Porto Lounge Hostel & Guesthouse

The room and sheets were clean, the location was good, and things were quiet in general. But whenever my roommate walked around or shifted in bed, the whole floor shook. It felt like an earthquake, and I could feel the bed move with every step. That made it hard to sleep, which really brought down the stay. There was no curtain on the upper bunks either, so there was no privacy. The hostel had emailed us the day before check-in to say curtains would be installed, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I was told the work would take place during our stay, and that we couldn’t be in the room for most of the day, from 10:00-19:00. After a night of being kept awake by the shaking, I couldn’t catch up on sleep during the day, and there was no compensation.

I’ve never stayed in a more perfect hostel. The receptionist was incredibly warm, and the hospitality was out of this world. The place felt really modern, and the location couldn’t have been better. They even got me to write a review.

They cancelled our booking by email at 17:00, two hours after check-in had started, saying there was water damage. Since it was Friday night, finding somewhere else in the city was difficult. They said the hostel had no other rooms, but I saw our room listed on Airbnb for twice the price. We still haven’t received a refund, and my emails about it have gone unanswered.

It’s a lovely, clean little hostel and generally quiet, but there isn’t much of a social atmosphere. The common areas are small, and whether staff made conversation depended on who was working. As a solo traveler, I’d hoped to meet people, but that mostly wasn’t the kind of experience here. The location is handy, a short walk from Trindade station, and it’s easy to walk into central Porto or take the bus or metro toward the beach.