Grand Hotel Des Bains Sanary

( 2 stars , Toulon , France )

We just returned from our trip to southern France during which we stayed in the "Grand Hotel des Bains" in Sanary-sur-mer. Knowing that the hotel standard in France is rather low, we booked this 3-star-hotel in order to make sure to have an appropriate place to stay. However, it turned out that the hotel must have been tested some time ago. The reception can be reached only by a rear entrance where the floor is always dirty due to the dust in the frontyard. This first impression was not the best, but unfortunately, it turned out that the entire place should be renovated: the elevator was very old, shabby and noisy, and the room we stayed in was very simply if not poorly furnished, which was also true for the bathroom. The biggest problem though were the thin walls which would have us enabled to speak with our neighbours without raising our voices. This led to one almost sleepless night...All in all, this is rather little value for money.

Booked what I thought would be great deal over the internet with lastminute.com. When we arrived (boyfriend and me) we had been allocated a twin room, even though I knew that I had booked a double and have since double checked this with my email confirmation which clearly states a double! Not only was the room a twin rather than a double, but the air conditioning did not work, and it was decorated in a bright ,sickly yellow colour which made us feel rather ill. We complained, only to be told by a fairly unhelpfull hotel receptionist, that no other double rooms were available for the first night of our 3 night visit. We asked to get our money back but that was an impossibility because it had been pre-paid over the internet through a third party. We were told that we could move into a double room the following day but would be charged the €30 a night for the difference! We were shown the double room and agreed to take it making it very clear that we were incredibly unhappy about the extra charge, reiterating that we had booked a double in the first place. The difference between the first and the second rooms, as far as we could see, was the double bed, the fact that the air conditioning actually worked, the hair dryer worked, plug sockets worked, and there was a large mirror instead of a small one!!! They charge an additional €30 for that!!!! We enjoyed the rest of our stay despite this, and I kept telling the reception staff that I wanted to speak with the hotel manager who conveniently, never seemed to be around. When it came to our departure we were prepared for a bit of a stand off, but they never did charge us the extra amount! My advice - do not stay here! Go to the Hotel de la Tour in the beautiful harbour in Sanary and get a much better deal with excellent service. The restaurant there is top notch too!