The hotel itself is relatively large and functional, set in a convenient central location. It seemed more geared to those staying for business rather than for leisure. Rooms were merely adequate. There were a couple of minor incidents during the stay which would normally pass without comment and were certainly not significant enough to ruin our stay – e.g. the waiter giving us an out-of-date menu and then spilling the wine over the table; the barman who had no idea how to make a very simple aperitif (Kir Royal) and then got quite defensive when I told him how to make it (in the event he didn’t have any Crème de cassis anyway); the waitress who asked us at breakfast if we wanted her to get us some extra hot water for our tea, and when we said, “yes please”, didn’t bring any! However, it was the hotel trying to charge us twice that ruined our stay. When checking in I pointed out that we had pre-paid for the room and produced the email which clearly stated “This booking has been pre-paid” with the booking reference, amounts, etc. Despite this the receptionist somehow got it into her head that the room had in fact not been pre-paid. I asked her to check their records and went up to our room in the expectation that she would locate the relevant records. Just to be sure, a little later as we were on our way through the foyer, I checked with another receptionist who confirmed that payment had indeed been received. Imagine my surprise then when, the following morning, the bill showed a charge for the room. When I again queried this, the receptionist (yes the same one who booked us in) first tried to fob me off with frankly incredible stories in an attempt to explain away why she was still refusing to accept that payment had already been made. When I refused to accept her unconvincing explanations I was made to feel as though the hotel thought that I was trying to pull a fast one which I found embarrassing and demeaning. It was only after I decided to call my credit card company who confirmed that the payment had been made (over a month before) that the hotel finally accepted that they were wrong. Even then it was sort of grudging. That was until I mentioned tripadvisor! Suddenly, they were very apologetic. Too late.
