LUXa Charm House by LovelyStay

The surroundings are great, but this is just a room for the night, not somewhere I’d stay longer. Parking wasn’t explained in advance and the links they sent didn’t work. We only got an email warning about parking after checking in. The room was very basic, without even chairs, and we couldn’t find a kitchen, so there was no way to make coffee or tea in the morning. The shower had enough warm water for one person, not two, and the toilet smelled. The stairs are tight, so I’d avoid it if you have a large trolley.

We had a spacious enough room on the top floor, #9, for our family of five. It was cool outside at the end of June, so opening the windows a bit kept us comfortable, though there’s no AC. Check-in was easy with codes and lock boxes. Parking is the one challenge: there’s no dedicated lot, just a few spaces out front, maybe 10-15, and if those are full, finding another spot could be difficult. Otherwise, the location is perfect, within easy walking distance of Sintra’s sights and restaurants.

The location is great: it’s a 10-minute walk to Quinta da Regaleira and a 30-minute walk or hike to the Moorish castle and Pena. But expect street noise from the tuk tuk parking, with drivers shouting, the bus stop and tourists outside, and the glass collection truck around 00:30. There’s no proper kitchen. They had something like a dining room with a sink, three plates and random cutlery, but not even a kettle. We bought canned food and made vegetable salads for breakfast, then got hot coffee or tea at a café. A microwave was locked away for cleaning staff only, and the paid coffee machine was switched off during our stay. And they call themselves a hotel?!

“Best thing I never had.” We’d seen the bad reviews before booking, but the charming decor made us think it couldn’t be that bad. We didn’t even get into a room, and the hotel staff eventually stopped responding. There’s no physical staff on site, since the system uses your phone as the key for every door. Supposedly, but it failed on both the front door and room door. We tried to sort it out by phone with the remote staff. An hour later, even after they changed our room allocation, we still couldn’t get in. They told us the system had crashed and they’d have to refund us so we could find somewhere else. It was 6:30pm, and finding another place that day in a decent location at a reasonable price wasn’t easy. Apparently other guests had run into the same issue, so why hadn’t they warned us or offered solutions? We politely turned down the refund. The hotel then said they’d ask Booking.com to relocate us without extra charge. About 45 minutes later, Booking.com offered a hostel with worse conditions than we’d paid for. We declined and tried contacting the hotel again, since they were handling the situation. After that, we couldn’t reach anyone. We left messages but never got a call back and had to fend for ourselves. All the bad reviews online, old and new, are true. Don’t be fooled like we were. Stay away from this nightmare.