I could simply advise any TripAdvisor reader simply to avoid this hotel and leave it at that but I feel I would be doing the travel community a disservice - and being generous to this sorry excuse for a hotel.

The enjoyment begins with an unnecessarily long, protracted and inefficient check-in by staff who would clearly rather be somewhere else, doing anything but working where they are. Saying that customer service was poor would be unfair to the world of customer service; there was no real service. Sour-faced, incompetent and dismissive are better adjectives.

The receptionist looks at me with something close to disgust as I ask for more than one wifi code as I have multiple devices - and so begins the incessant problems with the hotel's supposed wifi. I am told I need to log in separate passcodes for each device but that the process is simple. Once settled into my cold, soul-less room, I type in the codes. First device - no problem. I admit I was surprised. Second device - user not recognised. It took three separate visits to reception, using a very slow and putrid lift, to have it eventually sorted but not without a derisory remark when I started showing frustration at their incompetence.

If only connecting to the wifi had meant actually getting a decent internet connection. I'm still not sure why they bother. Downloading emails took an age, never mind attempting VoIP calls, streaming or even looking at not-so-graphic-heavy websites. The old dial-up modem I had 20 years ago was faster than their sorry excuse for an internet connection.

Positives, there must be positives. Well, the room was clean, of a decent size if very poorly-designed with a wall jutting out into the centre of the room making it very impractical. If only everything else was clean. Annoyingly, I only noticed on my second day that the very bottom of the bedsheets were soiled - not sure with what, I tried not to think about it as I was trying not to feel sick. Something I did notice though was that the toilet water had a definite yellowish tinge to it when I first lifted the cover. Perhaps São Paulo water isn't all that clean, you might think. A quick flush revealed that the local water is indeed not yellow. Well done house-keeping for an efficient job there.

As I'd been travelling for over two weeks, I had some laundry to get done. Not on a Sunday though, apparently- too sacrosanct a day to do any work - maybe that was the problem with the receptionist? To add insult to injury, the 'normal' laundry service takes 36 hours to be returned to you. If you want same-day service (even if you give your laundry before 10am), they charge you an extra 50% for their express service. Express service! Someone should really tell them that their express service is standard service in most normal hotels. But I guess the Transamerica Prime Plaza is just a sorry excuse for a hotel rather than an actual one.

Please do yourself a favour and do not stay there. There are better places in São Paulo for a similar price and actual service.

Location is good. Reception is lost, internet non working, bad attitude.

Was book for 5 days, left next morning after checkin.

They even charge for an ice bucket.

For almost the same price yoy have tons of better choices around.

The hotel is clean and the rooms have everything you need. Even a small kitchen part is installed in the room. The bathroom is small with a shower, lavatory and sink. 2 single beds and a small TV. Prices are OK, only the attached skybar is expensive. Staff friendliness differs from friendly to short answers. Could also be a language barrier since I only speak English, Dutch and German.