I’m distressed b/c I read a trip advisor review yesterday that said that there is construction going on in the east wing of the Portofino Bay hotel and they are still having people stay there. It is loud and annoying construction (the reviewer said). I arrive on Sat and our friend has a room that is supposed to be nearby ours. I called the hotel today and said that we want to be in a part of the hotel that is not near the construction. The person who helped me acknowledged that the construction is going on. I said that not being near the construction is more important than our two rooms being next to each other. As I expected she said that they can’t guarantee not to put us there. Is there anything else I should do? I am very unhappy that a hotel that is that expensive is doing construction in an area where guests are staying; at least, that is what the trip advisor review led me to believe. I can’t switch hotels b/c my friend was only willing to stay in that one, and we need it for express pass…probably too late to change anyhow.
Are there multiple reviews all citing the same concerns about noise? The one thing I have found is that TripAdvisor tends to reflect a lot of negative things, that may not really be as bad as they sound. I have read reviews on TripAdvisor of hotels and then stayed in the same ones and had none of the problems. I wouldn’t put too, too much weight on one bad review. Hopefully a Liner who has stayed there recently can chime in with some more relevant information. With any luck, it was one overly sensitive person who wrote the review and it’s really not going to be that bad.
Unfortunately when I went back and searched “construction” in the reviews I came up with at least a dozen, all saying the same thing. I called the hotel again this morning and emphasized that some of our party have allergies and asthma and can’t be around that. I was told that the construction was going on, a little bit at a time, from Aug 20 - May 31. The reviews started in Sept and there were several from Oct and Nov. Even construction going on in the rooms right next to where someone was staying, and construction dust all out in the hallways! Truly unacceptable, but I can’t change my stay now for a variety of reasons. I only found this info b/c I tend to check trip advisor a few days before my stay just in case something changed, but this may be the first time I spotted a problem. I booked back in April and there was no warning about this. There is a warning on their website about construction but they say it’s only for the first half of 2020—not right now.
My big worry is that I think the hotel is sold out so what if we draw the short straw…
Ugh. I’m sorry this happened. Hopefully, if you mentioned allergies to the hotel, they will make a note in your reservation. I imagine you would be easier for them to just move you to a “safer” location than run the risk of there being problems later. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you!
I don’t know if you’re ever on the chat app, but I will ask over there to see if anyone has stayed at Portofino recently and has any extra input.
I don’t have any info on construction at Portofino at this time.
I was just there last week. I didn’t notice any construction. We had a view of the water.
That’s great to hear! I think I’m also supposed to have a water view (“bay view” room). Construction right now is only in the east wing (supposedly).
My father stayed at Portofino for a night in Oct 2019 (the 7th or 8th) so I asked him if there was any construction at the time.
Here’s my dad’s report:
There was definitely construction.
The readiness of our room seemed delayed by it, the paint was not totally dry.
There was a room near by that seemed to be a staging area for construction, and there was some dust in our room.
There was no intrusive noise while we were there, but we were in the room from 4:30 till maybe 9:30 the next morning.
Thanks! I’m going to be writing something about this soon and making a call to Portofino Bay.
I did that and they gave us rooms far away from any construction. I never saw any.