PortoBay Rio de Janeiro

The rooftop pool area was fabulous - never had an issue getting a sun lounger and incredible views of Copacabana, Sugar Loaf and Christ the Redeemer. Food and drink were reasonable and very good should you want something easy. The staff were very friendly in all aspects of communication.

The building was very run down outside of the main lobby and the pool area. Everywhere smelt of stale water and had a general feeling of humidity. We stayed at the Fairmont on Copacabana after Porto Bay and this wasn't an issue for that hotel. Rooms were dirty and VERY noisy - its easily the loudest hotel we have ever stayed in. When you check in ask if they have a wedding and request to move from the 19th floor should you be on it, whilst the views are amazing the noise kept us up all night. After a flight from Europe we were exhausted and after calling the front desk twice to look into the noise nothing was done. We stayed at the property during the beginning of the COVID-19 issues, and while the front desk were happy to answer any questions, the property did very little to forward think for their guests. We left the property to go exploring one morning having no idea that all government building had shut to ask what was going on when we returned and the front desk said we should have told them we were leaving. I have never been asked to tell a hotel to let them know when we leave - realistically the hotel should have had notices in communal places around the hotel or dropped notes under guests doors to let them know the latest. While we could watch the news - we are not Portuguese speakers so could only really get European and North American news. Appreciate this is a VERY rare development that a hotel would need to deal with but lots of easily solutions would have helped guests.