This November was our second stay in Hotel Canella Beach, our family (extended with two grandmothers) spent a ten days holiday in Guadeloupe staying in this hotel. We ordered via hotel internet page a double appartment and a single studio including breakfast.

Reading previous emotional reviews my purpose is to be objective about Canella Beach Hotel.

The hotel is in Gosier which is a centrally located holiday village in Guadeloupe. Position is excellent to explore the whole island. You definitely need a car, parking is free in front of the hotel, be prepared for traffic jams in/around the capital Point-a-Pitre in the evenings. The hotel is three star labelled. It has about 150 rooms in three consecutive buidlings enclosing an open swimming pool, surrounded by well-kept tropical plants and palmtrees, and located by the sea with its own sandy beach. Most rooms have some views, they are double/twin bed studios, some are duplex (for families up to 5-6 persons), all air-conditoned and have a terrace with a kitchenette to make your own food if you like. There is free wifi available.

You should take into consideration the local climate, i.e. that you are visiting an extreme humid (lot of rains) and warm place with a constant palmhouse feeling. This gives reasons for the open air dining area (birds and a lazy cat can be in and out, trying to get some food), the non-glassed windows of the rooms (lizards, gekkos or beetles can visit your room through the terrace door or window spalette), and that you find cane furniture and only tiled floor without carpets. There are mosquitos from the neighbouring mangrove and they are really biting. If you accept all these than you have no problem with the hotel, but if you do not, than you may feel really tortured.

Our rooms had nice view of the sea and of the hilly part of the island. Rooms were daily kept, towels changed, all clean and ok. Soap/shower gel re-supply was usually missing (be sure to bring your own). Room cleaning is a full day procedure, done one day 10 o’clock the other 15 o’clock. The room and the furniture is nothing fancy, but generally was in good status. There were several discrepancies: a lampbulb were not working, a picture hanger on the wall but no picture hanged, the fridge was old and rusty, not enough cutlery items, wifi was unreliable in the evening. These we considered minor problems.

Breakfast was plenty but not for a lucullus taste: crambled eggs with sausage and hams, and two choices of cheese and salami. We preferred early breakfast cca. 7 o’clock, because of doing excursions daytime.

Staff was really kind, mainly prepared for French speaking guests but with basic english we could communicate. The restaurant did not work (probably out of season time), and generally there was an airy atmosphere, no pressure of lot of guests. Special thanks to hotel management (Valérie & Edy), that the last day we could stay in one of our room till late afternoon to be able to go directly from the hotel to the evening plane back to Europe.

All-in-all, if you do not expect luxury you can just relax and enjoy very much staying in Canella Beach, once returning to Guadeloupe we would stay here again.

Well, where do we start. We do not recommend staying at this hotel. it is overated, understaffed and doesnt provide the essential amenities which should be the norm. for example, clean towels. We were constantly in debate with the reception area regarding, no towels in the room. Not enough kitchen utensils,the fridge is old and tattered and did not keep anything cold.
Well breakfast , the scrambled eggs looked like vomit, the hot food was never hot, the miniscule croissants were burnt, when they were available. When hotel was in full flow and full, breakfast would be over at 7.30 because they were unable to replenish the stocks. There were not enough staff available to check and refill the food.
Hey! What about a little variety. For the amount of money we paid for our months stay (never again) we had the same breakfast day after day after day.
The domestic staff were pleasant and did their job to the best of their ability but without towels sheets - what can they do?...No soap, no soap, no soap. No restocking of shampoo etc etc.
Renovating needed. They shouldnt not be allowed to give this hotel a 3 star because it definitely isnt. On the plus point the swimming was cleaned every day. But the jacuzzi didnt work. The restaurant decided that it would close from 16 August until some date in September., Hello......we are ladies on holiday - its dark, swampy.
Beach at hand -not bad and its private.
Location fine...but if you do not have a car very difficult to get about and eat. All the shops which were there to supply bread groceries, etc, have gone...so recommendation - find somewhere else to stay.

This hotel is OK, but not great. My girlfriend and I booked this through a French travel agent and it worked out at a very good price. There is a private, uncrowded beach (albeit a man made one, with lots of seaweed washing up) which is handy if you can't be bothered to take the 20 minute walk to the municipal beach (which is more crowded and has a fair amount of litter). There is also a swimming pool which is empty in the evenings and early mornings. Our room had a little kitchen which was handy when you wanted a snack but didn't want to walk to the restaurants down the road. However, the fridge/freezer was very old and making ice cubes with the little trays provided took hours. The kitchen area could have done with some more cutlery (like some sharp knives and a can opener). The bedroom was comfortable but they pushed together two single beds instead of putting one double bed in there. This would be annoying for couples because everytime you wanted to get close to your loved one, you keep falling down the gap in the middle! The buffet breakfast is good and there was quite a good selection of food although the random cats walking around can put you off your food. Plus, because the restaurant is open and next to the beach, you get wild birds coming in an nipping food off your plate as you go back to the buffet. Lunch is served in the same restaurant but it is overpriced and the selection of food is pretty poor. Furthermore, the lunch is again a buffet-serve-yourself affair, which means that birds help themselves to the food sitting on the tables. This hotel is very popular with older people and my girlfriend and I (both in our 20s) felt a bit out of place here- but maybe that was because of the time of year (i.e. not during school holidays and just after Xmas/New Year). Strangely, this hotel is located next to a swamp, which really smells during the heat of the day. Once in the hotel, you wouldn't even notice the swamp, but it's a bit strange walking past it to go to your hotel. Gosier is OK, but there isn't a great selection of restaurants and things to do. Whilst in Guadeloupe, we went to Sainte-Anne, which is much better as it has more restaurants, better vibe and a local market selling lovely local fruit, rum and fish.

Although this is a hotel-resort, remember that you are visiting a different country with different standards when you come to this hotel. We found that while there were shortcomings in the facility, the helpful staff did their best to fix things and make things better.

For example, when we checked in, we asked for a non-smoking room, which is something that they said did not exist. One of the people working the front desk went to check out a particular room they had in mind for us to see if it were acceptable. When we got our key and went in, we realized they gave us one of the best views at the hotel, in a larger room with an enclosed balcony/kitchen.

Another example: when we did not find any soap or shampoo in our bathroom, the gentleman at the front desk found us an empty plastic bottle and filled it with shampoo/soap until they could install a soap dispenser in the bathroom, which they did the following day.

I did not experience the other problems people wrote about in the older reviews. No one was trying to sell us a tour (maybe because the tour office was unattended the whole time we were there.) The maid came every day, despite our hanging up a "do not disturb" sign. So, the room was kept clean. While we did not go to any of the buffet dinners, we noted that there was live entertainment with dinner for two nights out of the seven. The breakfast did indeed include the company of birds and cats, but we found them charming and threw them pieces of cheese and croissant.

We liked the internet service, although the A/C in that little room took a while to cool off the air. And the wireless internet was useful for my iPod in the lobby (it doesn't reach further than that.)