Adore Portugal Coimbra Guest House

The house itself is beautiful, and the room had a quaint feel, but the bed was uncomfortable enough that it was hard to get proper rest. We also hadn’t realized the bathroom wasn’t inside the room. When we brought it up, the owner said the listing called it “private,” though we understood that to mean attached to the room. The stay was okay overall.

We left and found another room for the night because we felt so unwelcome. The room we’d booked wasn’t available, and the alternatives had bathrooms shared with all the rooms on their floors. M***a, who we think was the owner, kept telling us, more than 20 times, that we could leave if we didn’t like it. When we did start to go, she seemed offended and acted surprised that we felt uncomfortable. Getting in had already been difficult. The door code we were given didn’t work, and the management company we’d been speaking with said it no longer worked with this property. We waited outside in the dark while I tried the owner’s number they’d provided, but there was no answer. After my son knocked repeatedly, someone eventually let us in. It was late, so we hesitated over what to do when we were offered two rooms on different floors, neither with a private bathroom. We’d booked a room with three beds and its own bath. The refund took a lot of work too. Since the property couldn’t provide the room or even the same setup, and we’d booked earlier that day, we thought this would be straightforward. Booking.com first said the property had to agree, which we didn’t expect after dealing with M***a. I spent a lot of time emailing and calling them and escalating the complaint. We eventually got nearly all the cost of the night refunded, even though we hadn’t stayed there. This was the worst stay of our three-week trip, during which we booked many places in Portugal and Morocco through Booking.com. I’m usually more likely to review places I’ve liked, and we don’t complain much, but I wanted to share what happened. Nothing matched what was advertised. Looking back, I should have read the negative Google reviews first. We’re clearly not the only ones who’ve had this kind of experience.

At check-in, the room we’d booked wasn’t available, there was no parking or private bathroom, and the owner was hostile and rude. She told us around 20 times that we could leave if we didn’t like it, so we left and found somewhere else. Later, she acted surprised and said she’d never had issues. We had to spend a long time taking the refund dispute up with the third-party booking site because she resisted refunding us. After the owner replied, denying everything, I felt that showed a lack of accountability. The other poor reviews describe similar problems, so we weren’t the only ones. I rarely leave negative reviews, but I do when I want to warn people about seriously bad treatment or conditions. Reading the reviews and the owner’s replies, I think she’s gaslighting people. It’s good that some guests had a nice stay, but the repeated complaints from others would make me wary. Buyer beware.

That warm hospitality really stood out. The host family were kind, and the house had a smooth, charming elegance, with refined rooms and lovely art and furniture. We also enjoyed a lovely terrace breakfast with Fado playing in the background. Such an adorable Coimbra House.