We were taking the ferry home from France at the end of our holiday. We have, in the past travelled from St Malo to Portsmouth and managed to make it part of our holiday, enjoying 2 nights in a comfortable hotel. We usually pay 70- 90 Euro a night and have never been disappointed.
This year we decided to try the Caen ferry and booked 2 nights at Le Cremaillere at a discounted rate, the cost was more than we usually pay and was for a 4 person duplex room in an annex from the main hotel and included a buffet breakfast.
On arrival we were given our keys and directed to our room. The receptionist advised us to book a table for our evening meal as the hotel was busy. We enjoy our food and can usually negotiate our way around a french menu, however there were a couple of items that we weren't sure about but the waiting staff were unable to enlighten us.
We were seated on a table for 2 between the main room and a back room, which was fine until a block booking of perhaps 50 people arrived. They managed to squeeze past us and for the rest of our time in the dining room it felt rather like being on a traffic island, being bumped and pushed about. There was an empty window table in front of us, but staff appeared to prefer to hope for a walk in rather than move us to a more comfortable position. The food was very nice and we enjoyed a very good bottle of wine.
Our room was disappointing to say the least. No air con. and the only way to gain ventalation was to leave the three foot wide 'balcony' door open. I have the midge bites as I write this, to remind me of this.
There were two (very comfortable) single beds pushed together, a table and two kitchen chairs in the room, but no room for anything else or even to pass each other.
The bathroom had the smallest shower, it was the size of a washing up bowl in a cupboard, no hair dryer
On the plus side there was free wifi, which was very good.
Breakfast was at 7.15 - 10am very civilised times. A wide choice of foods and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Our ferry was at 8.30 on our second morning and we needed to be at port by 7.45. We preferred not to wait untill the morning of our departure to pay our room bill and so went to reception in the late afternoon on the day before.
The receptionist was on the telephone when we arrived, after waiting for a while she asked what we wanted. When we said we'd like to pay our bill she said she was ''busy'' and to pay in the morning, later or wait until she had time for us

Great location overlooking the beach & sea, the food was wonderful and represented value compared with other restaurants of the same standard in the town. The room (in an annex 60 metres away) had the same view as the restaurant but was of an adequate rather than good standard. The staff were good, and we enjoyed our 2 night stay.

We chose to extend our two week holiday in France by an extra night before travelling home via Le Havre which is just over an hour away. I must say after a week in highly touristy and overpriced (albeit beautiful Honfleur), Courseulles was a very welcome, more authentic French seaside experience. Husband and teenage son visited the excellent Canadian war museum, younger one and I played on the huge wide beach. You cannot help but be touched by the history of the area even if it is not your reason for coming specifically.
I would agree with other reviewers re the duplex family rooms across the street. Nothing special and very cramped. The half board tarif compared with just B&B is so reasonable and the food so amazing at the hotel restaurant across at the beach that it would be madness to stay here and not eat. Having spent the whole holiday complaining about how expensive France is for us (due to awful exchange rate), our last night dinner, which would only have been 22 euros per person if billed separately, was one of the best value and most delicious meals we've ever eaten. And our children age 13 and 9, who are used to eating proper food, were allowed this menu too, not some horrible chicken nugget experience. The staff though extremely busy, were charming without exception.

The good bit was the restaurant, superb and the food was almost as good as the excellent service. You could not fault that.
However, we had a family room at the Gytan, which is away from the main hotel but not too far and expected it to be quite good. It was in fact quite basic, if not rather rustic for the money they want. We stayed in guest houses for 100 euros the week before and had much better value for money on that front, 157 euros for what was not so special a room left us feeling perplex. Breakfast is OK, nothing to report home about, and in fact you feel like staying in a Travelodge but paying quite a lot for it. I would recommend other places to stay for a family, this was overall a disappointing experience.