Pestana Cidadela Cascais Pousada & Art Hotel

The good - This a funky hotel with a focus on art and design which is accentuated throughout the hotel. The hotel was kept clean and rooms were spacious. The bad - We noticed that the water pressure in the room was extremely low (almost to a dribble) and what water did come out didn’t drain away. On reporting this, they duly fixed the problem very quickly… The ugly - When we returned to the room, we noticed that maintenance staff had left the bathroom very dirty with footprints all over the shower mat and bathroom floor. My partner noted this to the man on reception on our way out to dinner (middle aged with greyish hair) only to ask if they could kindly replace the dirty bath mat. The man took immediate offence to us and the request, getting irate with my partner. It shouldn’t be relevant, but my partner is also pregnant and could do without the stress of dealing with a man with unprovoked aggression. The man then did arrange for new towels to be delivered to the room, but the dirty towel and floor were left for our benefit. I don’t expect this level of behaviour at any hotel, let alone one that prides itself for providing a 5* service. As my mother told me, manners don’t cost anything!

Fantastic place and excellent service. Beautiful surrounding9 s. Just let down by very ploor evening meal. Lovely breakfast. Cold plates for hot meals. Cold bowls for soup which was luke warm. Little or no presentation of food, ,which should be the norm for a five star hotel.

We stayed in the Pestana Cidadela Cascais for a week. Although the hotel has an amazing architecture und a great view from the breakfast restaurant and pool area, we will definitely not be coming back and we cannot recommend it. First, it seems they don’t want families staying. On the phone, we were told there were no available rooms for families for the week, but we then had no problems booking a room on their website. Secondly, families have to stay on the ground floor (junior suites) in rooms that only have a tiny window- not recommended for anyone who is claustrophobic! Our room was had a damp smell which they seem to attempt to hide with a sweet artificial smell. But the major problem we encountered were two giant cockroaches in the room…the hotel staff acted surprised and not too bothered when we showed them the pictures (when in fact this has been a problem before, as can be seen in a trip advisors review from October 2023). They only send over a housekeeping lady who stamped on the two cockroaches but left one of them leaving half alive on the floor. So we asked at the reception to change rooms. One would assume the hotel would be horrified at having cockroaches in the rooms, especially when charging over 400 euros per night, but they acted quite nonchalant about that…So we ended up staying in another room (not because the hotel offered but because we begged to change rooms. Also, not an upgrade but a room almost next to the cockroach -room). That room unfortunately had mold in the bathroom and a shattered water basin. Oh, and they don’t clean under the beds, so no wonder cockroaches have a good time hiding under there. This is quite a problem throughout the hotel, where the carpets on the corridors are quite dirty as well as the carpet in the breakfast room. In the corridor leading to the breakfast room we saw another cockroach during the day, not a good sign for cleanliness. So quite a few things dampened our experience. You really don’t get what you pay for. To top it all of at the end, we had to pay the hotel 100 euros for five nights parking …something they didn’t bother mentioning at check in. This has unfortunately really tainted my experience in Cascais and I strongly advise against booking this hotel. It is such a shame, the hotel is beautiful and the location amazing. But it has the worst hotel management.

We stayed here for a night last week on our Portuguese tour. The staff are extremely helpful and the breakfast had a lot of variety, our room was spacious with a big comfortable bed. I recommend it to Cascais visitors.

Booked a BA trip to Cascais. Nice hotel and good location. All went well until the day before leaving. We were sunbathing at the outdoor pool. It was very windy that day and our parasol blew out of the base (we erected the parasol as no staff were present and there was no facility to secure it into the base) and the metal pole hit me on the head with force and caused me a significant injury resulting in a very bruised head/eye and subsequent concussion. Another parasol left the base that day and that parasol was erected by a staff member but the hotel are denying that this happened despite us witnessing it. We left early the next morning and I raised my concerns with the hotel and BA when I was back in the UK. The hotel have absolved themselves of any responsibility and said the accident occurred because we erected the parasol. Whilst I appreciate that accidents happen, my main issue is that there was NO duty of care whatsoever following the incident. At no point did any member of staff take the trouble to make note of my name/room number so that they could check in with me later that day/evening. It was as though the incident never happened. I have highlighted this issue with both the hotel and BA. Both have refused to address this and have stopped responding to my emails.