Casa Reia is marketed as a luxury, bohemian beach club, but lacks the service standards to consider itself a true luxury experience. Casa Reia is located in Costa da Caparica, a 20-minute drive from Lisbon.
Arrival
I visited Casa Reia in August 2022, with two friends. My friend Julia had planned ahead and booked us two beach loungers to enjoy the sunny beach day. When we arrived, half an hour after opening, the hosts welcomed us and then were told to “go find” two beach chairs. Two loungers for the day cost 50 euros, while the beach beds are 70 euros. There were no two beach chairs remaining beside each other, so we went back and they said we could take an open beach bed. We found a bed on the far side of the beach area, closest to the bar, and set up our towels. It felt very disorganized and the hosts explained that they have given some guests loungers who didn’t book ahead of time.
Day Experience
The venue advertises that with the booking of a bed or beach loungers, you’ll have a dedicated server to order drinks. This was not the case for us and we had to order drinks from the bar ourselves. This wasn’t the end of the world and I could walk the 10 feet it took to get to the bar to order drinks. What was disappointing was when I ordered the drinks for my two friends and me, the waiter got distracted that he had lost his phone, left the bar, and came back 5 minutes later to ask me again what I would like to order. I had to remind him that I had already ordered and only after this reminder did he finally make my drinks. What should take 5 minutes and was promised to be served to our bed, took 20 minutes. I also witnessed a guy order a bottle of rose and the waitress also exit the bar and did not come back for 10 minutes for him to have to remind her again of his order. I don’t know how a single resort can hire so many forgetful staff. This is not the level of service you would expect at this type of beach club.
We arrived at 1pm and had also set a reservation for dinner in the Casa Reia restaurant for 7pm, under the assumption that we could order food to the beach. No food is served to the beds or loungers, so if you’d like to eat during your afternoon at Casa Reia, you need to make both a lunch AND dinner reservation. To book a beach lounger for a beach day, the last thing I want to do during the best sun hours of the day is to have to go inside for a lunch. This venue needs to create a menu that they can serve on the beach. They’ll certainly need to train their staff on how to handle more tasks at once.
Night Experience
Once dinner rolled around, I was starving, as we couldn’t eat anything for lunch, so we were prepared to enjoy a nice dinner. Overall the service was similar to the experience of the day, inconsistent and aloof. The menu is filled with fresh seafood and smaller plates and overall I enjoyed my meal, but for the prices, I can find similar quality and significantly better service in other restaurants and beach bars in Lisbon. We had to ask for the bill four times before it came, another example of missed customer service opportunities.
This venue needs to focus on training its staff to be more customer-focused. New processes need to be put in place for booking and guest experience on the beach, which needs to transition to the restaurant to really consider itself a luxury venue. For the price, I’d recommend skipping Casa Reia and checking out options for your Lisbon beach time in Costa da Caparica.
