I’ve been a regular at Portobello Resort for more than 20 years.
Having returned this year, I could confirm that the place is still nice, with well kept rooms and a good beach.
However, service is degrading year after year. They are becoming amateurs, on the worst of senses, and they seem to be forgeting that the customer is, after all, the only reason why they exist.
The Resort is expensive and you would expect an outstanding service. This is not the case. A handfull of minor problems which add up to become an annoying experience.
No good service at the Restaurants – finding a waiter can be a struggle (specially the guy that looks after the wine). The food, once a highlight in this hotel, is now below average. Packages offered turn out to be a trap for extras and the staff is not well trained – most of them try very hard to achieve very little.
Worst of the bunch are the people at the “leisure desk”, which makes silly mistakes and rudelly mistreat the guests. With us, for instance, after twice confirming a boat ride, we arrived early to find out that our names were not listed.
Did they apologize and offered some sort of compensation? NO! The so called “manager” – a pony tailed guy called Daniel – appeared and showed no respect for the customer claiming that “if our names were not listed it was probably our mistake”. Rude and stupid. A portrait of the kind of service you’ll get at Portobello. Next time, I will try the Mediterranee, just a few miles down the road.

The location and surroundings of the resort are very good - our room (comfortable but not more than this) was right in front of the beach. The common areas were nice and the pocket shows at night were very entertaining. The kids (and grown-ups) loved the Safari - it was really fun !!!
Paying around USD 590/night, I was expecting a better service - it was sloppy at best with some rare exceptions (valet services and restaurants). Service at the beach was practically inexistent - nobody to help you with beach chairs and umbrellas neither to bring you some drinks. I`ve stayed there for a week and the pool was so filthy that you couldn`t see the bottom of it (even in the jacuzzi) - my guess is that they clean the pool once a week even in summer when the hotel is full of guests.
My conclusion is that It`s not worth the price you pay for it.

Beatiful ocean view and room was few feet away from the beach.....
Very nice hotel with plain rooms but extremely pretty surroundings are worth it to visit. I can stay another week!!

The hotel is at the beach, and very close to the ocean. You wake up open the windows, and wow! It is not the most luxurious hotel (and the price is not of one either), but who needs that when you have one of the most gorgeous beaches in front of you. There are also dark green mountains in the back of the hotel and a farm with a little zoo (great for kids). One of the best travel experiences my husband and I had.