wouldn’t have bothered me. Simple pousadas can be charming. Here, though, simple felt more like neglected. The furniture, building, and bedding all looked as if they hadn’t had investment in a long time. Our room was much smaller than the others, and its bathroom was so cramped there wasn’t even room for a sink inside. The sheets and pillows were clean, which deserves credit, but the blanket smelled musty and undermined the sense of cleanliness. Our relatively new TV with internet access and quiet, effective air conditioner were pleasant surprises. Most others in our group, however, said their ceiling fans and air conditioners were noisy, disturbing many people’s rest. One night, I woke in the middle of the night to noises in the ceiling, apparently a cat moving around up there. Most of the old, poorly maintained showers were clogged, and guests had to take them apart themselves to clean inside and get even a minimally adequate water flow. The administration office at the entrance to the room corridor seemed like the clearest sign of the neglect. Its condition said a lot about the attention given to the place overall.