My wife and I stayed here as part of a six day bike tour. Check-in was taken care of by the tour company, so no problems there. The restaurant was nice, meal was average. Tavel is noted for rosé wines and they did not disappoint. Our room was clean as was the bath. Beds and pillows were firm to hard. The room overlooked a street which became quite noisy after 7 AM. As we had to rise shortly thereafter, it was not a problem but it could be for those wishing to sleep in. I would recommend this hotel for those staying in Tavel for a day or 2.

We arrived around 7:00 pm after a long drive--staff very obviously put out by our arrival time because ALL staff have that night off. First time I've stayed in a place with no one on site from 8:00 pm onwards. Rooms (we had booked two) were subpar and carpet very dirty in rooms and hallways. TV wouldn't work but no one there to try to address it. Both rooms faced busy street and petrol station. We decided to leave after one night and desk clerk tried to extract a second night's fee from us although she could produce no documentation on that policy and I did produce my booking confirmation which made no mention of a two-night minimum fee. We stood our ground but it was unpleasant. Was it "terrible"? Maybe not, but it wasn't "okay" and there's no score in between. I would give it a 1.5 out of 5 as the breakfast and breakfast room were very nice.

Our last stop doing the wine route of the Rhone. A great base to do the mid to lower Rhone Valley and also Avignon. A small town feel and low key establishment, which offers spacious rooms, wi-fi internet, a great restaurant and bar. A place to relax and read in the courtyard, pat the cat and unwind. Great hostess who has very good english and is happy to help with any enquiry.

Auberge De Tavel, Village of Tavel near Avignon
Dates of stay : October 9th - 13th(4 nites)

Reason for selection :
Looking for minimum 3 star local accommodation in small village near Avignon that was not near major roads. The building also needed to be of old and built in many years gone by.

Auberge De Tavel meet these requirements based on the information provided on the Internet(which we always take with a grain of salt especially living far distances in Australia).

We also used a accommodation web page for France which provides details of over 3,500 2-5 star properties.

We were also spending 4 weeks driving thru France from Rennes to Lyon visiting Loire Valley, Central Massif, Avignon region, Annecy and Lyon.

Result was as follows :

Location :
Great. Was in the village. Only issue was that as it was post summer holidays only a few small places open to provide food and drink. However, still managed to drink local wine and eat.
Great. The village of Tavel is 12 kms(7 miles) from Avignon yet one is surrounded by farming. Tractors going thru the village, vineyards all around.

Also easy to get to local sights(most within 25km(17 miles)) of the accommodation.

Hotel structure.
Great. Built in the local stone and looked like a local building. Fits into the village appearance extremely well.

It has been renovated internally but still very tastefully done with a very french look.

Reception and staff :
Extremely good and co-operative. The owner and the back up reception mamber of staff very good and helpful.

Restaurant staff very well trained but one had to wrok a little hard with ordering as we have limited french and they had limited English.

Accommodation :
Room was quite large by European standards. Everything was clean, tidy, neat, well maintained etc. It should be noted the hotel was due to close at end of October for a period of a few weeks to do annual maintenance after the hectic summer holidays.

As such the hotel was extremely well maintained and clean.

Had a great view of the countryside from our open windows.

Breakfast :
Included in cost and was very nicely setup each day. Pleas enote for the last 2 nites of our stay we were the only ones staying there(again due to closing for a few weeks) and they still setup the breakfast for us in the sun filled breAKfast dining area. They did not cut back on the food presentation.

Restaurant :

Great food and local wines. Very silver service but nice to do occassionally. Seemed like a lot of locals use for dinner also.

Dinner in Avignon etc. was easy. Only a 20 minute drive there.

We enjoyed our stay there especially as we had the place to ourselves for 2 nites and still were extremely secure. They have a very good security system installed.

Would stay there again but most probably in April/May so one could enjoy the local village more.