We booked out pretty much the whole Chateau for a car club tour. When we arrived the rooms were not ready which was fair enough because we arrived earlier than expected. However after 3pm half of the rooms were still not ready and one couple had their room let out to someone else so were expected to find alternative accommodation.

When we arrived there was a small buffet of champagne and pate with french bread set out for us so it kept the group entertained for a while.

The rooms were nice, clean and suitably furnished for the price you pay I would rate it with a standard 4 star. However on the first day our room had no courtesy drinks etc.

We had booked two dinners on two consecutive evenings, one was black tie so we were expecting special. The service was patchy, the food adequate, the waitresses were nonchalant, when they messed up my desert I just got a shrug. Whilst I speak a little French they pretty much pretended not to understand. We were also herded to bed at midnight the bars were locked up and only the door to the stairs was left open for us to get to our rooms. On the final evening we sat out in the evening after dinner to socialise and they shut all the lights off at 1am and took all the candles from the tables and basically told us to go to bed! given that we had booked the whole hotel we were not disturbing anyone!

Given that we had a lot of money to spend they did not seem interested in accommodating us. They also closed their spa area so we could not use that.

Would we go back? possibly not!

I can sum this hotel up in many words most of which are explicit..so I shall just say this Hotel is SHOCKING and the only I can recommend about it is you AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE

Management: POOR
Food: AVERAGE
Service: POOR
Spa: CLOSED ??? No Reason other than under staffed !
Rooms: AVERAGE



This is the first time I have ever felt the need to write a review and have experienced poor service previously but this was beyond poor hence my efforts.

Considering the Chateau Domaine De Joinville for your holiday? First things first....call them! Go on... Pick up the phone right now and telephone them. They won't answer. After three days of continual dialling, you might get a response.

Get used to this, you will be treated like this from the get go.

They had plenty of notice of our 42 person booking, six months or so, and we were universally rendered speechless on so many occasions at just how little they had done to prepare for us.

First mistake, they book some of our party in a hotel down the road, couldn't be bothered to tell us until we were there.

Second mistake, we turn up as planned at 11 am, FIVE PM people are still sitting on their cases waiting for their rooms to be ready.

Third mistake.....THEY RAN OUT OF BEER AND SOME SPIRITS WITHIN THE FIRST HOUR (we only had one or two each!).

Fourth mistake- we were on a spa weekend. The spa was shut......all weekend.

If you are still reading this, and you haven't yet been convinced to GO SOMEWHERE ELSE, I will list some of my personal low points.

1. Understaffed to the point of absurdity. I personally saw the same harassed looking lady answering a phone (it can happen), behind the bar, carrying bundles of bedsheets, serving dinner....
Literally, they had no staff there. We were literally sitting there left completely to our own devices.
2. Our lovely black tie evening, 11pm and there's a black out as the electricity is cut and we are told the bar is closed. After much persistence (Lynn :) we are told we can order a drink from the same poor woman, who then took every order, ran off up the road jangling keys, unlocked the bar, and runs back with one round of drinks.....it took forever.
Breakfast-hope you like bread, you're getting sod all else..a particularly nice touch at breakfast was the little grey mountains of last nights ashtrays still in the communal areas. The well used public toilets from the previous night were also a special little treat first thing at breakfast.

My room, uncomfortable bed, shabby, not filthy but not clean, very limited supplies (take your own hairdryer, dressing gown, slippers, toiletries....)

The chateau is beautiful from the outside, public areas are dated but presentable, some people liked their dinner, the odd course was really good, all six of mine were left. I ended up chewing a bit of dry bread, I was too scared to ask for the third time for some butter as the waitress was getting very snappy with me as she snatched my menu back.....

If you are seriously still going, check your bill, there were lots of mistakes and double charges.

The nice finishing touch was upon leaving, when our credit cards were held hostage and we were (is aggressively too strong a word?) told we had to settle the bill for the other guests who left due to the noise we were making during our black tie function. Apparently they left without paying, were simply unable to stay any longer due to our hideous racket, and they refused to pay their bills.

Weird thing is....hand on heart, I never laid eyes on any other guests during our weekend.

So, dear reader, PLEASE book somewhere else. I will take it as a personal insult if you read this and still visit, I cannot bear the thought of more people parting hard earned cash to be treated with such contempt and disrespect.

Pick somewhere, no, ANYWHERE else and I wish you a wonderful holiday x




Thi

we did not stay at the hotel, just had dinner there, and the food was very disappointing. My entrecôte (steak) was tough, and the bearnaise that came with it tasted like it came from a can... other dishes were just ok when they should have been exquisite.