We made our reservations over email and I had told the staff we were expecting to arrive around 2. Well, thanks to train problems, we arrived after 3, only to discover that the front door was locked and there was no sign of anyone inside. We knocked on the door, rang the doorbell/intercom, no luck. Finally I wrote down the number pasted on the door - the one that says to call in case of emergency - and made my way through the shops, hoping to find a kind shopkeeper who would let me borrow a phone. No one answered the emergency line, and no response on the hotel's main line either. I left the shop, went back to my fiance, and then went to a different shop to try from a different phone. Finally we got through to a man who must have been the owner/manager, who said we needed the code to get in. Well, of course, but we just arrived an hour ago and didn't have the codes yet. The manager gave us the code and told us to leave our bags in one of the rooms in the back - the key was on the table. At least then we were able to go out and see Bordeaux for a couple hours while we waited for the manager to arrive and actually check us in.

At check-in, the manager claimed he'd thought we were going to arrive at 1, which was not the case at all. But we got checked into our actual rooms, which were clean and spacious even if the furnishings were a little dated. We didn't see the manager again until I went to return the internet cable I'd checked out, and he claimed I hadn't paid for it yet. We did see his wife a couple times - she did the cleaning and checked us out the night before we left because no one would be working the next morning - but other than that, we saw no trace of staff.

The location was good, the rooms were pretty and quiet, and Bordeaux overall is a great city, but you can do better than this hotel.

Very nice hotel in Bordeaux ! Owner was very helpful with us. Our room was very clean (no need to use our liner in the bed!), air dryer in room, a lot of air in the room, big window ! Beautiful room ! Location very good, about 10-15 min by foot to main attractions on Bordeaux. I'll definitely go back to this hotel when I'll be back to Bordeaux !

This place is a budet hotel. Private rooms, but communal washrooms. Very clean and spacious. French language is a necessity here. Location not so great.

I am sure that this hotel would have been great if we had been able to stay there.

After booking online about 4 months before we arrived, we confirmed our reservation via email about 2 days before we were due to arrive. The hotel had stuffed up on reservation (despite the confirmation we had received showing they had confirmed three nights) however they only booked us for 2 nights.

We emailed back asking if they could fix the reservation for the extra night and that we would be arriving at 6.30pm the next day.

No response was received to our emails, and subsequent phone calls.

After arriving via train at 6.30 and finally arriving to the hotel at 7pm, no one was there. We rang the phone number on the door, only to be told by "Erich" that we had not confirmed our reservation, and he had given our room away to someone else.

Always pleasant when that happens, especially when you have made all attempts to do the right thing and the hotel decides to give your room away, when you have indeed already confirmed your reservation.

Three hourse later after walking the streets of central Bordeaux, we finally found an available room at Hotel de France, which was nice and small and quiet...with best of all....good service.