I have just been back to Lisbon and hotel Real Palacio for 5 days. It has been more than a year since I last stayed at the hotel. I have to admit that the hotel has changed, but only for the better! The hotel now has a more restrict smoking policy, being a non smoker this is something I appreciate very much(!), and the equipment in the gym has been replaced by more modern and better equipment. I first got to know the hotel in March 2006 when I was assigned by my company to work for a project in Lisbon. One of my colleagues and I visited all the hotels in the area searching for the “perfect” place to stay when we first came the hotel. From the first moment we walked in, we both loved it! It was perfect! The hotel offered (and still offers!) beautiful and clean good size guest rooms, all with free internet access, bathrobes and slippers, a very nice restaurant with the possibility to enjoy your meal outdoors on nice sunny days and warm evenings, a gym and a small spa where one can enjoy the jacuzzi and a nice relaxing massage after spending the day at work, doing shopping or shightseeing. And last but not least the staff …. smiling, friendly, helpful and yet professional and very serviceminded. Never once did we regret choosing to stay at the hotel! They have not let us down even once! Our project ended in 2007 and I left Lisbon and the hotel at the beginning of July that year only to return now, 1 year later. Once again it hit me that this is a very special hotel! The atmosphere is still the same and the staff is still smiling, friendly, helpful and yet professional and very service minded. The members of the "old" staff still working at the hotel (quite a few!) were all welcoming me back and I was treated like a queen :-) This is definitely the hotel to stay at if you want to add something special to your stay in Lisbon whether you go there for business or pleasure. The hotel is close to some really nice shopping centers and all the main tourist attractions that Lisbon has to offer. If you don’t like to walk it is only a 3 minutes walk to the 3 nearest metro stations and most of the sightseeing buses stops at the top of Park Eduardo a 5 minutes walk from the hotel. Perfect! My colleagues and I will keep on going back to Real Palacio. In fact some of us are going back already in September and we are already looking forward to it! A stay at hotel Real Palacio is highly recommended!

We returned to the Real Palacio for a 3-night stay this May and found it as pleasant as previously experienced. Although the hotel advertises itself as 5*, common-sense indicates that at 130 Euro a night your expectations should be a bit more down-to-earth. The rooms are large-sized by European standards and comfortably, if not luxuriously, decorated. However, the real value of this place is in the helpfulness of the staff for directions, suggestions, and bookings. The location is not bad, either. The Gulbenkian is close-by, and a subway line is a 5-minutes walk. The hotel serves a mix of business and tourist clients, and seemed to have reasonable internet connectivity (at least the public computers did). Many hotels in Portugal include breakfast in the room rate, and that's the case here as well. They put out an above-average spread. The sitting rooms and bar are pleasant. We didn't try the restaurant. The AC in our room was broken on ourfirst night, however the staff fixed it the next day. We had hoped that laundry service here would be reasonably priced, and even if it was convenient, it was considerably more expensive than we hoped.

I have just returned from a wonderful weekend staying in the Real Palacio. What a beautiful hotel and in a perfect area of town, far enough out for peace and quiet but close enough to be in the centre within 10minutes, an ideal situation. I must say how friendly and helpful the staff were, who could not have been more hospitable and they really added to our stay. The spa area was lovely and we had the Jacuzzi all to ourselves which was a delight. All in all a fabulous hotel with an extensive buffet breakfast and I would highly recommend this to all.

We stayed at this hotel for one night only on May 24th and it did not impress me that much especially due to the lack of service from the hotel staff. We were coming from a wonderful two nights stay on the coast and we were expecting the same 5 stars service even here but things were clear from the beginning. We drove all the way and arrived with our 5 suitcases and there was not even a valet for taking care of the car and/or help with the luggage. I hand to temporarily leave the car to enter and ask for directions and I was told to park the car underground in their adjacent parking but they did not send anybody to collect the suitcases and even worse did not even bother to ask. As a result we ended up parking the car 3 stories underground, spent 10 minutes wandering around the area due to the complete lack of directions to reach the elevators dragging our 5 suitcases along. Once we reached the reception, even if it was well past 3 pm (their check-in time) the room was not ready and we were left waiting for 15 minutes without even being offered a glass of water. Nonce they checked us in they showed us the way up to the room without helping us with our luggage. Now I am not picky, I can adapt to the worst hostel, but when you pay for a 5 stars hotel a little bit of “customare care” would be appreciated. On the other hand rooms are nice and clean and the bathroom large enough and well assorted. Breakfast in the morning was also quite rich and offered a few extra varieties besides the usual scrambled eggs and bacon (that were not that fresh by the way). Hotel location is in a quite area close to the Park, but not that close to the city center as they claim to be. Expect to walk for a good 25/30 minutes to start reaching the beginning of the real city center area at the end of Avenida de Libertade. Another thing I did not like was that when we checked out I found out they had already charged my credit card at the moment of booking when they were not supposed to do it since it was not a pre-paid arrangement. Again nobody helped us with our suitcases to the car nor bothered to ask if we needed any help. In the end, even though generally speaking the hotel has a good structure, acceptable food (nothing extraordinary) our experience was disappointing. If you’re OK with paying for a 5 stars service while you get only average standards that’s the place for you, otherwise I guess you can find better places at the same rates they charge.