إنسايد باي ميليا ساو باولو إيتيم

Quiet rooms, very good breakfast buffet

I booked this hotel for a business trip after reading plenty of glowing reviews and a #6 traveller ranking in Sao Paulo. What I found was not worthy of the high praise this property receives online -- it is average at best and certainly not a four-star hotel (I took the time to check the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism's requirements for 4* and I believe that using that framework, this is a 3+ star hotel; alas)... My main qualms: - My room was not ready for check-in at mid morning (which is entirely reasonable on the hotel's behalf); however, when I finally checked in at 6pm, after a 16-hour flight and full day of meetings, I found that the body wash was not restocked in the bathroom. Surely if the room was not ready because it was being cleaned, soap should have been one of the first things to be checked by housekeeping. The front desk team offered me a separate bottle of soap, but the built-in bottle in the shower was not refilled for 3 days. -Shower and sink were both very slow to drain and this was not fixed during my stay despite bringing it up on day one -The room is not at all like the photos on the website and TripAdvisor. I did not have a standalone desk, nor an area rug, nor mood lighting; the bathroom looked tired and not remodelled as per the photos. There was evident wear and tear in the room itself. -The lamp in the room only worked if the power cord was in a particular position, and kept flickering or turning off if it was not perfectly aligned. -The gym is lacklustre compared to the online photos: kit is poorly signed and dated (NB - there are several nice gyms in the neighbourhood that offer day/week passes to visitors) -WiFi was not strong enough to do a Teams call from my hotel room -The housekeeper thought she left something in my room one day and entered without knocking, while I was in the room For the price point of this hotel, I was disappointed by the product, which felt rather budget and not business or 4* in the slightest.

Very good location, great staff, courtesy and super helpful staff at the reception. The room is basic but has everything you need, the bed is super comfortable. The hotel is modern. You have shops and restaurants close by and a nice walking location.