We had to make an unscheduled stop in Collioure on our return from Spain, having to cut our vacation short due to family illness at home. The town is lovely, heaving with people but you can see it would be very nice in the shoulder months. The hotel was right on the water, the annex where we stayed up the hill about 1/2 mile.
My wife speaks French and made the arrangements in French over the phone the day earlier. The receptionist who took the call was not very pleasant but we did secure a room in the annex, which is up the hill, a 15 minute walk from the beach, next to a fire station and across from a parking lot. It's a private home divided into 4 small rooms with petit dejeuner included for Euros 95.
Unfortunately, there were no other rooms available anywhere in the town and we were exhausted so we took it, with my 8 year old son and I sleeping on the floor, and my wife and 3 mo. old baby on the bed. We didn't realize this would be such a problem the next morning. The room is very small. Clean, with a balcony overlooking the street. Nothing special but we didn't care at that point we were so tired. We were told we had to pay for two nights even though we were only going to be there one. Given our situation, we accepted this.
The next morning we got up early, skipped breakfast and went to the main hotel on the water to pay the bill. The older woman behind the counter was visibally seething behind the desk when I identified myself and began hurling abuse in French at me that only two persons are to be in the room. I tried to explain in halting French that we had no choice, no rooms were available and there's no reason to be upset as two of us had a very uncomfortable night on the floor with only two in the bed. Then a large older man came bolting out of the door, yelling "this was not Iraq and we can't just do whatever we want!" , something to do with the fact we're English and then stood over me hurling abuse in French. The woman continued to pour scorn over me as well, insulting my lack of French, my baby and wife. I was stunned and felt so threatened I couldn't respond. I paid the bill as quickly as possible (two nights) and drove off.
While the hotel has an enviable position on the water, I would warn travellers to give it wide berth as the owner's (they must have been) anger was so excessive it was shocking for such a minor issue. I'm in the travel operator business and have never seen this behaviour before in all my years. Not sure what their problem was as they got full payment for half the use. I'll go back to Collioure, but not hotel Triton.
- Triton Hotel Collioure
