After seeing the other reviews on TripAdvisor, we booked for 3 nights at BnB Les Amis. Our correspondence was via email with Phillipe, who was very cordial, and we looked forward to our visit.
Several days prior to our arrival, we received an email telling us to meet Phillipe in front of a store near the address of the BnB. This seemed a bit odd, but we figured maybe the door was hard to find or something. We set the time and place to meet via email, as we were not traveling with a cellphone. When we arrived at the meet location, there was no one there to meet us. We waited for half an hour on the street with our bags, until finally I went for a walk to see if I could figure out where the door was or to find a phone from which we could call the owners. I found the large metal gate pictured on the website and used a callbox to call the owners (thankfully, I speak and read french). A woman answered and told us to go back out in front of the store where she could come get us (instead of letting us just wait by the gate where we already were with our luggage). She came in a few minutes and led us into the condominium complex. It should also be noted that the woman who greeted us did not speak English (or if she did, she opted not to). Again, thankfully my french was fine, but if you are not a french-speaker, this experience would have been even more unpleasant than it was for us.
The whole experience of our arrival gave us the feeling one gets when one goes to stay with a relative one hardly knows after one's mom has called in a favor- the host is willing to let you stay there and not exactly unfriendly, but not warm either. We were shown the terrace (which was beautiful and had an amazing view) and invited to sit there. The condo also had a living room, dining room and kitchen, but it was unclear as to whether or not we were invited to use them (again, reinforcing a certain sterile, "weird Auntie" kind of vibe). Our hostess remarked that she had been expecting several other guests, but they hadn't yet arrived (were they perhaps also abandoned in front of the store??). I don't think they ever arrived, but I can't be sure. We were shown our room which was small but also had a lovely view over Marseille. What it didn't have was a private bathroom- instead, the water closet and bathtub room both had doors off the landing at the top of the stairs. As we did not know if there were other guests or what their bathroom situation was, and as you would have to go out onto the landing to use the toilet, I would be hard-pressed to describe the bathroom as "private", but I suppose maybe it was. There is no air conditioning, either, although there was a nice breeze. Still, the room was a bit hot during the night.
Breakfast the next morning was fine, if not remarkable- fresh bread, yogurt made in house, decent coffee.
We never saw Phillipe or Jean-Laurent. Perhaps if they had been there, the warm reception reported by other guests would have made us more inclined to overlook the other issues we found. Instead, we opted to lose the cost of the three nights we had reserved (and paid for), and move to another lodging with better facilities and where we were received more warmly.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC