Passport Lisbon Boutique Hostel

The location is perfect, and we had a cool-looking private room, the red music room, with a shared bathroom on the top floor. It was very dark, though. After our second night of a planned four-night stay, my boyfriend and I found bites all over us and then spotted a huge bed bug crawling around. At first we'd thought the bites were from mosquitoes. The receptionist was really friendly. They called the manager, who refunded all four nights, and we found somewhere else for our final two nights. All of that happened at 10:30 on a Friday night. If you stay, check for bed bugs right away.

The location was great, right in the old town with lots of bars and restaurants close by, and the main train station was about a 10-minute walk. We stayed five nights in late September in a nice-looking room for two with a shared bathroom. It felt more like renting a room in an Airbnb apartment than staying at a hostel, and there was a particular smell. The mattress was awful and really uncomfortable, maybe polystyrene or something. I tried the breakfast once and wouldn't go back. The bread, cheese, pastrami, and pastries weren't fresh or good quality. Honestly, they might be better off not offering breakfast, or just doing fresh croissants and coffee.

The location and value were hard to beat. The hostel is right by historic Tram 28, a three-minute walk from the Metro, and close to restaurants, bars, nightlife, outdoor grills, and the main sights. The airport ride by Uber was pretty cheap. We spent three nights in the private suite overlooking the square. The huge king bed was great, and the in-room AC worked well. The room was dark and could use more lights, especially in the bathroom, which had a slight mold smell and could use better ventilation. Wifi was okay, though a paid high-quality streaming option would be nice. I never tried the breakfast, and the TV was comically tiny, like Michael Scott's plasma. I'd absolutely recommend it for the location and price.

We left stressed and worried that bed bugs might be in our luggage and clothes. We had to inspect and bag what we could, and it took a long time. My friend and I were in a six-bed room with three bunks. Around 3 am, a woman woke up, brought the front desk man in, spoke with him in Portuguese, then changed beds. Nobody told us anything, so we went back to sleep. At 8 am, the same man and a maid came in while the woman spoke Portuguese again, and they partially stripped the bed. She left without anyone explaining what was happening. By about 10, we saw bed bugs on that bed. Staff confirmed they were bed bugs and said they'd been waiting for us to leave before stripping all the beds. We were shocked they hadn't warned us, so we gathered our things and left. When we called, they said the problem was limited to that bed, but told us to clean all our belongings. We asked them to help with the big job of trying to kill bugs in our clothes and bags, but they said it wasn't their problem and wouldn't do anything since neither of us had been bitten yet. Bed bugs happen, but the staff's handling of this was unacceptable. If we bring them home, I'll contact the staff again and insist they pay for extermination. Shameful behavior, Passport hostel. The city-center location was very loud at night, though it didn't bother us much because everything was close.