Hotels near Samba Museum, Rio de Janeiro

This hotel is 10/10 can’t fault one thing, please  don’t read the reviews , located on one of Rio’s best beaches by far better any others near by, no restaurants around hotel but you can get Ubers for very cheap , 10 mins to barra or leblon highly recommend great value for money in Rio

Great hotel with a luxurious view of the most famous beach. Yes, there are some minor issues, like sometimes having to wait 7 minutes for an elevator, but I don't consider that a problem. It's a 30-story hotel with 6 elevators and many rooms, so you can imagine. The breakfasts are a bit repetitive and could be improved, but they do have fresh orange juice, which is a nice touch. There aren't always enough hotel umbrellas and chairs on the beach, but I don't see that as critical either. The bed was good, and I slept excellently! My birthday fell during my stay, and the hotel gave me a lovely surprise! Thank you! I'll definitely be back.

We booked two rooms with the hotel: a junior suite and a standard. The suite was very spacious and opened up to the street. The windows did a good job of blocking sound so the street didn’t disturb our sleep at night. They had a parking garage that charges R$33 per day and was able to accommodate our Jeep Commander. What is warranting this poor review was the hotel staff. Upon check-in they had informed us that one of our rooms wasn’t paid for even though i had already been charged by the booking agency. He said that we had opted for pay later and they hadn’t received the payment from the booking agency. I told them that my card had been charged by the booking agency but he insisted that it was likely a hold on the card to secure the room. I’d suggested to call the booking agency but he insisted that it wouldn’t be necessary (he didn’t seem worried so I assumed he had experience with this). Come to find that I was charged twice for this room and the booking agency has been trying to get in contact with the hotel for over a week with no response. This seems like FRAUD. The second issue. Upon checkout of our suite, the lady checking us out requested a gratuity payment for the included breakfast… she estimated that based on the value of their breakfast that the suggested 10% gratuity would come out to R$180 per person. That would make their self-service breakfast be valued hire than Michelin restaurants in the area. She tried to ask the other party that was traveling with us but when I came closer she gave up. I’m wondering if this is hotel policy or if the staff at this hotel are actually running scams from the front desk. I am still trying to get a hold of them about the double charge.

This is an extremely impressive hotel i have ever experienced. The most impressive aspect is the service and Diego is a legend! Everything you need can be solved and managed by Diego super, professionally, systematically, precisely, prompt and warmly, just like magic and miracle. if I could score higher, I would have given triple so high as full score for Diego's service! I am really really glad to recall the days in this hotel!!!

Excellent accommodation, breakfast and location. Close to the metro station. Attentive reception. Everything is very clean. I highly recommend it.

The hotel is wonderful, which is just a bit of a hindrance and the issue of parking is not available at the hotel itself, when it is crowded, you have to put it on the street in front or in its surroundings, other than that, the hotel itself is great.

The hotel has a nice location on the beach, but the property could do with some updates. The first room I went into had a funny smell, so I reported it to reception. The male receptionist looked at me, and as if he doubted my word After I insisted, he assigned me a new room, but it was left to me to move my luggage. . No support was offered and I couldn’t be bothered to ask. I did ask if there would be any complimentary water put in the room. He said he would get housekeeping to put some water, but I’m still waiting two days later.  Power outlets in the room are limited and not designed for modern travel. No USB points. The TV is old and not smart or Internet connected. There are no cable channels so nearly all of the channels are local language apart from one CNN news channel in English.. The hotel is quite noisy and dogs. The walls are thin and guests scrape furniture across the marble floors. This is relatively easy to remedy if the hotel cared. The rooftop pool was disappointing as it’s quite small and normally full of kids. The restaurant is closed after breakfast. There is a bar, but it’s never open.. The biggest problem I had was the Internet. It did not work properly in my room and kept cutting out every few minutes. I had to stand in the corridor or come down to the lobby in order to get any decent coverage. I complained to the staff, but they did nothing and just told me it works.. This was extremely frustrating and I certainly wouldn’t come back to this hotel again.

