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!

Where do I even begin? I booked this online, and it looked great. Learned my lesson. The only good thing about this place was its location!

Where do I even begin with the problems?
- The staff was very rude and not helpful at all.
- They said they had high speed WIFI, not true, no internet.
- Very Small Room, not what was expected when I booked. When I say small, after our two small suitcases were on the floor there was no room to walk.
- Bathrooms were clean but the shower had no door or curtain and the shower head was just hanging down. Didn't make it easy to shower.

I would definitely not stay here again and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

My girlfriend and I traveled to Marseille last summer. We were excited to stay in Marseille, as we'd heard so many good things about the region.

We found the "Hotel du Palais" online and booked three nights. The booking process seemed fairly straightforward. The rooms were not cheap (119 euros a night).

Upon arrival, everything went horribly wrong. The man who greeted us at the front counter (the owner, I think?) was horribly rude. He started off by making us wait for 15 minutes at the front desk, while he went in back to have an espresso! We could see him talking to someone in back, while he sipped his drink. When he finally came back to help us, he was curt,, rude, and didn't seem to want our business. He checked his reservations, and he said "your room not available". He said the only room available was the room that his "mother stays in". He told us our reservation was no good! And he said we could take the room or leave his hotel. It was late, we were exhausted, and we didn't want to argue, so we took the room. Still at 119 euros!

The room was the worst I've ever seen. The bed was a twin sized bed! And I could stand in the center of the room and touch the walls on both sides of the room! It was that small! The bathroom was filthy, with noticeable buildup of dirt and mildew in the shower. The worst was the amount of hair left behind in the sink and on the floor!! Somehow, we managed to go to sleep and make it through the night.

The next day, we went downstairs and asked about a different room. The owner was downstairs again, and he was furious that we would want another room. He said that was the only room he would let us stay in. Unbelievable! After yet another barrage of rude comments from the owner, my girlfriend and I had had enough. We went back upstairs, packed up our stuff, walked about 5 blocks away, and found a gorgeous hotel for the same amount of money!

NEVER stay at the Hotel du Palais. The service is absolutely dreadful. The rooms are tiny, filthy, and uncomfortable. This hotel ruined my impression of Marseille, to say the least!