Some reviews of this hotel pick faults, but the big things were all good for us.
People come first. Staff selection and training must be good. Cheerful, helpful and friendly was the norm, staff often went out of their way to be considerate.
If you keep buffet food too hot it dries out, so you keep it warm. If that's a problem for you, there are show cooking and themed restaurant options. The packed lunch is not haute cuisine but as a free extra it's a good base for lunch away from the hotel.
Rooms are spacious and clean, everything worked in ours and we had the bonus of a good view from the balcony (not that we used it much).
Entertainment is varied and often good, though Sunday evening was less impressive.
The location is good, by the coast and close to a stop for the (cheap) bus into town.
If you go to the Enotel with a positive attitude you will have a good time.
If you go to the

Just arrived home from a most enjoyable week, back to snow, de freezing car at airport etc. Hotel very clean rooms and communal areas very good, bed a bit hard for us but OK. Staff helpful, friendly. Food, breakfast good especially porridge and omelettes,both hot plus lots of fruit and bread. Packed lunch good and always ready on time. Dinner good variety but a bit on the cold side so, got in at 7pm and ate with hot stuff first then soup or salad both lovely and nice selection of puds Drinks proper brands of spirits and staff really friendly. loved Madeira hope to go back again and will stay again at Enotel. Staff at reception gave us lots of advice on buses, which we found difficult when we tried to get timetables in Funchal. Sax player excellent

we spent christmas & new year at this hotel and enjoyed a wonderful two weeks, the staff are wonderful will go out of their way to help you. Our room overlooking the pool was large ,spotless, as was the bathroom (worth paying a little more for) The food was very good new years gala dinner was excellent,we met up with a great bunch of holidaymakers staying at the hotel and i am sure this helped with our stay . Close by are loads of places to eat or just go for a drink if you feel the need to get out ,bus stop facing the hotel (up asteep set of steps) easy to get into town worth buying the ten trip bus ticket,their is no limit to times or distance you travel very good value.The only down-side to our stay is that the area is VERY steep and would not suit anyone with walking problems.

We arrived in Funchal on 31/12/12 in order to celebrate the new year, which I would recommend to anyone. The firework display was amazing.
First impressions on the Enotel Lido Hotel were very good. It has a nice reception, with a great view over the sea and pool area. There is also a nice bar opposite the reception. Unfortunately though there were certain factors which did taint my overall view of this hotel.
It is a nice hotel, which is reasonably priced to stay at, therefore I would say it was good value. The negative points were as follows: 1.Although the rooms were nice, with a modern feel, many of them (and believe me we looked at quite a few) had a drainage problem in the bathroom, which gave off a very unpleasant smell. We did move rooms, and were offered an upgraded room, but it smelt even worse. Therefore, we opted for a standard room without the smell. 2. There is no free wi-fi, which is to be expected I suppose, however at 22 Euros per day or 88 for the week, I thought it was quite pricey. 3. Due to having cause for complaint we did, in the early stages, have quite a bit of contact with the reception staff. We found them to be unhelpful and really quite rude, however, once we got a manager involved (a female whose name I didn't catch) then the service really improved. She was excellent and did everything to see that we were happy with our rooms. 4. A small point, but there is not one iron and ironing board in the entire hotel. This is due to health and safety reasons!! 5. Food - you have various options, as you can either stick to the main restaurant or one of the three themed restaurants - Madeira , Italian or Japanese. The main restaurant food was okay, nothing special, but I have definitely had worse. The Madeiran restaurant , we found was very good (despite complaints from some customers). We didn't enjoy the Japanese (and we have had it before), it was l a bit tasteless. We never got to the Italian, although we heard it was good. We did have to complain regarding these restaurants as, at first we couldn't get a table at any of them, due to them opening on selected nights only. A complaint soon sorted this out. 6. The beds were the most uncomfortable we have ever slept in as they were rock hard. We did complain and each bed was covered with a topper, which helped a bit.
Now to the positive points and there are several: 1. The setting is excellent with the hotel positioned right on the seafront. 2. The outside pool area is very nice with plenty of beds 3. Everywhere is immaculately clean 4. The inside pool is very my nice and a good size, however all swimmers must wear swimming caps, which they sell for 4 Euros 5. The bar staff are excellent 6. There is a snack bar by the pool, which does pizza, salad, chips etc and is very good 7. The First Choice rep, called Thomas was very good. As stated earlier we did have cause to complain and fully expected to meet some resistance, however, Thomas was very efficient and quickly sorted out each issue. 8. The evening entertainment was okay, but I wouldn't expect too much. The guy playing the sax is great.
To conclude, all in all, the Enotel Lido is a nice hotel, which at home would be a 3/4 star, but it wasn't expensive. If you're booked to go there then make sure you have a sea/pool view and a room that doesn't smell, although they appear to be quite a rarity. It's a nice hotel, but I don't think we would back there.