Aqualuz - Suite Hotel Apartments

Great room and hotel restaurant was really dead we didn't get our olives with our bread

Avoid Aqualuz Lagos – in our experience, it felt like a rundown and expensive bed and breakfast rather than a four-star hotel.

We paid a total of £2,172.40 for eight nights for what we understood to be a superior suite with a kitchen. However, when we arrived, the reality was a small bedroom with no kitchen, and our son had to sleep on a sofa bed in the living area.

We immediately went to reception to complain about the size of the accommodation and explained that we had expected a kitchen, based on the photographs shown online. We were told that the pictures online were not necessarily of the room we had booked. In our opinion, the online images were very misleading, as the room we received looked nothing like what we believed we had paid for.

We were then told that we would have to pay an additional £1,016.50 to move to accommodation with a kitchen. Of course, we refused. I am a chef, and part of my plan for the holiday was to buy fresh fish, meat and salads and prepare meals for my family. Because the room did not have the facilities we expected, this completely disrupted our plans and negatively affected our holiday.

After we refused the additional charge, we received repeated calls and messages asking us to pay more money. Imagine trying to enjoy a day out in the city and receiving calls from the hotel requesting further payment. After a few days, the additional amount was reduced from £1,016.50 down to £200, but by that stage we had lost trust in the situation and declined the offer.

We also found some of the reception staff rude and unhelpful. We did not feel that the charges or room arrangements were properly explained to us.

The breakfast was extremely disappointing. The scrambled eggs were so dry that they resembled a carpet, the bacon was unpleasant, the coffee was very weak, and overall the breakfast was not satisfying.

We also discovered ants in our room. Despite complaining several times, the issue was not properly resolved.

There were two televisions, one in the bedroom and one in the living area, but neither was a smart TV, so we could only watch Portuguese television. There was a kettle in the room, but no tea bags or coffee were provided.

The double bed was simply two single beds pushed together. They cleaned the room everyday but they never replaced the bedsheets We could not use the safe in the room it was left there unplugged inside the wardrobe have pics to prove it

The steps leading into the swimming pool were very rough and repeatedly scratched our feet. The lift we needed to use between the fourth floor and the ground floor was also out of service three times during the first four days of our stay.

My wife and her sisters stayed at Aqualuz many years ago, shortly after my wife had come out of hospital. She remembered it as a welcoming boutique-style hotel where guests were valued and cared for. Unfortunately, that was not the experience we had this time.

In our opinion, Aqualuz is no longer the hotel it once was. For the amount we paid, the accommodation, facilities, food and customer service were unacceptable. We would not return and would not recommend it.