Hotel Cascais Miragem - Cascais, Portugal     

Our stay at the Miragem began on May 1st and ended on May 7th 2008. We were part of a large corporate group celebrating our achievements of the previous 18 months. My wife and I stayed on the 4th floor directly overlooking the beautiful pool. The facilities are attractive, but we soon found that 5 Stars appears to mean something different when you are in the US versus overseas. ISSUE: We first noticed that there were no ironing boards or irons in the room. No problem. We requested 1 each and received them. The next day however, when housekeeping serviced our room, they also took the iron and ironing board. We went to the desk to ask why and were told that other guests needed these items. Very odd. According to the gentleman at the desk, they only had roughly 45 irons and boards for the entire hotel. I could always use their laundry service, he told me. Our entire group ran into this problem and we ended up being placed on a waiting list to get an iron and a board! We checked back every day, twice a day for 4 days and finally received a set on the 4th day. After using the iron, I literally locked it in the safe inside the room and placed the board on top of the entertainment center/armoir to keep them from being removed. The events planned by our corporate sponsors required nice evening dress and the iron was a must and I was not about to be "forced" to use the hotel laundry service. ISSUE: the outdoor pool was not heated. Very cold and no one could use it. The indoor pool was not available for use either. As well, the outdoor pool area closed at 7pm. Seemed rather early to us. Minor ISSUE: The room was decently appointed but we noticed that there were only 3 hangers per side of the armoir for us to hang our week's worth of clothing. Could certainly use more of those. Minor ISSUE: Food was just OK. Desserts were incredible. Minor ISSUE: Alarm clocks are not a standard item in these rooms. You must request one. Minor ISSUE: The GYM was only available for very short periods of time in the evening and was not open in the early morning. Minor ISSUE: We wanted to enjoy our balcony in the evening and have some level of privacy to talk, drink coffee etc...the lights on each balcony are centrally controlled and cannot be turned off by guests. Lights will go off automatically at midnight. We found this annoying. Also a small issue is that there was not coffee or tea service within the rooms although the mini-bar was very well stocked. Minor ISSUE: The Hotel Gift Shop/Store was closed on Europe's version of "Labor day" and was also closed on Sunday. We found that very odd. BIG ISSUE: The Bed. Our Bed was not a King but was 2 Queen Beds pushed together. In addition, it was so hard that it caused me to have significant back pain. When I asked if there was anything they could do about the bed (ie: another bed/mattress/mattress topper pad etc...) I was simply told that I could use the spare bedspreads and blankets in our room and place them under my sheets to add padding. I was told that Housekeeping would do that for me but they never did. It did help some, but still, it was not a pleasant sleep. I spoke to many people in our group who were very dissatisfied with the beds. ISSUE: I have read other reviews that comment about the noise from construction next door. Depending on the location of your room it can be very significant. Our room was far away from the construction site (2 Million Euro Condos being built) and we experienced some noise but not hugely significant. Others in our group were very bothered by the noise. ISSUE: Our business requires internet service. We paid for internet service for a number of days during our stay so that we could stay on top of our business and make cheap international phone calls back to the US through SKYPE (great service-Skype- by the way). The internet service was very poor. Although it did work well WHEN it worked, it was very intermittent and could not be depended upon. YOU WILL NEED an ETHERNET cable. Wireless is not available. My impression of the Cascais Miragem Hotel is that it is an attractive facility, with VERY nice staff but that the level of service that is offered is simply not up to par. A suggestion for the Management of the facility is to staff a Concierge desk with people who know how to meet the needs of their guests even if those needs are not typical of the "standard guest". I ended up feeling as if being an American made me somewhat of an oddity at the Miragem as if our expectations were out of keeping with what a 5 Star Hotel was supposed to be like. In all fairness, the staff did what they could with what they were given and neither my wife nor I were displeased with the people or their efforts. They were all very kind and hard working. But, the Miragem's overall performance left us wondering where their extra stars came from.