Hotel Torre Praia Hotel

The sunset lounge above the old tower is a great place to take a cold beer and watch the sun go down. The hotel is right on the beach, and you can walk to restaurants and sights like the Columbus house museum. Our room was clean and comfortable, with a minibar, and I slept well on the bed. The ground-floor balconies open onto the pool area, so you can go straight from the pool to your room. The pool is a nice spot to stretch out with a book and cool off with a swim, and there’s a nearby shower to rinse off the chlorine and ocean water. The breakfast and dinner buffets are pretty good if you don’t feel like going farther.

We never stayed at Hotel Torre Praia, but they still kept the full amount for our 7-night booking, around €700+. We made an honest mistake about the location and told them well before check-in, a week before our trip. Despite Booking.com offering to waive its commission to help with a refund, the hotel wouldn’t make an exception to its policy. The replies from staff were slow and unhelpful, and the ‘solutions’ they eventually suggested were impractical and seemed impossible for us to use. The Manager kept saying “we are obliged to stick to the policy” without explaining who “we” meant, and we couldn’t find out who had made the decision. We sent a formal complaint email after several attempts to resolve it and never got a reply, either from the Manager handling our case or anyone copied in. Their lack of empathy, flexibility, and proper communication was extremely disappointing and unprofessional. Given the honest mistake and the time they had to rebook the room, it’s hard to understand the decision. It feels like financial gain comes first, even when guests are in a difficult situation. Other reviews suggest this isn’t the first time, and that the hotel operates on an “easy money” policy. I wouldn’t recommend it.

The beach location is great, and the town centre is an easy walk away, but we left disappointed. The property needs updating, and our room had no electrical or USB outlets near the bed. The air conditioning wasn’t working at check-in; maintenance spent two hours on it and only partly fixed it, so it cooled a little but not well. They also left the toilet dirty. On our last night there was no hot water for a shower, though it had returned by morning.

We had booked a room to celebrate a birthday and March 8, but a storm stopped us from reaching Porto Santa. The ferries were cancelled for three days, so we had no way to get to the island. We cancelled the reservation and the hotel kept 50% of the price. Since we couldn't travel through no fault of our own, that felt extremely unfair.