Review of Hotel Fortaleza do Guincho Relais & Châteaux 5*

In response to Ms. Franco: Dear Ms. Franco Actually, I personally tried calling and emailing your hotel multiple times but never received responses and was unable to get through on the phone line – which is why we ended up contacting Expedia. I’d be happy to forward you the multiple emails that I sent, which are still to this date unanswered. Because Expedia was the easier party to get in contact with, we communicated through them. The facts come down to this: your hotel promised over the phone a full refund if we could send proof of our flight cancellation. We sent this proof within an hour of that original conversation and yet your hotel never fulfilled this promise. Moreover, it took the hotel nearly three weeks to let us know you changed your mind. We spent a good portion of what should have been our honeymoon trying to get in contact with your hotel to see why the refund hadn’t come through… and we hit roadblocks at every step. The bottom line is that your hotel’s refusal to uphold spoken promises or respond to clients in a timely way shows your utter lack of empathy and poor customer service. Original review: The staff at Hotel Fortaleza do Guincho was completely nonresponsive at best; at worst, they made promises that they later broke– costing my husband and I over $600. My husband and I made a reservation to stay at this hotel for the first two nights of our honeymoon in Portugal. We were prevented from flying to Portugal and our flights were cancelled at the last minute. Delta was not able to find a new flight to Portugal for us, forcing us to change ALL of our travel plans and forcing us to cancel ALL of our reservations in Portugal. On the same night that our flight was cancelled, we informed the hotel that we would not be able to travel to Portugal or stay at their hotel. We were informed that the money paid towards the reservation would be refunded if we showed that the flight was cancelled. I immediately sent an email providing such proof. Now, we just discovered out that the hotel is refusing to refund any of our money – despite earlier promises to do so. Furthermore, we have tried contacting the hotel numerous times – via email, phone calls, etc. – and it has literally taken them weeks to get back to us. This total lack of customer service is appalling for any business – let alone a luxury hotel.