To feel disappointed we paid so much for this accommodation

[Holidays27]

We booked a month in advance and paid 220 euros a night. Photos and reviews were good; but we got a studio with 2 beds in the living room, one enclosed in a box/partition; street view and construction side next door. Not breakfast, not additional facilities, one bathroom. We are 4 people

Well I feel sorry for you.

At the very least you were expecting a one bedroom apartment. Not a one cupboard apartment.

I've looked through all the photos. I think it is misleading and the pictures are probably from more than one apartment. In some it looks as if there is a bed "room" in a gallery area. In others in a box, but facing the main accommodation in different directions. There is one photo of a bed in the living area, but all other pictures of that area show that space occupied by just a little desk.

Thanks Tarnation. I should have spent more time reading and researching

Incorrect info even on Booking.com:

How many bedrooms does Flattered to be in Porto have?
Flattered to be in Porto has the following number of bedrooms:

1 bedroom

Ocean views in Porto?

These people had a sea view... and an industrial container as a bedroom.

www.travelandlust.com/reviews/flattered-to-be-in-porto

If you look on the actual website you can see the rooftops from the accommodation and it's obvious that the beds are not private . It looks like the photos on Booking?com were misleading but maybe do a bit more research next time

It's difficult on booking.com to get the exact layout of the room.

I've often had to find the actual website to get a proper description, because like you we want a separate enclosed sleeping area away from DS. It does seem like you have been given a studio rather than a one bedroom apartment- the amazing review score suggests good customer service though so I think it's worth approaching in a positive fashion.

However swimming pool and breakfast are on you , sorry.

I think it's very hard to tell what you are getting - the pictures are clearly more arty than informative.

Maybe the one bedroom/studio is a difference between how such things are described in the UK vs Portugal??

Definitely out a complaint in and see what happens.

For even just 2 people that apartment looks cramped. I think you have to separate out what are photos of the apartment and what are photos of other apartments

Me personally wouldn’t have booked it just on the sight of the minuscule tv and the minuscule furniture.
I think because I look at room sizes and furniture a lot I can see the issues. The dining table and chairs don’t exactly leave room for pushing your chair back after a meal. Not that they are chairs that you want to stay sitting in
It is a tiny apartment that they have tried to disguise with tiny furniture and pictures of other bigger apartments.
€220 euros is extortionate,
I would think €120 would have been pushing it.
I too would have assumed a sea view as it does say across the pictures there is a sea view. It is only when you realise that the pictures that don’t say 1 bedroom apartment with sea views across are the picture of the apartment that is being advertised
Definitely a confusing advert and very misleading if you don’t look carefully.
I have ADHD and something like this advert I would try to make sense of it then give up and scroll on because I can’t be arsed to think about what I am actually getting.

I am someone who needs to be told exactly what it is that you are adverting. I don’t have the patience to try and work my way through someone’s misleading adverts

I think the description is pretty misleading. It clearly states 'one bedroom apartment with sea view' when this is not being offered. It should instead state studio apartment close to the sea.

I would always look at accommodation on google street view (it is clear when checking it overlooks a street and the sea is not visible).

Maybe this will help you OP
www.resolver.co.uk/consumer-rights/holiday-lettings-misleading-description-complaints

An apartment isn't a room. Yanbu.

to be fair to the op it says one bedroom apartment which a studio definitely is not though it could be from a portuguese Pov I suppose. In the UK a one bedroom apartment would have a separate apartment with a door. From the pictures it is quite difficult to see the layout.

However you were unreasonable to expect sea view and breakfast included unless the room you booked specifically showed that.

Well, where I live (Germany), a studio is called a 1-bedroom apartment. Bedroom doesn't mean 'separate room'. So here when you look for a house with 3 bedrooms, you look for 4-bed houses.

I don't know if this is the case in Portugal as well, but not everywhere in the world counts a bedroom as a separate room, and/or always includes a living room in apartment-type accommodation.

That said, if there were things in the description that did not correspond with what you were offered (eg ocean vs street view), complain. Both in the ratings after you get home, and to Booking.

Keep in mind for next time, that the photos right at the top of a Booking ad are not of what you will get. Those are photos from the building in general, and can - and often do - include photos from many different rooms or apartments, not all of which you will be booking. Check the specific photos under the exact room type you're booking.

to be fair to the op it says one bedroom apartment which a studio definitely is not though it could be from a portuguese Pov I suppose. In the UK a one bedroom apartment would have a separate apartment with a door.

