Our experience was multifaceted in a number of bad ways, but the most important was that this was our second honeymoon and the owner was not only unhelpful, but incredibly rude as well. I asked for another room - ours was over the restaurant (which the description did not mention) and was impossibly loud until very late at night. When I pointed out in a very polite way, with probably bad, but never the less understandable French, that this was our second honeymoon and that we would like a different room if there was one available. She made it clear that we had registered for our room over the internet and there were no refunds and no changes. Though eventually she did offer another room across the street for more money per night. However, she would not actually let me see the room itself - only a picture. Given our experience so far this was not acceptable.

That night we decided to visit a neighboring town for the evening and ended up staying over night. When we returned the next day she had rented our room to another couple AND STILL would not give even a partial refund. She said this was a typical French business practice and that she would gladly call the police if I wanted to argue about it - the threat coming even though the conversation was irritable, but certainly not threatening or loud in any way. It was clear that we would have to accept the loss of several hundred dollars or take her offer of an inferior room, for more money per night (though we would not have lost our credit for the old room had we taken this option.) We decided to get another hotel altogether and forfeit the almost $600.

I could forgive the lack of flexibility to a point had she not been so nasty about it. However, it did urk me that though she was the owner/manager she would do nothing and that it was not "impossible" had she wanted to do something about it.

I strongly recommend you stay elsewhere. There are several lovely spots in this wonderful village.We chose a hotel just up the hill that was also on the water: The Hotel Les Caranques. (www.les-caranques.com) They only had a ground floor room, which they felt was inferior, but was ours if we wanted it. The room was a huge improvement over the other more expensive room at Hotel Triton. The place was gorgeous, affordable and the room's view like a postcard. The breakfast was vastly better and the quiet and privacy a huge, huge improvement! The staff, though they didn't speak a lot of English were very helpful, accomodating and kind.

hotel has great location just on the beach. Rooms are quite basic but clean. We had room 16 which had nice balcony overlooking beach. If you are checking in after 7pm make sure you let hotel know and they will give you access code and details where to get key. Staff arent overly friendly. Just a great location and reasonably priced.

The one really excellent feature of this hotel is its wonderful situation. Sitting on our first floor balcony and watching the world go by on the seafront was a lovely part of our week's holiday in this charming town. We were very thankful that the room had air-conditioning and did not find it particuarly noisy. On the negative side, I booked online about 6 weeks before departure and was somewhat dismayed to find that they took 100% of the total cost of our stay as a deposit. (To me, a deposit is a fraction of the whole). What is more, possibly foolishly, I booked breakfasts in advance and they too were included in the amount taken off my credit card. We discovered that, because of train times, we had to leave before 8am on the last day. The management would neither offer an earlier breakfast nor refund the 14 euros. In my book, taking money for a service one then does not provide is unacceptable. There were other things that made us think the management approach was miserly - a cracked washbasin, a broken handle on the folding screen door to the bathroom and a big chunk broken off the bathroom mirror. There is nobody in reception after 7pm, yet there was no phone in the room - do they presume that, in an emergency, guests would all have a mobile? There was a door off reception with a phone symbol on it but it seemed to be in use as a broom cupboard. As this hotel is sited above a (very good) restaurant and has just one staircase, I would have thought a phone in each room in case of fire would be a minimum safety requirement.

Wow - an amazing location for a hotel. Service isn't much but the extra price for the bay views is well worth it. Collioure is a fab little place!