Hotel Pestana Sintra Golf was quite an experience. I would rate this hotel as a 2-star hotel with…read morevery nice pools.
Overall, we were very disappointed with our visit in July, 2025. Before we dive in to where the hotel failed, I do want to take a moment to talk about what we were happy about.
First, the pools! The pools, both inside and out, are quite nice. The hours of availability were appropriate for most guests to enjoy, focusing children in the late morning to early evening. This worked great for us, since we have twin six year old daughters.
Second, the ladies at the bar were very friendly.
Finally, the breakfast had a great variety and the staff were all attentive and helpful. The items the hotel purchased tasted better than the items the kitchen prepared as those items lacked any flavour or dimension.
Now, let's talk about safety and service issues.
First, the hotel is split into two area, the main hotel and the clubhouse. The clubhouse appears to contain newer rooms in an older building and seems to belong to a separate golf club, not Pestana.
We stayed in the mold infested clubhouse. The room overall was exactly as advertised online. Furniture was exactly as expected, comfortable, and appropriate for the room. The issue however was the amount of mold around each window. This was a problem in both of our rooms, so it's not isolated to one room. The windows are being washed, however the hotel isn't doing enough to manage the mold. Their solution was to spray Lysol around the room just prior to arrival so the smell was overwhelming upon entry.
The bathroom had is own challenges too. The faucet, as indicated in the photos, leans back to the mirror and to turn on the faucet, you feel like you are going to shatter the mirror. It's fine, until it's not. I'm just glad we were not the family it decided to fail on, so be warned.
The magnifying mirror was apparently broken and removed. They left the arm but didn't replace the mirror. Very tacky. They should have removed the entire piece until they could fix it properly. Then this wouldn't have been a complaint.
The tub and shower were actually very nice. The tub was deep enough for an adult to take a proper bath. But it's Sintra in July, why?
Housekeeping was very effective at not maintaining the lobby of the clubhouse. Room service trays were often left for hours on end in the lobby. The floor was stained with multiple stains and in some areas, worn to the bare concrete. The furniture was always in disarray and was what ever piece they had that they could throw into the lobby. It's very disorganised and poorly designed. The housekeeping team often left garbage bags of linen in the hallways which were never retrieved, so every time we came and went the biggest greeting was from the soiled linen.
In our second room, a call was made to the front desk to have someone come and check the smell of the room as we couldn't tell if the smell was a mold issue or a server issue. No hotel person ever arrived in two days. No offer was made to change rooms. No follow-up of any kind was done.
This hotel could have benefited by hiring an interior designer. It seems they've cut corners everywhere. It was difficult to decide what the theme of the hotel was and why they chose decor that was all over the place. Very mix and match, but not in a good way.
The parking lot at the clubhouse didn't have any working lights. It was absolutely pitch dark as the only light was the single over the door light at the entry of the hotel portion of the clubhouse on the first floor. I've attached two videos showing the parking lot at night and during the day.
The clubhouse has no signs indicating that you are in the correct location or that it was okay to park in the lot. There is only one little logo at the door which is on the 1st floor and about 20 meters from the parking lot and over 50 meters from the street. During our visit, I assisted multiple guests who were lost at arrival just as we were.
Additionally, the walkway connecting the clubhouse to the main hotel where all of the services are, i.e. pool, restaurant, bar, etc., was dimly lit and half of the lights were broken or out.
If these safety issues of non-lit parking lots, black mold infestations, or mediocre staff are okay with you, this would be a fantastic fit for you. If any of these may pose an issue, spend more and stay somewhere else.
I feel that this hotel is not a good representation of the Pestana Group, and Pestana should seriously evaluate the management who let all of this happen, and if this hotel effectively represents the Pestana Group. If this is the type of hotel that Pestana finds acceptable in their portfolio, then there are many other places that I can be loyal to.
We never felt that our presence was appreciated, and didn't feel like our safety was even a consideration. Keep in mind that the parking lots are uneven and there are islands
