The accomodation at the hotel Residences was excellent, and the facilities of a very high standard.Staff were uniformly extremely courteous and helpful.

Negatives - evening buffet and bars in the hotel expensive. Extremely noisy all-male party in apartment upstairs, succeeded by a female group whose habitual time of retun was 4.30am.

Having been to villamoura to several occasions i found this hotel to be a one of the most relaxing and friendly places to stay.My first thoughts when i found out that we would be staying here were that it may be cold and unfriendly having read mixed reviews but my fears were soon put to rest when greeted by the reception team and had a very pleasant conversation while checking in. The hotel itself is stunning and rooms are more than ample the rain fall showers was a joy to take in the mornings and a bathtub two can fit comfortably should you wish or relax and unwind in so once we had a good old nosy around the room and having a play with all the gadgets ( TV in bathroom ETC..) thought we should have a good look around. The pool area is very tranquil and calming and sun loungers very comfy we chose to have a drink in the bar and again staff could not have been more accommodating and asked if we would like to sit outside on one of the sofas and he would bring our drinks to us (these arrived with a selection of complementarity wasabi peas which i have now become hooked on not a great think for the waist line let me tell you and do make you drink more i am sure. We then opted for a meal in the marina so upon getting washed and changed and used the free bus shuttle which leaves regularly from reception but does finish fairly early coming back to the hotel but a taxi back was easily available and not to steep about 10 euro. The following day we chose to use the spa and i have to say this is one area where the hotel does let itself down it has all the usual services pool and sauna etc. but felt that it missed the slickness and variety of it rival seven spa at the Hilton it is still however very nice but if its a dip you fancy i recommend the main pool. The highlight to this trip came when upon returning the the room we heard a knock at the door and upon opening were greeted by a waiter with a cake and a bottle of champagne which we were informed was complementarity from the management and staff as it was my 32nd Birthday ( guessing they had noticed from my passport which was used at check in these were both polished off rather quickly once the obligatory photos had been taken they were a number of other great things i had the pleasure of experiencing while at this hotel from the herb encrusted lamb in the main restaurant to the chilled out breakfast buffet but rather than boring you with this all i can say is GO try it for yourself and am sure you will have a great time and come away feeling relaxed and well looked after

I have just returned from a 4 night stay at the Tivoli Victoria and the service was absolutely dreadful. I had read the negative reviews on Tripadvisor and thought that it could not possibly be as bad as people were saying, but I was wrong!

I chose the hotel because it was extremely cheap for a 5* hotel (121 euros per night) and because I liked the look of the room and the pool area both of which lived up to expectations. The pool area is particularly good with plenty of very comfortable sunbeds. However, threatening guests with a 50 euro charge for not returning their towels at the end of the day is simply crass when it would take the pool staff no more than a few minutes to collect up any left towels, and the rule is not enforced anyway - we never used our towel cards and just helped ourselves to fresh towels each day.

What I cannot understand is why Tivoli would spend hundreds of millions of euros building a beautiful hotel and then leave it to be mismanged by terrible staff. With a few exceptions (those being some of the waiters in the Emo and Sensorial restaurants, the barman in Bartini and one of the concierge/reception guys) the staff were consistently unpleasant and unhelpful. No one gave the impression of wanting guests to enjoy their holidays which is surely what they are paid for.

Upon arriving at the hotel with two tired and hungry toddlers my immediate priority was to feed them. Check-in was painfully slow and the receptionist was a thoroughly miserable woman who couldn't crack a smile and just shrugged her shoulders at my predicament after telling me that the hotel restaurant was closed. The only option for feeding young children at 5pm was the swimming pool snack bar which was not fully shaded and had lounge style seating (i.e. sofas and low tables) which resulted in several plates being smashed by wriggling toddlers. Despite the snack bar being almost empty the service was slow, charmless and the food was brought uncovered from the main restaurant some distance away. The whole experience was a total disaster.

I asked for the interconnecting doors between two of our rooms to be opened. It took 45 minutes, three calls to reception and a complaint to the manager before this actually happened. The two cots that I had asked for in advance were not in the room and took another 30 minutes to arrive. I asked for some milk for the babies bottles for which the hotel charged 3 euros per glass plus an additional 5 euro delivery charge. I though this was disgraceful - most decent hotels bend over backwards to help families with babies but the staff at the Victoria could not have cared less.

Dinner in the Emo restaurant was good. Interesting food, good service and surprisingly good value for money. The breakfast buffet was excellent and the waiters/waitresses were lovely (the best staff in the hotel), although the management made quite clear that they found it inconvenient to provide us with high chairs.

The housekeeping service was pathetic with our rooms not being serviced until 4pm despite the us leaving the room at 9am. When the room was serviced it took less than 5 minutes which hardly allowed for any cleaning to be done. There appeared to be only one housekeeper for the entire floor, which suggests that the hotel is cutting costs at the expense of guest service.

As I have already said, the pool area was excellent, but I found it odd that older guests without children were occupying most of the sunbeds around the separate children's pool despite there being plenty of space around the main pool. We made do and imposed ourselves in the midst of them.

There is a kids club which looked well equipped but our girls were too young to use it.

Our experience on the day of our departure was as bad as when we arrived. We needed to give the girls lunch at 12pm before leaving for the airport at 12.45pm but were told that the restaurant was closed until 1pm despite it being open to other guests at a private conference. It would have been no trouble whatsoever for them to help us out by letting us eat a little earlier then the official opening time but this was typical of the 'won't do' attitude of the hotel. Our poor children ended us with a packet of chips from McDonalds on the way to the airport - charming considering we were supposed to be staying in a 5* hotel.

This is a really unpleasant place to stay and I would not recommend it to anyone no matter how cheap it is. The lovely Vila Sol is a much nicer place to stay. It is not as new and modern as the Victoria but the facility are good and at least the staff make you feel welcome.

Beautiful hotel, lovely surroundings & very clean! The pool area is fab and there is always free sunbeds. The hotel is about 5 mins taxi ride from the marina usually costing €10 or less. Pop bar is expensive for spirits and bottles of beer are €5. The food is good quality. We ordered room service which was great, nicest steak I've had to date. Buffet restaurant is ok as well. Will definitely return.