L'And Vineyards - Relais & Châteaux

Located closely to Lisbon, nice hotel, amazing cafe on the lake.

Abaixo das expectativas e dos standars para este tipo de hotel. Solicitámos o serviço de acender a lareira e ninguém o fez... O autoclismo do WC tinha um problema e ninguém sabia resolver....

I stayed here for a long weekend with my partner and we both loved the location and the amenities available. The spa treatments, food & wine experiences were very enjoyable. After reading other reviews complaining of the upkeep of the hotel, we had the opposite experience. Our room had no issues and everything worked as it should have. My only complaint of the room is that when they replaced the coffee pods each day, they kept replacing them with decaf pods and not any of the caffeinated ones that we were clearly using. The location and architecture was really beautiful. However, it felt more style than substance. The place lacked soul and personality and I believe a lot of this is down to the service. There seemed to be an abundance of servers, especially around the downstairs restaurant and bar, but none of them seemed to know what they were doing. At lunch times, the most tables they would have to wait on would be 4 max (most of them tables of 2) and there were around 4-5 servers. For that amount of staff for so little tables to serve, you'd think they would be attentive and have an idea of what to do. However, the wait time for a drink would be about 30 minutes and you'd have to flag them down to order anything. I am very patient and don't mind a bit of a wait, but it got to the point by the end of the trip that the mistakes being made and continuous waiting over simple tasks felt like a bit of a joke. They seemed to lack any training or direction. The MAPA restaurant was very good though and the staff there were great! Just one final note - for a hotel that advertises itself as a luxury retreat with a spa & vineyard, they really should make it an adult only hotel. It is not the place for children and yet there were so many young children there, especially around the pool area. I don't mind children, but we booked this trip for a relaxing time and instead were subject to people's loud, excitable children instead.