The welcom in the hotel was very cold: you get your key and that is it. There was no elevator and we had to carry our suitcases to the second floor ourselves (4 strairs). The emergency stairs are used for a shortcut to the parking and the pool (advise from the hotel). This is very strange we think. The hotel is situated next to a busy street so when you are lying by the pool (when there are enough sunbeds!) you here the cars. The pool is indeed decoration for the restaurant and not for swimming. Rooms are oke (clean but some things need to replaced). We booked a chambre luxe for Euro 170. Breakfast cost Euro 9,= per person extra and than you get bread, yoghurt, jam, coffee and one butter for two persons. They put everything on your table so there is no buffet.... We arrived after lunchtime and asked if we could eat something but that was not possible. In the evening we had dinner with friends from Arcachon and we would have dinner in the hotel the second night but we left after one night beacause it was not worth the money.

We stayed at La Guerinere in July 2009 along with a 1 yr old child. Overall I left the hotel with positive impressions, but a lot of caveats. Its a good hotel for some, for others not good at all.

The positives: the hotel is reasonably modern, is a small size, has a pool and a Michellin-starrted restaurant, is air conditioned

The negatives: you're not allowed to use the pool most of the time, hotel is a bit out of the way not actually in Arcachon but a sort of neighbouring town a bit of driving away. No beach close by, Intermittent ambient smells from what I think i s mud at low tide around the local shellfish farms

We stayed here for about a week, as a base for spending the days at beaches in Arcachon or the neighbouring peninsula/bay. Overall we enjoyed our stay and got very good service from all the staff at the hotel except for the one rather gruff middle aged lady who works the reception. They were very accommodating of our needs with the child.

There is parking at the hotel and it is free for guests.

The hotel itself was not really a four star, more of a 3 star that now needed some small investment. We first stayed in a superior room with a balcony which was noisy of you opened the door as if faced the road. In any case the balcony was rather shabby. After that we had an larger room opening onto terrace on a side road which was better.

The internet service in the hotel is a joke. Slow as hell, like 128kbs dial speed. Definitely not broadband. The only computer available for guests was right in the front lobby. And not a great one either. The hotel can and should do better on that dimension, as it is far away from all the tourist locations so you do need to get on the internet to find information about the local area.

The Michellin starred restaurant in the hotel is needless to say really good. If you book a stay with the half board, then you get a set menu at the restaurant. Its a good meal like that, but f you go a la carte you get even better food. No room service though.

One negative was that because of the pretense and formality regarding the restaurant, the hotel pool adjoining the restaurant serves more as a prop for the restaurant than anything else: when the restaurant is serving lunch and dinner you cant use it. But its pretty, I guess.

A short walk away from the hotel there is a pier with a 4 or 5 casual seafood restaurants most of which were quite good and a lot cheaper than the restaurant at La Gueriniere. If you take a very long walk or 5 min drive there is a Hypermarket and bakery in the direction of the main highway.

However it did get to be a bit of a schlep having to drive aroudn everyday, all the beaches are quite far away from the hotel. And driving at summer season in the area was a bit of a hassle as the traffic is heavy in the mornings and at end of the day as folks leave the beaches.

So those are the pluses and minsues of La Gueriniere. We enjoyed our stay there but then again we did know it had a michellin-starred restauarant and wanted that. But if you just want to be in central Archachon there are many hotels more approriate than this one.

The room of this hotel was clean and the bed was comfy - however for the price I would not expect to see tatty paint work, or fairly tired furnishings. My biggest dissapointment was the very overy priced and very ordinary breakfast, which we wrongly assumed would be included in our already pricey room - there was no service to speak of, and what we had to eat was mininal :( I would not use this hotel again sadly.

We have just spent a weekend here with our 2 young children. We stayed in a junior suite (no. 214) which was pleasantly decorated and roomy enough for the 4 of us (children on sofa bed). The room was I think 165 euros per adult half board and the children just paid for meals. Overall impression was of a nice oasis of calm, very pretty pool area with lots of plants and flowers and an excellent restaurant. But we just didn't really like the area. Arcachon was tacky and you really wouldn't want to swim there and the rest of the villages around the bassin were charmless and untidy . However, Cap Ferret on the other side of the bassin had a much nicer feel about the place and the beaches there on the Atlantic side were great.

Negatives: There are only a few very minor complaints we had about the hotel - we really enjoyed our stay and I'm probably being picky but I felt that it was a great little hotel that needed a bit of 'tweaking'!.
- When we arrived there was no one to be seen at first - the staff seem to sit behind a wooden screen instead of the reception desk. The staff were polite and pleasant but could have been a little more welcoming (no 'have a good journey home' or 'where have you come from' etc - and they knew we spoke french!)
-We spent an hour or two around the pool but no one came to see if we wanted to order any drinks (I know its only a 3 star hotel but this would have been a nice touch). Also the pool had been cleaned but the pool 'vacuum cleaner' had been left in the pool so we had to pull it out.
-There was a balcony with plastic sun lounger and chair which you wouldn't really use as it just looks over the road to an apartment block and it joined onto the balconys of the other rooms (Although it was very private).
- Air con in room wasn't great - we had it on the coldest setting which was just about adequate but didn't manage to cool the childrens end of the room much - although the hotel did put a fan in the room for them after we asked.
-Location not ideal but thats not the hotels fault - we just didn't like the area!
-Not much of a bar area for aperitifs.

Positives;
-The restaurant is fantastic - the food was delicious and the childrens menu adventurous too! The setting was lovely with tables around the pool and all the plants and flowers lit up at night. We were surprised to see that the halfboard menu was the same the second night but the waiting staff offered us some different choices which was nice. We also sat here for a simple breakfast the next morning.
- Rooms were spacious and nicely decorated with good sized bathrooms.
- Private car park (with plenty of spaces even in July!)

Would I recommend this hotel? Yes - especially for the wonderful restaurant and I would imagine its probably the nicest hotel in the area but I would probably choose to go back to a different part of the Atlantic coast like Ile de Re which had a lot more charm.