Hotels near Palacete da Rua Dom João IV in Porto

Me and my family are planning a holiday to Algarve, but as direct flights don’t run everyday to Faro, we decided to make a 3-day short trip at Porto before heading to Algarve. We saw Almada Domus on Expedia and decided to stay there as the photos look pretty and it describes its location as very central to all tourists attractions in Porto. Unfortunately, after we made the booking we realised that the hotel is actually located some blocks away from the main streets and requires a short climb uphill to get to, which will be a challenge for my husband who suffers from recurring Achilles tendinitis that makes walking difficult and would require walking aides. On the same day, within 2 hours after making our booking, I emailed the hotel to enquire about cancellation. I explained to Fabio (which I assume is the manager/ owner of the hotel) about my situation and at that time he seemed to be willing to accommodate my request but advised me to contact Expedia directly. I then spoke with Expedia and was told that they can do a free cancellation upon confirming with the hotel that they’re ok with it. Over 20 emails back and forth with the hotel since last evening, and this morning Fabio abruptly changed his tone and said he will not allow a free cancellation and we will have to pay a 50% penalty, as the booking is now “outside the 2-hour cancellation window”, and it would be “unfair to other guests” (even though I did contact the hotel about cancelling within 2 hours after making my booking, hoping to minimise the impact on their business). I was also told by Fabio that “Porto is a hilly city like Lisbon, which are not friendly for people with walking difficulties” and said but we can Uber everywhere…. I was very shocked with his last comments and obviously disappointed that he was unwilling to help even though he said he would at the beginning when I first contacted.

The hotel is very close to the train station and a few minutes walk away. Since I brought my child, I made up some fees at the front desk and upgraded to a family room (the child has a separate single bed). The room is very large, there are two small balconies, the facilities are very new, clean, the service is very good, check-in and check-out are very fast. A little distance from the attraction, but walking all the way to see, will not feel very tired.

This place is actually an old motel that has clearly gone bankrupt and still tries to get naive customers to a trap. It smells of mold, there is no shower ( just a broken whirlpool ), there is no maintenance and the staff is clearly unwilling to look after the guests. To make it worse - if possible - they tried to cheat Booking pretending I was not there ( although I have my credit cards statements to prove ) just not to pay their commission. When I wrote this on the Booking review the owner was extremely impolite and aggressive , as his plote was denounced. Honestly, it makes no sense staying there even if it was for free. Run away from this joint!!

While the hotel and the staff were great - getting to the address was difficult. Rua da Allegria is a long steep hill with all traffic coming down - so no chance of an easy bus ride. There IS a Metro within walking distance but there is NO Tourist Office at the city bus station

I would like to make a comment on the Novotel because I was really surprised by the positive, I was going without great expectations, I saw some comments that mentioned the old and lack of modernity, and that is not the reality. The hotel is wonderful. The entrance is huge, staff are super friendly and make it easy to stay. We stay in a room with sea view. With a good bathroom, with a large bathroom. The room's closet is huge! The room was very nice, with a decoration, and cozy. The room was air conditioned and a mini bar included in the price of all the drinks of the room. The restaurant was very beautiful. The pool was very good. The water was always brown. I assessed the Novotel with a 9 and I don't give a 10 for the size of the pool. It is a very good hotel and looked for families with children, which makes the pool always full. As for breakfast, I also want to give a praise, because it is quite varied and they never let things end. I liked it very much

