Citadines Apart'Hotel Toulouse Wilson

( 3 stars , Toulouse , France )

Yes we have stayed at better places but according to us this is the no 1 place to stay in Toulouse. This was 4th time and we will surely stay here next time too (in January probably). It has always been clean. The studio contains everything you need in order to not have to go out for meals. And everything works fine. Also heating works in winter. We have even stayed on 2nd floor with view of street and it wasn't too noisy. Maybe it is a bit on the expensive side, but we like the homey feeling of having our own appartment. The location is perfect, city center within walking distance.

I stayed here for 31 days in June/July 2005. I chose the large apartment because I wanted room to spread out. The location is really good and is a short walk to Place Wilson (250m) and the Jean Jaures Metro station (200m). The large apartment was indeed quite large. The WC is separate from the bath. There are two wardrobes, one near the front door and one in the bedroom. There is a door to the living room for privacy in case the sofa bed is being used by guests. There is a small pantry in the cooking area, an adequate-size refrigerator, a small toaster oven, a two-burner cooktop, but no microwave provided in the room. There are a random number of mismatched cups, bowls, plates, flatware, and cooking utensils provided. The room was not cleaned well (and they only clean every 7 days), especially in the cooking area but really throughout the apartment. There were inadequate cleaning materials; only a dish sponge and two towels were provided but there were no detergents. I recommend making a trip to the market and buying disinfectants and anti-bacterial soaps and thoroughly washing the cooking surfaces and dishware before using them. Make sure to scrub the sinks and counters first, because they sure didn't! My work colleague who stayed in another room also complained about the lack of cleaning; they tried to skip cleaning on one of the weeks! The laundry room has two washers and one dryer. Washing was 5 Euro per use, the dryer was 6 Euro for 20 minutes and after 40 minutes, my clothes were still very damp. I had problems twice with not being able to use the laundry because the staff was using it for either hotel linens or personal articles. There were individual thermostats for each room. Unfortunately the air con in centralised, so it doesn't get very cold (maybe 22 at the lowest) and some days just refuses to work. The rooms are always humid. Worst of all is the parking garage. I damaged two cars trying to get in and out until I went back to the rental agency and got an A-class car. I am not a poor driver! My colleague scratched up his, and the walls are full of scratches from other people. The entry to the car park is perhaps 2.8m wide, and you cannot drive straight in or out of it, which is how the damage occurs. I was on the first floor above the parking entrance, but didn't hear much noise from the car park. The rooms were fairly quiet. Looking out my window at the street below, I could see the same prostitute 5 out of 7 nights, and the occasional street person who would step into the car park entrance to urinate on the wall. Does it surprise you I won't stay there again? Note: According to senior hotel management, this hotel is due for a remodel starting December 2005. This will be both disruptive, and limit the availability of rooms. After the remodel is complete, I am told the rates will increase 10-15%.