Pros and cons (unfortunately more cons)
I’m not sure where to start so thought it would be best to list the pros and cons for staying at this hotel.
Pros:
1) The hotel is a great location on Copacabana.
2) We were on the 15th floor and the... more
I’m not sure where to start so thought it would be best to list the pros and cons for staying at this hotel.
Pros:
1) The hotel is a great location on Copacabana.
2) We were on the 15th floor and the view from the room was amazing.
3) The staff in the hotel at receptions and in the Skylab Restaurant spoke English and a number of other languages.
4) The pool bar was nice for a drink in the evening and the food was ok there too.
5) Somebody came and cleaned the room everyday.
6) There was no additional charge to use the safe in the room.
Cons:
1) We had breakfast on the third floor restaurant which was a buffet and it was ridiculously busy. There was a decent amount to choose from but isn’t wasn’t the best food in my opinion and on the weekend in particular you ended up in a bit of queue waiting to get food from the buffet and it was a struggle to find an empty table that had actually been cleared.
2) Reception tell you there are free chairs on the beach to use if you are a hotel a guest but that’s not strictly true. It seems if you are Brazilian you get a chair if you are not you may be given a chair if you are lucky or you will more than likely be told there aren’t any free chairs even though there are chairs piled up on the beach that you can see. It seems the person that sorts the chairs for the hotel who wears an Othon top expects money in return for a chair or just ignores you when you ask. He also seems to work with his mates on the beach and if they bring you drinks over don’t take them as you will be massively ripped off. It all just seemed a bit dodgy and uncomfortable. You are better off laying out on the beach on a towel and buying drinks off of the sellers on the beach that tell you the amount for a drink and take the money off you in exchange for a drink as normal or getting a couple of drinks/snacks from a shop to bring.
3) The rooms look quite different on the website but they are actually quite dated and we only had one glass in the room and the air conditioning dripped water and the bed gave me a bad back.
4) There was building work being carried out throughout our stay which we weren’t made aware of and the drilling started from 9am onwards and was quite loud.
5) If you order anything at the restaurants or bars you cannot add it to your room you have to pay for it there and then unlike other hotels.
6) The room service was absolutely awful, if you take once piece of advice from this review it is to not order the club sandwich! It was stale and one bite was enough. If you order room service you have to pay for it on delivery as it can’t be added to your room.
7) The pool on the 30th floor is clean but it is very very small and there are only 11 sun beds around the pool so there’s quite a small chance of being able to get a sun bed around the pool.
8) There always seems to be quite a big queue for reception so if you needed anything from reception you would have been waiting a while before being able to speak to anybody.
9) We arrived at around 1am and there was no water in the room, there is no where to buy water in the hotel unless it’s from the restaurant or bar which were all closed at that time so it was sent up as room service and we have to pay for it on delivery.
10) After our a stay I was wondering how this hotel had so many good reviews however it made sense after we asked about late check out and were told by reception there is normally a charge for late check out but if we leave a good review for the hotel on trip advisor they would waive the fee for late check out we just had to show the review at reception!!!
All in all I would not recommend this hotel and it my opinion it certainly isn’t a 4 star hotel. less
Erika Souza, Atendimento ao cliente/recepção at Rio Othon Palace Hotel, responded to this review
Dear,
We appreciate your feedback about your stay at our hotel.
We are glad that you enjoyed our view overlooking the wonderful beach of Copcabana.
About the other points:
1) Our breakfast has several options of breads, cold cuts, cereals, cheeses, eggs, porridges, yogurts, juices, cake, cereals, dairy products, coffee, sweets and much more.
2) In our city, there is a law that limits hotels on the waterfront with a limited area of sand, as we are a hotel with almost 600 rooms, we do not have this service for all guests, so it is a free service and in agreement with availability.
About the report that our collaborators are 'saving' for Brazilians, we make sure that this does not happen. Our hotel is divided between internal and external tourists, we do not make any kind of discrimination with the question of nationality or any other. Much less, we have any kind of agreement with no beach vendors. Your observations have been passed on to the area manager.
3) Our hotel is one of the most traditional in the country. We do periodic maintenance and modernization so that we can be modern, without losing our traditionality. As well, our beds, bedding and bath towels are renewed periodically.
4) In fact, we did some work on a part of a pipe to avoid any future problems for our guests. The construction and noise lasted about 3 hours and we apologize for the noise, but it was something necessary as we are always looking to improve and renovate our hotel.
5) Our guests have the option of making a pre-authorization at the time of check-in, so they can put their consumption on the room bill.
6) We are very surprised by the sandwich that is one of the most requested in our room service and also receives many compliments. We also passed this point on to the area manager to investigate what happened.
7) Our pool is in fact the size of a leisure pool, which is used for our guests to come in and relax, enjoying the view of Copacabana.
8) Our reception staff are oriented and trained to pay attention and meet all the needs of all our guests with great attention and care, with cordiality, great success in the quick resolution of requests. As we are a large hotel, all services are carried out with great care, attention and agility.
9) Our room service is available 24 hours a day, whatever you need, even if it is late at night and the bar and restaurant are closed, our guests have the assistance and speed of room service.
10) We do not recognize this act on the part of our employees, but we will investigate what happened. Cordially, as a courtesy, we grant in some cases, when there is availability, the extension of the departure time, as well as at the entrance, as well as a form of courtesy, so that our guests can enjoy more our city and our hotel.
About the comments not only in this network but in other social networks, it is the result of a dedication and a great affection and effort with our guests. Both personally and on other networks, our feedback is fortunately very good.
We are very sorry that we did not exceed your expectations, but our team, our collaborators and our management are dedicated to the maximum so that we can improve our hotel more every day.
Yours sincerely,