If possible, I would suggest avoiding this hotel. There were many issues with this stay. Let me attempt to break this down in a structured way: Hotel: This hotel has no Porter, no trolley cart. So if you’re traveling with a family and have bags / need baggage assistance you’re on your own. There are A LOT of mechanical issues at this property. When I went to use the urinal in the lobby the pee quite literally just poured out the bottom of the urinal and straight onto the floor as though the plumbing were not even connected. Yikes! And they admitted that they were aware when I told them they NEED to close that bathroom. The entry way automatic doors were misfiring. Randomly opening and closing. Kind of like an obstacle course. The elevator sensors didn’t work and on 3 occasions tried to eat me or my kids. At one point the elevator door closed so violently that it knocked me backwards and my 2 and 5 year old were left in the elevator by themselves. Thankfully they pressed the correct floor number. Service: As a Lifetime Titanium Elite we’ve grown to appreciate the little things that a property can do to make your stay special. That’s not really in the vocabulary for this place. For starters, we booked 2 rooms because we knew that with 2 kids and 3 adults we needed to have space. Despite reaching out to the hotel and letting them know that we’re a family traveling together they tried to put us on 2 separate floors. Cmon. Also we submitted our Suite Night Rewards which is a voucher that you earn and it entitles you to a suite upgrade if one is available. Not to be confused with just “expecting” an upgrade. Oddly (and against company policy) they redeemed our Reward but then didn’t give us a suite because they claimed that only the room that the person with the status was staying was eligible. Sorry, but that’s not even remotely true. It’s like saying that you can only redeem your points for the room you’re saying in. 🤣 And let’s talk about the little things. Water. Guests with status are entitled to 2 bottles of water per night. I’ve stayed at over 100 properties. Congratulations AC Porto on being 1 in 100 in the worst possible way. They refused to give us water and advised that we could buy it from the mini bar. We were given 1 bottle per room. So 2 total bottles of water for 5 guests. For 1 night. If you have status and you’re reading this, I apologize for making you spit out your coffee. But seriously. It’s bizarre. You have to stay 75 nights per year to earn Titanium status so there’s a lot of revenue being fed to the chain. It’s a bottle of water for fffffs sake. Oh and again, for folks with status, you’ll know that you receive a welcome gift. It’s either points or breakfast. Here at the lovely AC Porto their breakfast is €15 per person, and the Welcome Gift is €10 credit. So in essence they’re giving you 1/3 of breakfast. And that’s only for ONE room. They do not extend that amenity to the second room that we paid for. Room: S

We stayed at this hotel in October 2022. We had room #303. The good : Check-in was fast. The staff at the lobby is great. Friendly and helpful. The room was very clean, there is a mini-fridge and a safe in the room. No carpet. Nice bathroom with good water pressure in the shower, but water temperature varies a lot. The room has a small balcony and big windows that let the light in the room. The bad : Not a real king bed, just two single beds next to each other so it was not a very comfortable arrangement. There are no USB ports available in the room. Wi-Fi was not reliable at all in the room. The TV volume was blocked at 10 (out of 60) so we could not really watch TV because volume was so low. We call the front desk and they sent somebody to check and since there was really a problem he told us that they would have to replace the TV, which could take some time. Since it was already late we simply declined and went to bed! The location of this hotel is not the best. Nothing much around, the neighborhood seems a little sketchy and the view from the room is simply depressing.

