Foto Pine Cliffs Residence, a Luxury Collection Resort, Algarve

There are four different types of accommodations at the Pine Cliffs Resort and trying to discern which is which can be confusing. There's the Hotel, The Ocean Suites, the Vacation Club and the Residences. Most of the amenities are interchangeable, ie. you can go to any of the pools, the beach and restaurants. This review is specific to the Residences. First, it's really hard to see this as a "Luxury" property. It's nice, the staff at the restaurants are outstanding (at least at the O Grill), but it's just not luxury level, especially finding debris in our room, a screwdriver and dirty towel on top of the dryer, and ants. It's a great family resort and there were lots of families there, enjoying the multiple pools and restaurants and beach. It has a beautiful beach, nice and long and deep during low tide. But, it is a looong way to the beach from the Residences. After walking through the resort, you take a beach elevator down several feet. Then, you still have to walk a lengthy boardwalk and descending 120 risers to reach beach level. So, it's a hike, be aware. Finally, management really needs to do a better job of addressing problems. We paid for a "penthouse" level residence, which we received. However, on the fourth night of our seven night stay, I discovered swarming ants coming out from behind the drapes in our bedroom. Thousands of them, at about 9:45 PM!. After calling the front desk, housekeeping finally arrived after about 45 minutes, sprayed some smelly spray on the ants and began vacuuming them. Meanwhile, it was clear we wouldn't be able to stay in the room for the night, so I called for a new room and was told none were available. After insisting on a new room, and asking for a manager, I spent several minutes on hold. Housekeeping agreed we wouldn't be able to stay in the room and desk staff finally agreed to move us to a lower floor room. We packed our bags, gathered all our belongings and went to the new room, finally being able to get to bed about 3 hours after first noticing the ants. The next morning, management seemed to be less than concerned about our experience, explaining that sometimes ants get in the room....I asked for them to comp the room night that we had been disturbed and reduce our room rate since we were in a cheaper room and for them to provide us with dinner at their local steak house for our trouble. The manager smiled as if I was being unreasonable. They agreed to comp half the room night, reduced the remaining room nights to the rate of the actual room we were in and offered a free glass of house wine for each of us. Our experience, especially management's response is not in keeping with a true luxury property.