As experienced long term world travelers we have seen how some favorite hotels slowly decay.
We don’t know how our hospitality colleagues keep their hotels and rooms up-to-date and how they discover changes in travelers’ demands. But if it wasn’t because we went back on the road once Tings Kathmandu was up and running and returned with fresh eyes every 2 months or so, the same would have happened to us in Nepal. Instead we managed to keep it ‘fresh’ and vibrant in all the 10 years it existed (Covid closed it).
In Lisbon things have been different. Due to a very complicated start-up environment followed by two years of covid isolation we have been grounded here in Graça since 2017 and haven’t looked at our own business with fresh eyes. So instinctively we kick started the 2023 by painting all common spaces and several of our rooms.
And since January we have forced ourselves to go through all details, elements, routines and services – and asked our guests if there are things we can improve and/or things they need to make their stay better.
As for new trends & demands the best way to find out is going back on the road. So since New Year we have stayed in hotels in Bangkok, Andalucia, Marrakech, London and different places in Portugal. Just to see what we appreciate the most ourselves and what we were missing.
Tings Lisbon is almost sold out every day.
This intensive use slowly wears out furniture and facilities in general. And it makes it difficult to get access to the rooms when we need to fix things.
But our handful of good and loyal professionals do their best to repair and maintain bathrooms, door problems, railings almost as soon as problems happen. Only a few things have to wait for the low season in the winter.
Installing AC in all Tings Lisbon rooms. We don’t want the outer unit on our wall – they are well hidden on the roof. But installing the cooler in the rooms has been difficult in a fully booked hotel.
When we opened in 2017 we slept in all the rooms – to see if something was missing or didn’t work.
At that time the ‘crowd’ hadn’t discovered Graça. To stay comfortable in the warm season you just had to open the windows and let the cool Atlantic breeze into your bed – and maybe turn on the fan if needed.
Today Penha da Franca, Anjos, Arroios and Graça have become Lisbon’s most attractive neighborhoods – and our Miradouro da Senhora do Monte Lisbon’s most popular sunset spot. For obvious reasons: It’s very romantic and the vibe and ambiance during the sunset hour is super lively and cool. Not noisy – but you can hear people chatting, kissing and holding hands during the evening. This combined with hotter summers have led us to install AC in all rooms – so if the sound bothers you – just close the windows!
The bonus: In the cold season all rooms will be warm and cozy.
In our small common kitchen on the top of ‘the big’ house our guests can make themselves a cup of coffee or tea or light meals and keep smaller items in the fridge. Still we have felt an increasing demand for fridges in the rooms – not only for cold drinks. But also for travellers with medicine, food souvenirs and other things that must be kept cold.
So now all our Lounge Rooms and Cozy Rooms have fridges with refreshments (vary depending on the category).
And we have an extra portable mini fridge to be used in the basic room when the guest needs it for medicine.
Usually we travel with our own Coffee & Tea as we need an early cup. So it’s very hard when we stay in a hotel without an electrical kettle to make your morning tea/coffee before heading down to breakfast.
So we have added this to all our Lounge and Cozy Rooms. And in our Lounge Rooms we have Coffee and Tea as well.
We never use hair dryers ourselves. But according to reviews and daily requests from all our guests there are Hair Dryers in all rooms…. By public demand.
Chimmi made himself a new mattress from bougainvillea leaves
We are privileged to get a lot of positive reviews. The negative ones hurt – but we try to care as little as possible and read them carefully to see if the complaints are based on things we can and will improve/change/do. (As we tell the world: We LOVE our location, we can’t have a lift and we don’t want TV. So don’t complain about that!).
We never get complaints about our bed linen – 100% Egyptian cotton – but lots of positive comments. The ‘price’ for not using polyester in the bed linen like 99% of other hotels do, is the wear that comes with daily wash and ironing. So we have made a new production of our special quality and thrown away a lot of ‘well worn’ pieces.
Some complaints are very valuable, as for instance comments about The Mattresses. Unlike before, we never have a chance to sleep in the rooms ourselves. So we can’t check them out on a regular basis. As mattresses are like shoes, most complaints are due to personal preferences: Too soft or too hard (our mattresses are all firm, not soft, not hard, but …..)
But we take all comments seriously, and always try out the mattresses ourselves where we get complaints. To our horror we just found a few ones that were in a condition that “needed action”. They were changed immediately.
We love decorating and creating ambiance. Especially Annette who spends a lot of her time getting and arranging the flowers, changing bed covers, buying new cushions etc. And as we recently got most of our art from Kathmandu sent to Lisbon, many rooms have been pimped-up with fresh pieces as well. Some rooms have changed completely from how they looked when we opened.
Our big challenge is to have flowers in all rooms – none of the hotels we have stayed in the last year have had that. For obvious reasons – they are difficult to keep. But we find that it adds to the ambience and we do our best to have a flowering orchid – or at least something green in each of our Lounge and Cozy rooms.
One of the bonuses from baking our own bread is the wonderful smell it adds to Tings Lisbon’s morning ambiance
After having served more or less the same breakfast since Tings Kathmandu opened in 2011 it is really strange to hear and read how our guests praise our breakfast.
But after having stayed in several hotels, in various categories in different countries AND in different parts of Portugal we understand why… it has been a sad experience.
We can’t compete with the assortment of items you find in big hotels – we’re too small to serve several savories and cakes which they all do. But not even the 5 star hotel we have stayed in in Portugal serves bread in a quality like ours, and they don’t serve eggs on demand. And their cheeses and ham were the square slices you buy in large rolls in Makro. A cheap and easy solution. Very different from our homemade, home cut & fresh filosophy. Even our favorite Design-Art-Boutique Hotel had chosen the easy solution and outsourced the breakfast to a popular Franchise Bread Store we would never go to if it wasn’t because it was part of our research.
Except for our various jams – homemade if possible, we didn’t have anything sweet when we opened. But as we know from our travels – the breakfast in some countries consists of coffee and a sweet sweet snack. So due to relevant ‘‘public demand’ we started making crepes with a thin layer of Thomas’ homemade dulce de leche inside. They have become very successful.
Thomas’ super tasty Tings Buns based on red lentils, fresh cheese and eggs is our permanent Gluten Free option (order before arrival).
One of the biggest changes we have experienced since we opened in 2017 is the increasing number of travelers there are intolerant to different things.
For a small hotel like Tings it’s impossible to meet all trends – especially something to match our philosophy. We always have gluten free cereals and biscuits, decaf, herbal teas and non dairy milk but we had hoped to find inspiration or ideas we could copy and make ourselves at affordable costs – especially to the traditional ‘flour’ items.
But none of the hotels we have stayed in offer anything we don’t. So our latest ‘invention’ Thomas’ new super tasty Tings Buns based on red lentils, fresh cheese and eggs – will now be our permanent Gluten Free option (we have to know before check-in as it has to be prepared the day before).
We have stayed at Tings Lisbon since we opened in 2017. Not intentionally – our plan was to move out as soon as the hotel was running the way we wanted. Due to the usual Portuguese start-up struggles it took way longer that we expected.
In March 2020 when we finally were able to get back to the traveling community and backpacked for a month in Myanmar, we just managed to get out of Asia and back to Portugal before the world closed down for 2 years.
Now we’re busier than ever and desperately need an extra hotel room. After one year searching we found a small flat opposite the hotel.
So in July our room will be transformed into Tings Duplex with two huge terraces – where guests can enjoy an amazing view from the sunbeds – and a small kitchen.
Looking forward to seeing you all in Lisbon
Annette & Thomas
