We had a booking for another hotel, the Montgrand and was offered a room here at the Palais instead. The lobby looked plain but OK. We got a superior double which consisted of a double bed and just a large open space in the other end of the room. No sofa, couch or anything to justify the extra space. The interior design looks homemade and cheesy. We could hear conversations of other customers through the wall. The bathroom sink looked sturdy and designer-ish but the overall impression of the room was that it was constructed by a non-professional. The Air-conditioner was not properly installed either and the damp was collected with a rug on the floor, uneffective cooling. The room was very hot and damp all the time. Not really clean bathroom. No shower curtain. Traffic outside is disturbing. Location of the hotel is good though. Just next to the Palais de Justice. When I saw the standard rates of the rooms on a wall plaque I laughed. Who would pay 130 Euro/night for this makeshift, crappy room?

This hotel is just a couple of minutes walk from Vieux Port and the main shopping areas of Marseille. Although it doesn't have a carpark, there is an underground carpark on the same street a block closer to the port. Our room was nicely decorated, French but still quite contemporary in style. Our bed was unfortunately two singles zipped together and the pillows were below par - but not a bed bug in sight! The bathroom was tiny, but functional - though with no shower curtain we left it a bit wet. We booked this hotel online for an excellent discounted rate making it very good value. And yes Marseille is grotty and a bit scary at times... but that's what makes it so unique!

My wife and I stayed for three of the four nights we booked online through Hostel Bookers. The place seemed reasonable at first. The bathrooms were recently renovated and the staff was nice and helpful. Marseille is kind of a hole, but it's centrally located and a good launching point to other nearby locations by train.

After the first night, things started to go downhill. My wife noticed bites on her legs and shoulders. We figured it was probably mosquitoes, since it was July and Marseille is a pretty grungy city. We ended up spending the third night in St Rafael so we could spend two days there without having to travel back and forth on the train.

The fourth night, we came back to Hotel du Palais. As we were getting ready to go to bed, my wife noticed a bug on the wall. I captured it and we compared it to the picture of a bedbug on Wikipedia (we did have internet). It was an exact match! My wife's suspicions were confirmed, and she completely freaked out! She threw everything we had into the packs and suitcases and was out of the room in about 20 seconds flat. The lobby staff tried to convince us it was a cockroach, but we didn't believe it. It looked EXACTLY like the picture. We looked at lots of cockroach pictures and none were even close.

The receptionist was nice enough to let us use the hotel dryer to kill any bedbugs in our luggage, which took several hours (a laundry service handles most of their laundry so the hotel dryer is really small). After a few sleepless hours in the lobby and assurance from the morning manager that we would receive at least partial compensation for the four nights we paid, we walked to the train station at dawn and got the h*ll out of Dodge, er, Marseille.

Before we left, we got the name and email address of the hotel manager, a Mr. Pascal Bataille, who also manages a sister hotel, the Grand Hotel des Bains in Sanary-Sur-Mer. We emailed him several times but never received a response. I doubted we'd receive full refund but we expected at a minimum an apology and assurance that the hotel would deal with their infestation so other travellers wouldn't go through the same grief we did.

After receiving absolutely NO response for a month, we contacted American Express to see if they could follow up on our behalf. They contacted the hotel and were told the hotel would provide no compensation.

So, here I sit, wondering if there's a Health Department in Marseille that tracks this sort of thing. I'm not holding my breath. Marseille is the dirtiest, trashiest, most graffiti ridden city we've ever visited, outside of India. My advice: stay away from Marseille, and especially stay away from the Hotel du Palais.

I felt safer on vacation in Mexico City than I did when in Marseilles. It was a dumpy and gross city. I do not plan on returning. Best to consider some other beautiful areas outside of there- I highly recommend Toulon and Avignon.
If you must go to Marseilles the hotel was decent enough. Bathrooms impeccably clean, rooms clean, nice receptionist, our a/c didn't work but we were offered another room. In busy area of city but that may be what you like. I like being in the center of cities that aren't derelict-looking. I know I sound harsh but I was quite disappointed. Many people say how beautiful it is but I did not see it that way, in other words to reinforce - - skip it!