Independente Comporta

We’ve booked a private villa with 3 bedrooms and a private pool. Absolutely gorgeous and calm place to rest and enjoy a getaway. The staff was very attentive and helpful every step of the way. Will come back.

See below an email that I sent to Independente after my stay. Wholly in keeping with their lax attitude, I am yet to receive a response: I recently stayed with you in a one bed villa. And I wanted to share some feedback on my experience. Overall you have a very beautiful and well designed property, and a young and generally enthusiastic staff. All of the components for a first class experience are there. However the operation of the site lets down the overall experience. During our stay we were let down significantly by the lack of children’s activities that are advertised on your website. Whereas we certainly weren’t planning to leave our children every day, my wife and I were planning on an hour or two a day to relax away from the kids. In fact we booked independente almost exclusively on this basis. When we arrived and asked about the kids activities, we were met with a shrug “I don’t know”. Having spoken to a few team members it turned out “maybe Sunday, not on Monday or Tuesday, and maybe Wednesday”. That’s simply not good enough. I received a message confirming that there would be activities on Wednesday. Fast forward to Wednesday. We make plans for a drink with friends for an hour or so. We arrive to drop off the children. No one there. I message the front desk to find out the situation. I receive a reply: “unfortunately no :(“ Plans completely ruined. And overall our experience of our time at Independente fundamentally different from expectations. Another situation on Tuesday. We return from a long day at the beach at around 6pm. Plan is pizzas by the pool with the kids. We try and order at around 6:30. You’ve ran out of dough. You’re a 5 star hotel charging Eur 800 a night and you’ve ran out of dough?? Some of the charm of the experience is in how remote you are. But with that being the case everything also needs to work for your customers as there is no backup. The front desk were as helpful as they could be, and offered a single frozen pizza from the room service menu. To also add most of the room service menu was also unable that evening due to ‘problems with the gas’. There are also other small things that are just not up to scratch. - Pool towels not available in the morning or in the evening - Private pools not cleaned / cleared each evening with towels left - Drinks glasses not cleared away from the fire pit areas each evening - Breakfast orders consistently delivered incorrectly None of these small things would be an issue on their own. But together with the bigger points just make for an experience that is less than it should be. I don’t know what I expect in response to this. The fundamentals should make Independente an incredible place to stay. But our experience did not live up to our expectations.

We had a terrible experience at this hotel. My pregnant wife became seriously ill with food poisoning after eating spoiled fish served at the hotel restaurant. The chef initially admitted the fish was off, but later, all staff completely denied. Despite repeatedly explaining that my wife was pregnant and suffering from severe diarrhea, there was no concern, care, or support from either the staff or management. We felt ignored and dismissed throughout the ordeal, which made an already distressing situation even worse. I cannot recommend this hotel, especially to families or anyone with health concerns.