We were booked into a garden room but were told upon arrival it wasn't possible for us to stay in the room assigned to us as we were travelling with a baby and children are forbidden to stay in garden rooms because, according to the owner, they are not insured in that part of the hotel. This is despite my mother-in-law advising at the time that we'd be travelling with a baby.
It seems genuinely bizarre because we were instead given a room only a few metres from an unenclosed pool which seemed rather more unsafe than the unenclosed pond in the garden. In any case, our baby can't be left unsupervised at all so he would have been under the strictest of supervision at all times but evidently the hotel isn't prepared to insure the garden area for the presence of children - and presumably happy to pay the increased insurance premiums that would result from directing all children to an unfenced pool.
We were given a room with single beds because apparently there were no more rooms with double beds close enough to the restaurant so that our baby was within distance after he'd gone to bed and while we were having dinner. I asked, politely, if we would be expected to pay the same rate given that the room was a lesser standard. Given that I am not 100% fluent in French, I didn't understand the owner's response and so asked her to repeat her answer. At no time was I rude.
While we were settling into the room I started taking photos - of the gardens (beautiful), the pool (average), the room and the restaurant. I do this on all family holidays because I enjoy documenting the things we see, places we stay, foods we eat etc in a photo book. While I was taking photos *in our room* the owner came up and quite aggressively and very nastily accusing me of not behaving nicely and saying that she knew what I was up to. It was sufficiently loud that guests in neighbouring rooms were watching this.
I was literally speechless - so shocked that I actually could not construct a sentence in French. It is rare that I'm spoken to in a manner like that - and certainly not while a guest in a hotel where I've only been polite.
It is quite telling that she waited until my mother in law walked away before she decided to unleash on me and equally telling that she stopped as soon as she saw my husband walking round the corner.
The consequence of us being given the pool room while my parents in law stayed in the garden room is that there were then limited opportunities for us to spend time together. We weren't able to go there and given that we were given the only room *without* a table and chair out the front, there was no space for them to visit us. We've come from overseas to visit them not to spend time on opposite sides of a hotel complex.
The only thing that stopped us getting straight back in the car and driving 3 hours back to their house was that they had a voucher they needed to use for the place.
Aside from having the most terrible service I've experienced (the other staff were fine - pleasant in fact - but unfortunately the owner's customer service was sufficiently diabolical that it left a significant and lasting impression), it is probably the worst value for money I've ever received from a hotel. Overpriced for what it is, leaving aside the shocking service. When the the room with single beds we were told that there would also be a supplement for the baby. When my mother in law pointed out that we didn't request a cot because we brought our own, the owner told us the supplement would be to cover the baby's breakfast. When my mother in law told her that we brought rice cereal and fruit for the baby's breakfast but that he is mainly still on bottles, we were told that we'd still be charged the supplement.
Stay away - particularly if travelling with children!
