Yellow House - Deluxe Double Room With Sofa bed Porto

The place was inexpensive and tidy, with a good kitchen and a handy location. I enjoyed the free walking tour, though it went on for a long time, and breakfast was just average. We did have trouble getting into the hostel because there isn’t service around the clock.

Private, nice studios, just a short distance from the train station.

Listed as three stars, but it fell well short. The value for money was poor. The floorboards creaked, the lighting was dim, and there was a really unpleasant moldy smell. Cleaning was bad, though the bed itself was comfortable. The toilet flush didn’t work properly, and the listing mentioned a bathroom on an open balcony, which wasn’t at all pleasant at night. The building was old and in very poor condition. I never saw anyone from the accommodation, and we could hear everything the neighbors did. I wouldn’t recommend it.

We booked through Booking, and the first thing that went wrong was arriving without knowing which room was ours. There was no reception. The place was filthy and old; even with an old building, better hygiene and presentation would have made a huge difference. There was a very dirty-looking little old lady, and an antique hand basin that might have been charming if it weren’t filthy and in such bad shape. Part of the window frame was missing, though we could have overlooked that. The bathroom fixtures were awful. The sink was so low it wasn’t high enough even for my 1.50 m companion, almost like it was meant for a child. The showers were filthy. The toilet had no lighting because it was in its own little cubicle. The toilet paper holder was a tree trunk, which was bizarre, though those last two things weren’t the worst problems. To turn on the bathroom light, we had to walk back around the room to the entrance. There was a door from the entrance into the bathroom, but a piece of furniture blocked it. The wardrobe was just a clothes rack, and for climate control there was a desk fan sitting on the floor. We heard coffee being made in other rooms all night. The cloth on the table with the coffee machine was completely dirty. The one bright spot was having an electric kettle and coffee machine. After our first night, I messaged Booking customer support about the conditions and how they didn’t match the listing. Booking contacted the host. In the morning, I got a message saying the host had cancelled our second night because we hadn’t shown up. That wasn’t true. The email arrived at 12:30 and gave us until 1 p.m. to remove our bags. Luckily, we weren’t far away. I contacted the person in charge, who arrogantly told me, “We don’t force anyone to stay.” I said I had no problem staying the second night since there was only one more, and I hadn’t even been trying to make a complaint. I’d never heard of a place responding to an unhappy customer by essentially throwing them out instead of trying to improve the service or offer compensation. It felt arrogant. When I got upset, she gave us until 2 p.m. to collect our bags. We could only guess that telling Booking we hadn’t shown up was an attempt either to avoid refunding the second night, which was booked at a non-refundable rate, or to stop us leaving a negative Booking review. Fortunately, Booking handled it right away, and we got the second night refunded in time to book an AirBNB for it. The whole thing upset us and ruined our second vacation day. Friends had recommended the place, but we understood it had changed management, which may explain the older positive reviews that give the wrong impression. I can’t recommend it. Basic hygiene, good manners and treating guests well matter.