Braganca Oporto Hotel

I slept well, and the location and managers were nice. Still, the room was tiny, with a moldy smell and food stains on the curtains. Its window opened onto the smoking lobby, the AC didn’t work, and there was noise both inside and outside at night. The bed was too short for me at 180 cm.

The room was small and uncomfortable, and we found ants crawling in the beds even though we hadn’t brought food into the room. There were dead bugs behind them too. Breakfast was served in a crowded kitchen with barely enough space to eat. We got bread with ham and cheese, which the manager had said he made himself, plus orange juice diluted with water. They used disposable plates that hadn’t been washed properly. We paid far too much for what we got, 1/10, and the room wasn’t advertised as Low Cost.

The room was very small but clean, and the bed was comfortable. The location was great.

We paid more than 210 euros for two people and two nights at Bragança Oporto Hotel, and the whole experience was awful. We’d chosen it through a travel portal for the photos and its closeness to the city center, despite the high price. At check-in, staff told us in Portuguese that the room was booked for one person and we’d have to pay extra for the second. No one could speak even basic English, so we had to use Google Translate ourselves. We’d already paid a large part in advance. We still can’t tell whether the portal or the hotel made the booking error, and the room is still offered for two people today. The room was run down. We photographed yellow stains on several walls, holes in the bathroom walls, a shower that couldn’t be used properly, and a bathroom door that wouldn’t close and stayed slightly open. The bed fell apart on the first day, cables were tangled everywhere, and the internet was so bad I had to work in the hallway. On top of that, the street directly outside the window had been torn up. A jackhammer started early in the morning just a few meters away, with no advance notice from the hotel and no refund. I called that criminal. After the trip, since proper communication with staff wasn’t possible, we emailed management in English with the photos and asked for a partial refund. They replied in Portuguese with an incredibly arrogant letter, accusing us of deliberately breaking the shower and bed because we weren’t allowed to use the hallway toilet and breakfast wasn’t included in the 210 euro room. We were stunned. Their aggressive, insulting replies on various rating sites might have given us a clue about how they’d react. They ignored all the other problems we’d described. How could they claim we brought drills and made holes in the walls without anyone noticing? And how could we be responsible for yellow water stains that may have been there for years? The way Bragança Oporto Hotel behaved was malicious and dishonest. More than 210 euros for a shabby room and impolite staff feels like a tourist trap. I can only suggest thinking carefully before staying there. It’s an absolute disgrace.