This hotel has been resting on its laurels for far too long. It's a member of the Relais and Chateaux chain but really doesn't deserve to be. The price of our room (admittedly a suite) was E299 a night -- including parking and breakfast -- but we felt this was rip-off. Some of the staff are nice and helpful, but there is a sour woman at reception who never seems to smile nor to know how to be pleasant. The decorations are dated, fusty and frou-frou, with pink flounces, frills and swags everwhere -- and that includes the shower curtains -- so that it was like staying in a tart's boudoir. The decorations throughout are overdone, and we felt we were paying for unneccessary tat and glitz, including shiny orbs and satin tablecoths. The whole place could do with a complete overhaul to bring it into the 21st century as everything seems to be old and dated: our bathroom had two washbasins but no proper shower; instead there was a bath with an old-fashioned shower attachment that was considerably underpowered; the extractor fan was so old it groaned loudly, the hairdryer was terribly feeble, and the soapdish had no drain-holes so the soap sat in a pool of water. Breakfast was adequate, but the cold meat had clearly been sitting about for some hours and was beginning to sweat; not only that, but the perfectly nice man who served us had a cold and sneezed lustily without bothering to use a handkerchief. Worst of all, though, was the fact that the bedroom walls are extremely thin, so that everything in the next room is audible. We left longing for a good night's sleep. This is a hotel that could be wonderful. It has a lovely garden and a pretty terrace, but it is let down by its lackadaisical attention to detail, its absurdly overdone and dated decorations and by not paying enough attention to the comfort of its guests.
- Hotel Duchessa Isabella
