Pestana Reviews

Me and my wife, Birgitta had a fantastic stay at Pestana South Beach Hotel from 13 – 15 January. You and your staff’s attitude, friendliness and professionalism made it a memorable one.
Location is also an upside and we really enjoyed.
When checking out on the 15, we asked about a returning visit after our cruise week after, and it was not an issue, even our visit was only some eight hours prior to our returning Europe flight.
We were welcomed again with same smiles and open arms and even had access to Beach Club.
It was a very pleasent cestus and highly appreciated service that for sure will bring us back and hopefully soon ?
Thanks Best Pestana Hotel Crew.

I stay on pestana miami south beach
The story is the next one
Check in at 16 seems exagerate but they did it at 17 30 , no bathrobe in the room even should be , check out at 11 am even we have a long flight ahead
Rude staff and management
Rooms not insulated you can hear everything around … and i can continue

Our stay at the PESTANA Grand has not been good.
We have been moved twice because an ant infestation.
We were there for 3 weeks and was ongoing all that time.
We found them in our cups and drinking water every day.
Even though the manager said a deep clean and fumigate would be done.
It sorted nothing out.
The food in the hotel was dire.
It was bland and repetitive.
Getting seated during Christmas wasn't good and we shouldn't have to queue to get seated in a so called 5 star restaurant.
Getting wine or beverages to go with your meal were a joke unless you chased a waiter down.
I discussed this with the manager and his response was it's busy.Its Christmas
The entertainment (pffft) was the type of thing you would find in an old folks home.
The towels were very thin and the manager admitted they were poor.
Oh well that's ok then!
I notice this is the 2nd review for this hotel in a matter of days.

Still struggling to get the refund for breakfast that we cancelled because the early morning breakfast was only continental and not the buffet - but still the same price for a buffet !
Stayed at the Pestana Dom Juao in Alvor, Algarve Coast in Portugal.
Now they do not respond email any longer - it's been 2 1/2 month and I still haven't received the money.
Although the place was nice and the staff was kindly we cannot recommend it when they keep our money.

We have just returned form the Pestana Grand in Madiera, the Hotel was very grand and staff in all departments were efficient and friendly. On arrival you have courtesy drinks in the fridge, chocolates and a small bottle of Madiera wine, which is a bonus.
The Hotel although a 5*plus, has a few things letting it down.
The rooms are spacious and very nice, the entertainment is absolutly dire, and the seating is totally wrong to watch the entertainment, you really cannot talk to anyone else, your facing the wrong way, and its like gods waiting room, as everyone sits with a long face.
The worst thing about the hotel, was the FOOD, luke warm and never hot, even when a fresh tray is bought out its luke warm. But its not even great food, for the hotel group its mediocre.
By the time you cooked your toast and walked to the other side for butter, its cold... everything is situated incorrectly and needs to be re situated, ie: sauces, butter, yoghurts, they need to be where the salads are or the toast, and breakfast cerial.
However there is a plus to the food, with the a la carte, always hot, always good and no complaints.
I probably would not stay at the hotel again... albeit the surroundings are fabulous

My last review was on 10/13/22, Pesetana hotel group has yet to resolve the matter of refunding and canceling my reservation that was requested three weeks ago. They do not respond to emails. Customer service sends you a generated reply. I have never experienced such poor customer service. I have one star because I had to but in reality the rating should be zero.

I signed up to the Diamond Club Membership of the Pestana Guest Club (PGC) in July 2019 and paid £3,490 for 300,000 points valid for 5 years for future hotel bookings plus 2 Vouchers for 1 week hotel stays also valid for 5 years.
In 2019 I was credited with 138,000 points whch I had accrued from my Pestana hotel spend in 2018 / 2019 which were valid for 2 years.

I subsequently made bookings in August 2019 with my points for 2 x 1 week hotel accomodations in Oct-2019 and Oct-2020.

