Almost a year to the day that Tavira’s 4-star Porta Nova hotel was forcibly shut down, with guests complaining they were “treated worse than pigs”, comes news that the place is relaunching under new management, and a completely different name.
Gone are all references to Porta Nova, making way for the Maria Nova Lounge Hotel.
Part of the AP Hotel & Resorts, the group purchased the former Porta Nova from Novo Banco, under whose auspices the so-called hijack took place.
At the time, former owner Eng. Manuel Simões accused the bank of theft (click here).
Today (Friday) he reiterated his feelings, stressing: “They stole it all, everything we had inside. We were robbed of everything. We are still in court with them, and they will have to respond for what they did”.
But with the hotel now officially in new ownership, whatever transpires judicially will have little impact on the future of the once-popular hotel.
“It has gone”, Eng. Simões agreed. “We have nothing to do with it anymore”.
Diário de Notícias explains the hotel changed hands in August, and is now undergoing a process of “remodelling”, purportedly costing “over €2 million”.
In a statement to Lusa, AP Hotels & Resorts have said the group hopes to “create employment and value in the Tavira region” and will be opening the doors of its new-look 5-storey hotel in February.
“The Maria Nova Lounge Hotel will be a hotel open to the town, allowing a diversified international atmosphere”, said the statement, adding that gastronomy offered will be “fusion, based on local products”, and that “culture and Nature-based sports with specific programmes” will be part of its ethos.
AP Hotels & Resorts is an offshoot of the diversified MADRE group led by Portuguese entrepreneur António da Silva Parente.
It has also recently acquired Faro’s Hotel Eva, and Portimão’s Hotel Oriental.
