Ginjinha Guest House

The room was clean, and the kitchen had the basics. Restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and the shopping area are all close by, and the train station is about a 15-minute walk away. It’s downtown Lisbon, so nearby bars make it noisy. Bring your own earplugs.

I’m traveling solo and having an awesome time in this terrific, centrally located area. Diogo is very accommodating, and the cafe downstairs and its bartenders are great. This is my fourth day here, and I’ll be back in March.

We were surprised to find no guesthouse or even a sign at the address on the booking site. My husband and I walked around the block and checked the email repeatedly to make sure we had the right place, then called the listed number to ask where to go. The person who answered gave no explanation. He asked us to wait 10 minutes while he came to meet us, without asking where we were. After five minutes, we called again for an explanation. He only said he was on the way and that we should wait another five minutes. This time I gave him our address, though he still hadn’t asked for it. When he arrived, we asked why the hotel wasn’t at the listed address. He said we should have waited for him to pick us up, that we were lucky he wasn’t an hour away, and that it was a guesthouse without a reception. We had told the property when booking that we’d arrive between 15:00 and 16:00, and got a confirmation email a few minutes later. He said that email didn’t count because it was automatic. He also said he’d sent another email asking about check-in, but we never received it. He wasn’t courteous and acted like he was doing us a huge favor by taking us to the place we’d paid for. We reached the guesthouse 30 minutes after our expected check-in, three blocks away from the address on the site. To our surprise, it also had a different name from the one listed. The room didn’t match the photos, though it was nice and clean. The man said the pictured room belonged to him, but was at another property. We were also given a room with a shared bathroom, which we’d never choose, especially as I was pregnant and needed the toilet more often. At least the bathroom was clean, and we only shared it with one couple. I checked the website, and both the English and Portuguese versions called it a “standard double room”; only the small print mentioned a shared bathroom. I missed that detail and ended up sharing, but we travel a lot and haven’t run into this before, since places usually make it very clear, often in bold and underlined text, when a bathroom is shared.

Everything was very good, including the hygiene and conditions, which exceeded expectations. Congratulations.