This was our 2nd hotel in Algarve during our trip through Portugal this past September. This is a very beautiful hotel with a very large pool (where you can actually swim!), nice grounds and great location very close (walking distance) to the breathtaking Ponta da Piedade. We took Uber to the Lagos center with lots of great restaurants and entertainment. We found the front desk personnel less welcoming and personable than the previous hotel, sometimes giving an impression of being kind of clueless and only giving information when you really "squeeze" it out of them. When we arrived, I got disappointed that we were not assigned a room on the 2nd floor as I clearly requested on my reservation (I never stay on the first floor in any hotel). Ok, after discussing it with them and back and forth for 15min, they finally found a room on the 2nd floor starting the following night; we agreed to be moved the next day; got the keys and were on our way to our room with the bell boy accompanying us, when the front desk lady ran after us and said "Oh, I forgot to mention you were upgraded to a suite." I was speechless - you forgot to mention this "minor" detail??? Ok, got to our suite and... were very pleasantly surprised -- it was very tastefully decorated, beautiful and really spacious with the big entrance hallway, living room with plenty of seating big bedroom - see my pictures. We decided to stay and not move - we appreciated the upgrade, we loved the suite and the fact that its patio was literally 5 meters from their wonderful pool (with very warm water) and honestly, who wants to pack again and move the following day? So, a note to hotel management - it would have been much more professional and welcoming if the front desk presented it from the very beginning and said something like: "We are very happy to inform you that you were upgraded to a suite, it is really nice and spacious. It is on the 1st floor, as we do not have anything available on the 2nd floor, but please take a look; we hope you will love it and if not, we will gladly move you to a 2nd floor room tomorrow. " Really, it would have saved me and my husband a lot of aggravation and frustration and would have been a very different start. Please think about it. Unfortunately, as we discovered the following day, they have problem with ants; when we opened our patio door the next morning hoping to have a nice relaxing morning seating in loungers, we were shocked to find out that the patio was full of ants -- and I am not talking a few ants, I am talking patio being literally covered with ants - they were everywhere - on the chairs, table, loungers and the patio floor. There was absolutely no way that you could sit outside on that patio in these conditions. I will spare you all the details of what happened next - all the back and forth with the front desk asking them to take care of this as soon as possible and not getting any specific answers as to when they will take care of the problem. A few hours later they took care of it, BUT guess what? The next morning ants reappeared in the same numbers if not more. We gave up. We could not sit and enjoy our patio. Fortunately, we are active type of traveler and were there to explore, not just sit around the pool, so it did not ruin our vacation, but we were still upset when we found ants INSIDE our room crawling on floors, even in the bathroom. Of course, there is always this fear that you will bring ants back home in your suitcases. On the positive note, as I mentioned before, the hotel is beautiful, really nicely decorated, very warm water in the pool with plenty of towels available. Their breakfast buffet is outstanding -- bountiful, delicious, prepared with love and beautifully presented - one of the very best we have ever had in any of resort (including upscale all-inclusive hotel chains in the Caribbean, which are famous for their bountiful buffets). And their seating outside is really nice; we also had one lunch and one dinner buffet there -- really great food and atmosphere - guitar playing. So, in summary - our stay could have been really great, if not for the issues listed above. I am giving 4 stars, not 3 in hopes that they pay attention to the constructive feedback their customers are providing and take care of these seemingly minor issues, which could spoil an otherwise great stay. …
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.