this hotel was beautiful! so much is included in your stay (plenty of the spa services, the games room, the cabinets of books on each floor, the first round of tea/coffee/fridge things in the room, the courtesy buses), and the staff are all so friendly.
we quickly realised how lucky we got by choosing this hotel as it was in such a convenient spot (bus stop just up the road, and driving back from town centre would take 5 mins at the most).
the only suggestions for improvement, however, are:
1. the smell of the sheets (perhaps more a general problem with dry cleaning than the hotel) as they smelled a little musty even when changed, and sometimes the hoovering wasn't very thorough. used things were, nonetheless, always replaced without fail (used glasses/towels etc.).
2. the lack of knowledge of dietary requirements other than vegetarian/vegan. this is definitely across Madeira, that nobody really knows what halal is unfortunately. but hotels are a big industry so if they knew about it, it might make a difference across the island, like normalising halal butchers or not using pig fat in desserts, etc. having said that, the restaurant staff are extremely helpful - as soon as one of them found out we can't eat the meat/alcohol, he made sure we steered clear of menu items that contained them or asked the chef for alternatives. so we really appreciated that. Madeira isn't very racially/religiously diverse so the friendliness of the staff really made all the difference :)