Due to price and proximity to the airport, I chose to stay here for a night while waiting for my flight back to the USA. Why due to price, might you ask? Well, doesn’t 63 USD sound amazing, especially since neighboring hotels were selling in the hundreds that same night? I tried booking that young-adult discount rate online prior to arriving at the property, which I knew was only available for purchase on the official hotel site but assumed I could easily get at the check-in counter as well. The site was down or not accepting my bank account for whatever reason, even after clearing all fraud protection freezes and things like that. Please know that when I say the following, I’m not putting direct blame on the individual staff members at Stay Hotel Porto Airport. I’m putting blame on the larger system. BUT it still needs to be said. I wish the staff could have quickly given me the $63 rate at the check-in counter, KNOWING I was having trouble with the website/app and should’ve been entitled to it with a better payment method. By the time I tried and tried and tried to get the rate to go through, the $63 rate had expired and the next best option was for $81, still exclusive to the app. And sure enough, know what happened when I tried paying for the $81? Still no luck. When the clock struck midnight, all hope was lost for a cheaper rate—the app reset its prices to the next night, and I had to pay a rate of around $100 at the counter to get a room right then. A valid argument could be to ask why I’m this picky about the prices, since when viewing it macroscopically, the differences aren’t that extreme. But I was traveling on a VERY tight budget. Every little amount counts a ton. And being at the end of my trip, my finances were in jeopardy more than they’d been at any other point in Europe. So I lost out on 40 bucks, which adjusted for non-backpacker inflation is 400 bucks. Or more. The last thing I’m going to add to the unfortunate pricing situation is one where I feel arguably the most disappointed about. Yes it’s apparently company rules not to book rates over the counter that are supposed to be booked online. But I didn’t feel that sense of sympathy or apology from either of the two employees at the desk. They were kind and friendly enough, which was expected—but when something goes wrong out of the customer’s control, I also expect clear, explicit concern and care to be verbalized. I don’t think they really “cared” that I missed out on a cheap rate because their company’s app payment portal malfunctioned. One of the ladies even told me (when I asked if this was a common issue with foreigners) that this scenario occurs roughly once each WEEK, which she labeled as not very common…but I beg to differ. I’m not saying they should fix the app issue…but they should’ve given me something like an apology. Quickly to fulfill my job responsibilities as an objective and comprehensive reviewer…the room was clean and comfy, the bathroom was spacious with

I arrived at the hotel on 20 November 2022 for a 5 night stay. The stay was business related and with so many hotels to choose from, I decided to go with the Porto Palacio. What an excellent choice! The hotel is absolutely brilliant - I cannot find a fault. Check-in was very smooth and on arrival to the room - wow - very modern, crisp clean sheets on the bed and a spacious room. In terms of food, the Breakfast experience was the best part of the stay for me. I have stayed in many hotels around the world - both on a personal basis and a business basis - I can honestly say that the breakfast staff at the Porto Palacio are the best I've ever come across. On arrival, I was seated quickly. On Day 1, the staff members memorised what I had that cannot be chosen by the buffet - for example, a tea and two plates (as I like two plates) - on Days 2 and for the rest of the trip, I didn't even need to ask. I was called by my Title and Surname on arrival. The whole experience was brilliant. I would like to mention a lady called Rosa and another lady (they both greet staff members at the door) - their hospitality skills are great and they are always smiling - nothing is too much for them. I didn't eat at the restaurant in the evening but had room service as personally, I like to relax after a day at the office. The food was of good quality and was tasty and piping hot. I used the gym during my stay - the gym is open to members of the public, therefore is not your usual hotel gym. It's huge - there are loads of machines and I was never waiting for someone to finish using something. Staff members are friendly. All in all - a brilliant stay and is a genuine 5 star hotel! I will return to the Porto Palacio both on a business basis and also on a personal basis - Porto looks like a great city! It's a shame that I didn't have time to look around as I had a busy schedule but I will certainly be back! Thank you!!

Thank you for giving us such a fantastic experience, your hotel and the views from our room were just outstanding! We loved reading about its history and about its floral theme - thank you. We had outstanding service from all your wonderful staff, even although some of them are still learning they tried their best to be helpful. Special mention goes to Rishi Raj in the Dining room for being so very helpful and efficient, always going out of his way to give us excellent service. Also, Andre in the bar, although still learning his trade, was very friendly and efficient. Tomas and all of the receptionists were constantly helping us and were very friendly. We thank them so much for upgrading us to a beautiful junior suite as we were celebrating our anniversary - so very kind and thoughtful. The girls cleaning our room did so extremely well. We would definitely recommend a stay at this beautiful hotel, being right beside the Douro river - you couldn't get a better position from our room on the 8th floor! The view of the river and sunsets were just spectacular. All I have left to say is thank you so very much to all the wonderful staff at the Pestana Douro for helping us have a wonderful holiday ! Porto is just beautiful and definitely worth a visit 😍