Hotel Unique - Sao Paulo, Brazil     

The hotel is extremely beautiful, with very modern architecture, a beatiful lobby and really nice and clean modern rooms. The restaurant on the top is very trendy and serves an amazing (but expensive) breakfast and the pool provides one of the most amazing views of Sao Paulo's skyline. The problems here: - The restaurant on the top keeps busy and noisy into the night. The noise does spill to the top room floors - The staff has a serious attitude problem and are pretty useless to provide information / sort out problems. All in all, a good experience.

I stayed at the Unique for nearly 3 weeks in early 2007. I am motivated to write now because my experience does not accord with some other reviewers. The hotel itself is as described, unique in every way. The atmosphere is almost surreal, particularly at night. I loved it. The rooms were minimalist in decor and the one I was allocated was I believe bigger than the standard rooms and was a good size. As regards value, I was given a very good rate after contacting the property directly, and compares favourably with comparable hotels in Sao Paulo. The hotel has a nice gym and 2 swimming pools. The one in the basement area is enormous and the rooftop pool is large with wonderful view. Compare these to the "birdbath" size pools at other 5 star hotels in Sao Paulo or Rio for that matter! The staff at the reception area were young, spunky with movie star looks and were perfectly in keeping with the hotel generally. The check in on arrival was a model for all hotels, something welcome after a 21 hour flight from Australia. I found the reception staff throughout my stay to be very courteous and could not have been more helpful in recommending restaurants etc and making reservations as I do not speak Portuguese. The room service was good and I had 2 minor plumbing problems in the bathroom that were attended to quckly and expeditiously. Likewise friendly service in the restaurant. The location is a slight drawback and you do need taxis to take you to other parts of Sao Paulo. To quote a reviewer on another website that induced me to stay there in the first place the only reservation he had was that the hotel was so wonderful that you are tempted never to leave! The convervative traditionalist may not feel home but I loved it.