I have for the past 2 years been trying to resolve a dispute I have with the Pestana Guest Club regarding errors in the deduction of points from my Points Statement. This has left me with a shortfall of over 138,00 points which were not used for my bookings in 2019 and allowed to expire. This error became apparent to me following my bookings in August 2019 and I have been raising it with Pestana ever since.
Over this past 2 years I have met / spoken / emailed many Pestana Staff (inc. Executive Management) regarding this issue many of whom informed me that there had been complications with the Pestana IT Systems, etc. which was the probable cause of the problem but I am still waiting for my point deduction errors to be corrected.

In recent months I was informed by numerous Pestana Staff I would be contacted by a member of the Pestana Guest Customer Support Team (note: no names) but this has not hapenned. There are phone numbers on the Pestana Web Site some of which are either not answered or if they are answered are for hotel reservation enquiries only. In fact I am beginng to think that the Pestana Guest Customer Support Team does not actually exist.

This episode has been the worst example of poor customer service I have ever experienced but I am determined to get the 138,000 points re-credited to my Points Statement Balance for which I paid for over 3 years ago now.

I would like to add this review is entirely related to the Pestana Guest Club and its poor service and not the Pestana Algarve Hotels which I am happy to say I have always enjoyed staying at and would like to continue to do so.

NOW WE ARE LISTENING TO THE MUSIC OH I FORFOT WE CANNOT MAKE A COMMENT IT AUSTRALIA @ 12.00AM when children are a sleep,
Crap, I been coming to Pestana Grand Hotel for years and I thought let's see if it changed since lockdown answer no it worse.
I paid a lot of money for this 2 weeks holiday half board.
Food is cold ad over cooked plates are hot to put your cold for on, was told you cannot have water well I was told not, the rest the guests seemed to be allowed a free bottle.
If you couple in the Pestana Grand Hotel you are treating like royalty why you ask they spend money on drinks, I spend more money on my holiday than the couples who buy drinks all night.
I wish I never booked this holiday at this hotel

They don´t reply to emails. They don´t respond to complaints. (Just like they don´t respond on Trustpilot.) I have their highest level of loyalty card, so you´d think I´d be a valued customer. Not so. They have lost a (very) regular customer.

From the warm welcome after a long day in London with the family to the variety and delicious breakfast the following morning, the Pestana at Chelsea Bridge was a great choice.
The hotel is clean and was an easy check in. The room was far more spacious than we have experienced in other hotels with the decor nice and modern. My 8 year old loved it. Given the proximity to the train line it was also very quiet both from the trains and other guests. A very good choice!

I had a booking this coming Friday (In 2 days) at the Pestana in Queenstown Rd, London via Booking.com.
Unfortunately the NHS confirmed this afternoon I have COVID and need to self isolate for 10days so I contacted the hotel.
Booking.com have come back to me saying that hotel is unable to make an exception in this case and I will be charged the full cancellation fee.
Great way to build customer loyalty in a pandemic.

Will never even consider staying in one of their properties again.


Antony

I am a weeks owner at Pestana Village. I arrived in Madeira 3 weeks ago. I booked into another hotel for the first few weeks with the intention of moving to the Village for the week that I own. Last week, Pestana emailed me to inform me that The Village had been closed for several months and there are no plans to reopen it in the immediate future. I was told that I could swap my week and given the option of staying at the only resort that is still open on the island, the Carlton Madeira Beach Club. I have now submitted my request, in accordance with the offer they made but they say that they don't have availability. Yet, they are still advertising rooms at The Pestana Village, the Carlton and studios at The Palms If anyone is considering booking with them, beware as they are prepared to cancel your reservation at the last minute without offering compensation. They are attempting to blame covid but the Madeiran Government has gone to great levels to support the tourism industry here and welcome travellers throughout the pandemic.

