C&O Guest House Lisbon

The room was clean, bright and charming. Unfortunately, it was extremely noisy (constant traffic and aircraft noise, making you feel in the middle of the street). The worst is yet to come: in my life I had never been “welcomed” in such a RUDE and BRUTAL way. An ABSOLUTE SCANDAL. It started the night before my arrival in Lisbon, when I was awoken by a text message sent by the guest house… at 12:55 AM. (Excuse me, but what kind of tourism facility contacts you in the very middle of the night?) Enough to make me feel slightly dubious. When in the afternoon I eventually reached the reception to check in, a woman with a very poor English opened and asked me to fill out the usual information form. The room had been booked by my friend (without payment nor deposit), so technically I was his guest. He was supposed to reach the guest house a couple of hours after I did. Right after I gave the form back, the woman explained that I had to pay for the entire stay, and insisted on the fact that she preferred to be paid CASH—what I refused to do. I then tried to explain that I should wait for my friend because he did the booking and I was his guest. She refused, explaining that the reception would be closed during the week-end (in other words, she didn’t want to open the reception because it bothered her) and pointing the credit card machine at me. I tried to negotiate, offering to pay half until my friend arrives and pay the other half. She declined, letting me understand that I would have to leave unless I paid. She literally blackmailed me. How dare you call yourself a “guest house” and treat your supposed guests with such uncouthness and brutality? Has one ever seen a tourism facility ruled by such selfish mafia methods?

Picked this place as we were attending a conference at Centro de Congressos de Lisboa, so was walking distance from there, but also as right on great tram and bus links for tourism in evenings. It worked out perfectly. The building is very atmospheric and the room charming in style - but it is not modern, so maybe not for you if you like modern style. Very clean. Useful to have the kitchen area. Of note the guest house on 2nd floor and no lift. No big sign on outside so need to look for small sign on door to street, next to pharmacy. Reception was not staffed 24 hours when we were there so need to communicate your arrival time. There is noise from the square below if windows are open. We were fine as cool enough to close shutters at night. Whilst we didn't hear much from other guests, the noise did travel through the doors in the morning when people were in the corridor to the kitchen/communal bathrooms. This didn't really disturb us though.