We booked this hotel in Nov at an inflated price of $1500 USD for 4 nights assuming there'd be rooftop access on NYE since the hotel website didn't call out a ticketed event for that night. When we arrived, the staff told us it was in fact a ticketed event for an additional $300 USD. Perhaps our oversight but we scowered the website before booking at such a high price and it wasn't there. The manager was very helpful in accommodating a cancellation if needed, ultimately we were too tired to pack and unpack again and waste another day in transit so we stayed and bought the tickets. Check in is 2pm. We arrived at 1pm and they said they had a room for us. It wasn't ready so we went to the pool where again, service was wonderful. Front desk gave us a tour of 2 rooms to choose from which was great, but then msgd me and said they'd have a diff room ready at 2:30. We went down at 3pm and the room changed yet again and the new room still wasn't ready. We got a room with no apologies at 4pm. The room was standard. Strong cleaning smell but decent. The shower hose didn't stay in place. The shower drain did not work at all - we had to kick the water to the corner each time for it to drain or pools of water stayed until the next day. The sink also didn't drain. The toilet stopped flushing. We had a plate with one chocolate on it from NYE which by the next day was covered in ants. We are very tidy girls and give some grace for older hotels to have some flaws, but the experience for the price we paid made us appreciate the airbnbs we'd stayed at before checking in here. Location is great, gym and pool are great, but not worth the $ for NYE or Carnival.

I’d describe this hotel as utilitarian. No decor or warmth at all. The common areas are spacious and quite bare.Table and chairs at the restaurant are plain brown wood, The lobby is sparsely furnished with some worn , drab and very uncomfortable seats. Bathrooms are the same. Just the very bare essentials, not even a box of tissue paper ( and thin toilet paper) We travelled long hours,  arrived at 22:00 looking forward to a good shower …not to be. We were up for a bad start. There  was just a trickle of water not enough to bathe or properly brush teeth either. That could have been a whole area problem as we were told that water pressure can sometimes drop in some areas of the city. We changed rooms , water pressure  wasn’t much better the next day either, the water flow improved just a little and remained as such the whole week. We had paid for 5 nights and ended up staying as the city was packed that week . To go looking for another hotel during the G20 summit which Rio was hosting that week of November 2024 would not be an easy task.  On the positive side, staff was pleasant and accommodating, bed was comfortable and from our perspective, the breakfast buffet was the best feature of this hotel offering abundant variety of  food to meet all tastes- cereal, fruits and cheeses, cold cuts, several hot savory breakfast  dishes - incl. some Brazilian regional dishes as well, a huge selection of breads, cakes, good coffee, and more. Very satisfying. Including breakfast in the booking is highly recommended.  The good fare offered at the hotel at lunch and dinner not good at all. However, there are also three of four restaurants lined up on a small stretch within 5 min walking distance of the hotel- one of them is a very good authentic European Portuguese cuisine and wine. Aprox. US$ 52 for a meal for two. On the same cluster of shops there is a well established Brazilian cuisine restaurant with a good menu where one can eat well for anything  between US$ 12  to US$ 15 and a steak house similar to the Australian Outback steak house.  There are also other eateries snd convenience shops, a pharmacy on the same stretch ( 5 min walk ffrom the hotel) including a 24 hr laundromat where one can expect to wash and dry a load for about US$ 7.  As for location, this hotel is not close to the most well known districts of Rio - places like Copacabana, Ipanema , Leblon - but Barra da Tijuca is a special area in itself and arguably has the best beach in town. The hotel is just a 10 - 15 min taxi ride to Barra Shopping-  the largest and best shopping mall in the whole state of Rio de Janeiro where one can find anything,  including restaurants (recommend trying Jappa all you can eat Japanese food spread for US$ 26 as in Nov 2024). On the whole , when compared with the fashionable and pricey districts of Copacabana , Ipanema Leblon  this hotel is good value for money . I’d stay there again if they fixed the shower situation b’cause this feature matters for me.