Family-owned since 2009.

How we got here

Helena and David bought the East House in 2007 and lived in it as a family home while we restored it room-by-room. The hotel opened with eight rooms in 2009. We acquired the adjoining West House in 2013 and spent four years on its restoration before opening the additional ten rooms in 2017.

The Castelos still live above the West House. Helena runs front-of-house six days a week; David handles operations and the wine list. Their son Reza apprenticed under a Michelin-starred chef in Lisbon for eight years before returning home to head the kitchen in 2019. Their daughter is currently studying hotel management in Lausanne.

What we believe

• Small is the point. Eighteen rooms is the size that lets us know every guest’s name. We have no plans to scale; we’ve declined approaches three times.
• Year-round only. Some boutique hotels close half the year. We don’t. Year-round trade is what supports the team and the supplier relationships.
• Owned, not branded. No flag, no group, no third-party management. The Castelos own 100% of the property and the operating company.
• Sustainability we measure. Carbon-neutral since 2020; fully renewable electricity since 2018; we publish the numbers in our annual review. We won’t put performative sustainability badges on our brochure.
• Long staff tenure. Average team tenure is 7 years. Reception and housekeeping leads have been with us since opening. We pay 18% above hospitality industry average for our region.

What we won’t do

• Add more rooms.
• Open a second location.
• Sell to a hotel group.
• Use AI on email replies.
• Run dynamic-pricing surge rates on direct bookings.