The Ivens Autograph Collection

My husband and I stayed at the Ivens Autograph in Lisbon for four days and while we very much enjoyed it, we had mixed feelings. We've stayed at many hotels and resorts allaround the world and I usually don't review them but there were several aspects of our hotel that we wished we had known beforehand so I will share here with others. I was a bit shocked at all of the 5 star reviews but maybe they did not stay in our room (404) because the other rooms in the photos look better. Let me start with the positives! Hotel lobby and staff: Amazing decor! Wonderful concierge and door staff - so kind and helpful!! We sat in the lobby numerous times testing out all the different nooks and chairs - very well done! And the smell, wow, takes you to a botanical garden! Rocco restaurant: The restaurant attached to the lobby of the hotel was also amazing. Unique decor, trendy, delicious food, great service - and we are from Manhattan with many great restaurants and we were stillvery impressed. Loved the dj too, pretty cool to have such "action" on a Monday night. Fun weekend feeling every night!.Location: Central, good. But be prepared to walk up and down hills on (sometimes slippery) cobblestone - so ladies wear flat shoes with traction! The street itself is nothing special. Check out the ceramics store across the street, gorgeous pieces. We had a nice time but for this level and price there were more disappointments than expected. I know you cannot change the room size in this old historic building. My advice: dig into those pockets and decorate the bedroom walls in the same theme as the rest of the hotel, add some shelves and hooks to the bathrooms, and consider changing room 404 to a queen bed (if you offer that). 5 stars for the positives, 3 stars for the negatives, so giving it a 4 star review. :) Next stop: Algarve!

Room:Size: T I N Y. Did I say TINY? Yesss. And like I said, we are from NYC so we are used to small spaces. There was room for one suitcase but the other - good luck. Time to battle it out with your spouse for prime floor real estate! My suitcase was one that opens into two halves (ok, large I know but I just had the one) and this took up the entire floor space on the side of my bed. Can't count how many times my foot ended up in my suitcase when trying to get out of bed. And there were small chairs and tables at the foot of the bed which we never used, because, you guessed it - they were covered in our other bags/carry ons etc. So cramped. Closet didn't have much space either. Maybe if you are a solo traveler it would be fine but for a couple with a decent amount of luggage on a European vacation for over one week it was not comfortable. And this was not a low tier room. This was a room we paid extra to have a balcony. On that note, this balcony door was the only window in our room and since it was past the foot of the bed you could basically not see anything out of the room unless you stepped into the balcony alcove. Otherwise you would just look at the walls. Which brings me to my next point...Decor: Did a small earthquake shake the Ivens hotel so that all of the decor and artwork slid down the walls to land in the lobby and restaurant? Why is the main level so beautifully decorated with paintings, colors, lights, etc and the interior of the bedroom had barely anything? Behind the bed was a lovely large tapestry but since the only place to sit in the room (remember: chairs covered with stuff!) was on the bed with your back facing the headboard you basically looked at 3 white walls, a white ceiling, and no outdoor view.. but at least there was a quirky yellow bug sculpture on the wall. I expected more from such a fancy hotel at the price we paid. But again, maybe this was just our room, lucky 404!