Exactly this. Any Portuguese MNetters who can confirm this for us?

Many countries around the world don't include separate bedrooms/living rooms in their room count.

[quote Wheretheskyisblue]I think the description is pretty misleading. It clearly states 'one bedroom apartment with sea view' when this is not being offered. It should instead state studio apartment close to the sea.

I would always look at accommodation on google street view (it is clear when checking it overlooks a street and the sea is not visible).

Maybe this will help you OP
www.resolver.co.uk/consumer-rights/holiday-lettings-misleading-description-complaints[/quote]
This isn't the one she booked.

It looks complicated to be fair. They've bundled everything altogether. For the pictures that seem to be her apartment they have included a sea view when she doesn't have one. If you have "sea view" in your booking, definitely complain.

Pictures look like what you are describing to be honest. They can’t be held responsible for building work next door

I do wonder if it’s a cuktural ckash at play here. In some countrues in Continental Europe you talk of properties in numbers of room not bedrooms. So two room appartment is to the Brits 1-bed appartment. So if I soeak to someone from my country and say I have for example 2-bedrooms they would think it’s two rooms, when I explain there is also a living room they would easily assume it’s 3-bed. Hope that make sense.
So they might say a 1 bedroom in Portugal but for them it’s one room but a British person would expect a a living room too.

I think the descriptions are very confusing. This certainly sounds like there is a separate bedroom with a double bed as well as a bed in the living room
flatteredapartments.com/en/porto/description/

The lesson is that you have to read really carefully and also that it helps to look on a variety of sites that offer the same hotel so you can see how they describe it and their pics.

Re price, the only way to know if something is expensive is to compare to others locally. Again, you check that before you book rather than wondering if it’s expensive after you arrive.

The thing about the separate bedroom/container/ all being in one room - I can see that’s annoying. It’s probably the one area you could pursue if you want to. Everything else seems to be exactly as you booked. It could well turn out that what you’ve got,in terms of being in a ‘box’ is enough to count as a bedroom. Yes, that’s disappointing.

There’s no point complaining about price, breakfast, seaview. You knew the price upfront. You didn’t book a seaview or breakfast.

These things happen. We’ve all had disappointing holidays and accommodation. Sometimes there is a gross misperception going on that definitely warrants a complaint. Sometimes it’s just poor quality or shoddy or disappointing rather than being misdescribed. Sometimes it’s like this and it’s very borderline for description as 1-bed. You can spend your holiday feeling annoyed, pursuing the company or looking for a move (that might never happen) or you can just chalk it up to experience and decide to enjoy it and move on.

It IS disappointing but it’s not worth spoiling the holiday about.
And you need to recognise that you’ve been annoyed by things like the seaview and breakfast and the price….all of which are down to you and your research and reading rather than the company. No doubt your annoyance about these issues make the bedroom thing feel worse.

Sadly, in peak weeks, firms can and do charge a lot. Other people’s cheaper prices might have been less central or not in Holy Week which may well command top premium.

I agree that some of this might well be explained I terms if how we describe properties.

Someone linked to a description upthread. It described 1 room. In the description there wasn’t mention of a separate bedroom. Understandings of what a studio, a flat, a room are can differ slightly. This property does have 1 room with beds in it. That could be called 1 bedroom. We think of bedroom as a separate room to living room. Other places might not.

I have found when booking AirB&B in Europe that a "one bedroom apartment" does not necessarily mean the bedroom I separate. I booked an apartment in Italy that was supposed to be one bedroom but had two beds in the living room! Luckily got a refund when I realised. (Another thing I found was that if two friends want a bedroom each, rather than a being couple sharing, I was expected to pay a supplement in cash on arrival for the second bedroom, even though we'd got a two-bedroom appt. This supplement wasn't specified on the English version of the website but was on the Italian version.) The long and the short of it is that the old rules may not apply and you need to make no assumptions!

@TeaKlaxon absolutely correct— all listings show as 1 bed with sea views - this isn’t the case— and if 1 bed is just a bit of a partition it should state so— it does say 2 persons in that link though OP— so I am wondering if you accidentally clicked on the wrong apartment—rather than one for 4 even then it should still have a sea view!!! There are price differentials, so if you paid for the 1 for 4 - and were allocated one for 2 you should be refunded some