The hotel was comfortable, the restaurant was good, the staff were friendly and the communication in both English and Portuguese was excellent. However, there were some operational details that hampered the quality of the experience:
- There was no clean-up of the outdoor public areas of the hotel following the morning after use. Clearly, there had been people late-night drinking, yet at 8:30am there was still cups, glasses, bottles etc. left outside at both the hotel entrance and back garden facing the pool. This gave a really poor and understaffed look to the hotel.
- Despite being named a 'palace', the hotel staff had little knowledge or history of the building. There was no special story behind the hotel, no photos, and evidently no staff training on why the hotel experience was unique.
- We were surprised to learn on arrival that the thermal baths no longer functioned. Evidently, there was a breach and the thermal water got mixed with ground water a few years ago, and they closed the facilities. Therefore, the only offering they had was the spa facilities, which itself was OK, but was just a conventional spa and not the 'core' attraction.
Whilst the stay itself was very pleasant and comfortable, the shortcomings of these points make the difference on whether we would repeat the stay.