I stayed in this hotel at the end of April and left with mixed feelings about the experience. The hotel has good and bad points.
To start with the good points: I found the men who worked in reception polite, helpful and friendly. The reception was manned 24 hours a day, which made me feel safe at night. The location is excellent - a 2 minutes walk from the Cours Mirabeau via the lovely Place Des Quatre Dauphins, which was especially beautiful when I visited as the horse chestnut trees were flowering. Relaxed approach to what time I left the hotel each day and gave access for cleaning of my room. I paid a reasonable price - presumably because I had been able to book some months in advance.
Bad points: My room was small and fairly basic but it was a reasonable price. However, the bathroom really was too small for comfort. I had to manoeuvre around the basin to get in and out of the extremely small and cramped shower. The shower leaked on to the bathroom floor, which meant that I could not relax, as I was constantly trying to direct the water away from the shower door. I mopped the water up each day and left a completely soaked towel on the floor, so at the very least, the cleaner must have realised that there was a problem. I eventually worked out that the seal on the bottom of one side of the shower door was broken. My room and bathroom were not dirty but they were not spotless either.
My room was very warm but I couldn't get the air conditioning to work. When I asked at reception, I was told that it was off for the whole hotel because it was not considered hot enough yet to justify switching it on. Consequently, I had to sleep with the windows open but my room was on the first floor overlooking the street. One night, I had to close the windows as I was being woken so often by people shouting in the street as they passed below my window. As I had particularly selected to stay in hotels with air conditioning, I was not impressed that it was switched off. I think if hotels have a policy of not switching the air conditioning on until they consider it to be hot enough to warrant its use - this should be made very clear on their websites etc. I could be wrong but when I researched and booked this hotel, I saw no mention that the air conditioning is only in operation at certain times of the year.
Would I say there again? No - not if I can find a reasonably priced hotel in a similarly good location. I have serious reservations about recommending this hotel to others for the reasons above.
- Des Quatre Dauphins Hotel