We were a party of 7, staying in 5 singles and 1 double: 3 nights at Pestana Vintage in Porto, May 15-18/19, and 2 nights at Pousada do Covento in Vila Vicosa, May 20-22/19. The service was equally disappointing at both hotels.

In Porto there wasn't enough staff to help with bag delivery, one day the double room wasn't made up, the breakfast was great but the service not. For example, coffee took forever to be served, eggs came late and cold.

In Vila Vicosa we encountered the same lack of service upon check -in - nobody to help us with the bags or even show us into the rooms properly. We arrived just minutes before a large group of Chinese and were simply told that there was nobody to help us, Period.

The dining room was occupied by the Chinese group and the rest of the guests were relegated to a makeshif dining room. The service was very slow, the acoustics terrible.

At both propertties the lack of personnel was obvious as well as the quality of service given by the few employees we saw - they were courteous but their lack of training was evident.

Will I recommend Pestana in the future? I don't think so.

we used Pestana. They run Vila Sol golf which has turned from a lovely club to an overplayed mess. they have gone from 8 holes to 27 and put 36 holes of tee times on it. DO NOT PLAY we came off the course after nine holes having paid for 18.

we have been on holiday with pestana many times in Madeira and using our pestana priority membership points, however this year we decided to use them in this country and booked 2 weeks with them at Clowance Estate in Cornwall in association with their partner company Seasons holidays.
Pestana promise luxury holidays and this was true in Madeira so we expected a similar standard in Cornwall - how wrong we were!!
Clowance Estate has many beautiful lodges but we were put in the golf view apartments, a block of 12 apartments overlooking the golf course, without a golf view as the trees and bushes have grown blocking any view..
When we arrived we were hit by the appalling smell in the apartment, musty, old and damp, the towels and bedding smelled strongly of the musty smell and we did not want to unpack our suitcases as the smell would have been on our clothes. The apartment was very old, tired and outdated and not at all what we would have expected from a Pestana booking. We were also given a piece of paper telling us as from the week before our arrival we were to be charged £25 per week for Wi-Fi, adding another £50 to our holiday costs which we were not told about beforehand.
We contacted both Pestana and seasons holidays attaching photographs for them to see, this included a patio door which did not lock, melted radiator, torn and ripped sofa cushions, damp on the windows, mould and dirt on the balcony and a filthy stained sink from a constant running tap. We were advised by Seasons holidays they were aware of the outdated condition and would try to move us, this did not happen because apparently everywhere else was full.
Our 2 weeks were horrid in the apartment and we tried to spend as much time as we could out of it, the neighbours either side and above were extremely audible because of squeaking old floorboards which was not their fault at all but every time someone walked on the floors it squeaked throughout the apartment, we could hear conversations through the walls and every time the toilet flushed or light switch went on.
We again complained and we had someone call us from central reservations asking for us to sell our points to them, we did not want to do this and declined but this chap openly said " oh yes those apartments are very outdated it's like being in a time warp haha" - NOT FUNNY - THIS WAS OUR 2 WEEKS HOLIDAY!!!!!
Again I sent the photos via email to Pestana who awarded us our points back to use again, this was confirmed via seasons holidays and they also offered a free meal as a gesture of goodwill.
Why oh why did Pestana not check the accommodation was suitable for their members, we have paid them a lot of money for our membership and they treat us like this ruining our 2 week holiday? I continued to ask for a refund from them as we also paid £614 plus 75 euros exchange fee, they refused a refund saying it would have been used in resort administration, what administration - we were put in a shabby old dark apartment, but said we could use the reservation fee towards the next use of our points, no refund as they said several of their members had been there and not complained, I can only guess they had been lucky enough to have stayed in the lodges.
Even though we have the option of going again next year I could not face that awful apartment again, Clowance estate put us in the worst possible room and I feel as Pestana members Pestana are liable for not making sure this was dealt with beforehand, the photographs are 100% evidence of the appalling apartment and Pestana did not want to know, perhaps they should read some more online reviews and treat their members with more respect.