reception staff

location, but no way, brazilian cities are awful and shabby, and worse, swot with beggars and addicts…

café da manhã excepcional.

demora no checkin e checkout

The reception staff were very friendly and helped me find certain shopping streets. The cleaning staff did their best with what they had.

Aftermy initial reservation was not recognised at 21h arrival I had to desperately find another at more costs. Hence the Normandie which claimsit is a hotel but, in fact, more like a hostal appealing to locals and South Americans only when I was there. With such a pretentious name and more expensive than the gruppy looking first "hotel" I arrived at I expected much more. I was quickly deceived. My room resembled more a police cell.It was austere with no decoration, old dity single pane windows facing onto very noisy side street, old ineffective very noisy air con, a TV which had terrible reception on only local channels, and an "unusual feature" of all wood surfaces, shelves were painted in bright blue paint which has a "posted note" effect in that everything attached to all visable surfaces . It was very annoying and although I pointed it out to reception & room service they expressed surprise. On my arrival I requested a toilet brush. It never arrived and I was obliged to do the necessary which was unplesant. The bathroom matched the room in that it was archaic, grubby & dirty in places. The very small sink was dirty and had no plug. The shower was horrible and the fittings needed replacing. Both entry step to bathroom & shower were dangerous specially at night and elderly guests. The hostal/hotel consists of serveral floors. During my stay either the two lifts were under repair , not working and rarely in service. The hotel has no services except a sparse reception area where people waited for taxis etc. Breakfast: On first look it looked copious. I repeat this place caters solely for South American taste and it not suited , in my opinion, to europeans. The daily menu never changed by one iota and became monotonous and uninspiring. It was more suited to workers canteen but the locals seemed happy. I dreaded each morning of the week's stay.

room, tv, breakfast , elevators

neighbourhood

the breakfast and bedroom

their staff

Design do hotel, aconchegante

Toalhas manchadas

Breakfast is really good. People coming from other states on the purpose of going to popular shopping streets like Sta Ifigênia and 25 de março will enjoy staying at the hotel. Also, anyone interesting in getting to know the historic birth of the city and some traditional places in SP, will enjoying staying at the hotel and going out, during the day.

One of the most unsafe regions of the city. You should not walk around with cellphones, watches or any valuable item and you definitely should not walk around at night. Take an uber and wait inside the hotel lobby. The hotel is close to a number of subway stations in a relatively short walk, the problem is that the region is surrounded by poverty and people suffering drug problems, so you need to be really sure about walking around to get to the subway. It might be safer if you are in a group of people.