Residencial Capri by Umbral

I arrived at 4pm, the official check-in time, for my two-night February booking through Booking.com, but the place was completely shut. There was nobody at reception or anywhere on the property. I tried both listed phone numbers and got no answer. After waiting outside for a couple of hours, I spoke with owners of nearby shops. They said this apparently happens often and that other guests had complained about the same thing. In the end I gave up and booked another hotel nearby at the last minute. Weeks later, I still have no response or refund. Really disappointing, unprofessional service. Albufeira has thousands of hotels, hostels, and Airbnbs, so do yourself a favour and book elsewhere. Don’t let this place ruin your holiday.

The nice view from the window and the low price were about the only good points. There’s a bidet too. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend this place. The shower leaks onto the floor, nobody comes to clean, and you only get soap and toilet paper once. There’s no one at reception, so you have to call and then wait around half an hour for staff to show up. They ask for a €200 deposit even though everything in the rooms is already old and there’s little to damage. If you leave the deposit in cash, you have to wait for someone to come back and return it. Better to spend that money on a more expensive hotel.

The rooms were dated but clean. There was no extractor in the toilet, though, and it smelled of mould. At checkout we were laughing that we’d “escaped,” because the stay felt like torture. With some attention from management, a lick of paint, and a staff change, this place could be great. We waited outside for two hours before reception finally arrived. He gave us one key and said it worked for both doors. When we returned at a reasonable 2145, it didn’t fit. Another guest let us in. She’d been there six days and seemed to have taken on an unpaid job, since people kept coming to her room to ask to be let inside. After we waited outside some more, the night receptionist arrived and blamed guests for losing keys, saying management needed time to replace them. Come on, it’s the same key.

We didn’t stay and found another place, but they still refused to refund us. The furniture was in really poor condition, and the €200 deposit they asked for only added to our concerns, especially after we’d seen comments about bedbugs and wanted to inspect the rooms. The deposit hadn’t been mentioned while searching on Booking.com. We booked, received confirmation, and only after paying did the receptionist say it was in the purchase contract. That’s nonsense. It MUST be shown on the first page of Booking.com. I’m sure there are plenty of better alternatives. Stay away from this accommodation.