This review is in particular for non-French speakers unfamiliar with Avignon:

A caveat that I stayed here when the hotel was an Express by Holiday Inn, but for those unfamiliar with Avignon, this hotel is a great spot for daytrippers heading on the TGV to other Provence locations such as Aix and Marseille and those who will spend only a moderate amount of time in Avignon itself. The hotel is a long walk or very short cab ride (short enough that cab drivers may refuse you) from the TGV station. You can also take the local bus that goes from the TGV, passing by the hotel, and into Avignon Centrale, which is about a 20 minute and 1 Euro trip. I used the local bus to get to/from the TGV and Centrale train stations and into the center of Avignon. Be forewarned to not miss the last bus at night!

When the hotel was an Express, I will confess that the rooms were fairly basic and the air conditioning was not working effectively, but the hotel itself was perfectly adequate for the price. The management and front desk staff spoke fluent English and was very helpful in every capacity--from assisting on local tours to hotel stay matters. I speak some French but even without using it the staff could not have been more gracious. Even in the relatively friendly confines of southern France, I still encountered rude tourist professionals elsewhere in the city, so the hotel staff here deserve kudos for their attitude.

The morning breakfast was mostly continental type items, although I could live on the chocolate croissants and cheese and die happy. The hotel took in a lot of "wholesale" business -- during our stay it was Japanese tourists -- which created a lot of foot traffic in the lobby. However, for breakfast, the tour groups ate in a separate room.

Overall, if the general elements of the hotel remain today as it did when I stayed in late 2009 (hence, my review was deleted by TripAdvisor upon the hotel flag change), I would recommend staying here. Rather than pay 250 Euro for a mediocre hotel in the center of Avignon, stay in the outskirts and save your money for food and the expensive TGV tickets.

We used this hotel as a base for 6 days of exploring Provence after driving down from Lyon. As it turned out this hotel turned out to be great for that. Note to Americans, driving and more especially parking in Avignon in a large vehicle (we had a Citroen SUV/Crossover) is difficult. This hotel, located on the city's outer ring road, allows easy access to the highways out of town while not being that far from town or the TGV station (which has a 3 EUR round trip shuttle to just inside the walls). The hotel itself was modern and fairly clean. Staff was varied, some were very helpful, others were less so. When we asked for suggestions of a resteraunt outside the walls (note, there aren't as many) they seemed to be at a loss. The internet in the rooms is more than a bit spotty but at least the staff was up front about it. Wasn't so bad to surf in the lobby but the total inability to upload photos on their wireless was a drag. Restaurant had above average pizza but those and other dishes (like the baked pasta dish I had) suffered from execution issues (slightly burnt pizza crusts, pasta wasn't heated all the way through, etc.) Breakfast was pricy but we found it worth it...at least after a week of just pastries. Does have a nice little terrace/patio area which is a good place to enjoy evening cocktails...if it wasn't for the loud italian bus drivers that were out there at the same time

Sorry to ruin the 4 and 5 star rating party, but this hotel deserves a reality check. If you think I'm just a tough critic, check out my other reviews and you'll see that most places I review get 3 stars or above.

Background: I stayed here for 5 nights in two different rooms.

The good:

There are some nice aspects of this hotel. The rooms are nicely decorated and feel pretty modern. They have good air conditioning. Perhaps best of all, the black out blinds actually keep all of the sun out, something that most hotels struggle to accomplish. Between the black out blinds, the air conditioning, and the location of the hotel on the corner of a random street, I slept well.

The ok:

To me the location was totally fine. Yes, you are not in Avignon itself, and I'm sure you lose something because of that. However, depending on what your plan is, the hotel could be in a very good location. It is quite close to the TGV station (ten minute walk or 3 min shuttle ride) and the shuttle/bus picks up right across the street from the hotel, with a quick ten minute trip to the heart fo Avignon. If you want to explore other areas by train or be able to make an early morning train, the location is very good.

The bad:

-With modern rooms they should have found a way to put a safe in the room.

-Internet. The Kyriad's website says on the home page "Free WIFI access in all rooms and common places." Likewise, their sign on the street advertises free wifi. Thus, while some hotels don't offer wifi, the Kyriad needs to graded based on what they promise guests. In 5 nights at this hotel I had the wifi work well (normal speeds) only one time. The remaining nights it was slower than dialup internet. This was a big problem because I was planning my trip as I went, and I never would have stayed at the Kyriad if I'd known I wasn't really going to have access. Just trying to find a hotel in Nice took over an hour instead of the ten minutes it would have taken with a normal connection.

When I complained about the speeds to the front desk, they first blamed my computer. When I went to the front desk later a different person told me that the wifi doesn't really work in the rooms, but that they had a different wifi for the lobby. First, if the hotel knows the wifi doesn't work well in the rooms, they need to start falsely marketing this. Second, the wifi in the lobby still was slower than any other hotel wifi I've had in hotels across Europe. In case you think this was just a unique problem, when I was sitting in the lobby trying to access the Internet multiple other people came through saying they were unable to access the Internet. Until the Kyriad removes this from its marketing, improves the wifi, or lowers prices (since you are paying for something you aren't receiving), I recommend staying away if you are intending to rely on wifi access.

-Cleanliness. The review posted just before me mentioned cleanliness, and I have to agree with this. In two separate rooms I saw evidence of poor cleaning. The shower had a buildup of dirt on the door that you'd barely tolerate in your own shower. The bathroom sink was visibly dirty upon check in, and when I spilled something on there they failed to clean it day after day. Also sort of gross they put these shower sandals on the sink in the room. When I just put them on the floor (presumably not clean) they put them back on the sink every day.

It's kind of funny because it would be so easy for this hotel to remain a top rated hotel on tripadvisor. Really, how hard is it to clean a room? Tens of thousands of hotels manage to do this without a problem every day. Likewise, how hard is it to provide decent wifi? The only explanation for either of these problems is that the hotel chooses to pocket a little extra money instead of putting it into the hotel. Keep it up and there won't be extra money to pocket.

This hotel is in an excellent location as it is right by the train station. It is quiet and right on a bus line. The hotel is out of the city centre, so to get to the city, you must take a bus. When we arrived, we went to our room and there was a wickid smell. It was as if someone had just vacated the room and it was not clean. We found hairs on the toilet seat and were not impressed with the overall cleanlieness. However the decor was modern and there was a flat screen tv. There was also wireless internet in the room. The staff was not helpful and snapped at us when we asked her to repeat something she said due to a language barrier. The breakfast was expensive and not worth it at all. I would stay here again for the convenience but only if I could pay no more than 80 euros per night. Not worth it!!!