Omid Saldanha Hotel

I stayed at this hotel in September 2025. After I had checked out and was already at Lisbon Airport, the hotel contacted me to say they had found my mobile phone in the room. I asked right away if they could send it to the airport using a third-party service such as Uber. They refused, and instead assured me it would be stored securely and returned “in its original condition” when I next came to Lisbon. I relied on that assurance and travelled from the UK to Lisbon in January 2026 specifically to collect the phone. On 4 January 2026, I went to the front desk. The same employee who had handled my check-in and check-out in September helped me. He searched around the hotel for nearly twenty minutes, then said he couldn’t find the phone and asked me to come back the next day. I returned on 5 January. A different front desk employee checked my ID and stay details, then retrieved the phone from a staff working room next to the desk. It was completely out of battery and switched off. In the public front desk area, under staff supervision and camera coverage, the employee connected it to a charger. I didn’t touch or operate the phone at any point. As soon as it powered on, I noticed several serious problems. All data had been erased, including personal and family photos, personal information, and saved passwords, which indicated the phone had been factory reset. I tried calling it, but the call wouldn’t go through. When I opened the SIM tray, the SIM card had been physically removed. Most concerning, after the reset the phone automatically connected to a WiFi network clearly labelled “staff WiFi”. Staff WiFi and guest WiFi are separate, and guests don’t have the staff network credentials. When I raised this, the staff said they didn’t know what had happened, but also insisted that the phone had never been touched since it was found and had always been kept in the staff working room beside the front desk. Those claims don’t fit what I observed. If no one had accessed the phone, there is no reasonable explanation for the factory reset, removed SIM card, and connection to a staff-only network. It also doesn’t fit that the phone couldn’t be located after an extended search on 4 January, then was quickly found in the front desk work area the next day. Afterward, I contacted the hotel asking for a reasonable explanation, an apology, or basic compensation. They explicitly refused both an apology and any compensation. I also asked them to review or provide CCTV footage from the front desk and relevant areas to help clarify what happened. They refused to provide it or cooperate with a review, despite repeatedly referring to cameras and secure storage in their explanations. I am willing to take legal responsibility for the accuracy of everything I’ve stated. These are not assumptions or emotional claims, but a clear and verifiable sequence of events. The hotel promised to return my phone “in its original condition”, but I received a device that had clearly been altered while in their custody. This raises serious concerns for me about the hotel’s lost property handling, internal security, and transparency when problems arise. If a hotel can’t safeguard a lost personal item or explain what happened to it, guests have reason to question how well their belongings and personal privacy are protected. I would not recommend leaving personal belongings here, and I won’t stay here again.

The staff were lovely and spoke fluent English, and the cleaning lady worked quickly and paid close attention to detail. I could hear people in neighboring rooms, so the soundproofing wasn’t great. Still, I had a good stay.

The location near the university was good, but the rooms were tiny. I’ve stayed in bigger cruise ship cabins. The breakfast buffet was average.

The place is simple and covers the main needs. It was very clean, and the staff were friendly and helpful. The one thing I’d change is breakfast, since it was the same every day. It could use at least three different menus during the week.