Austral Hotel

The location is pretty good to explore the city. The bed was comfortable, and AC & wifi worked well. The room is a bit dated. The elevator was out of service. Free parking under the hotel is convenient. the Staff were friendly. There was no lighting in the halls or stairs, was weird & unsafe.

As we were totally ignorant of this place Reunion, we chose to stay 2 nights here first, which is at city centre, before we moved to higher hills in St Dennis for better overview of the city. ||The hotel is functional, cleanliness ok, we slept well. Neighborhood rather quiet especially at night. ||The front desk man during night shift is nice and tried endeavour to reply us although he spoke nearly zero English (and we know zero French except Bonjour). The lady in daytime can speak English, very helpful and equally nice friendly. We used this hotel as a base to go round the city. ||We stayed in early Jan 2023 and it's a long public holiday here, so only a few shops and decent restaurants or eateries opened. ||Everything is fine here. Recommended. But if you want to stay in a more romantic and fancy place, better go other hotels uphill of the city.

Certainly not the fanciest Hotel in town. However, the room was clean with a very comfortable bed, the staff is exceptionally friendly, the location is the most practical and the value for money is great. I recommend it for business travellers who need to stay in town for a couple of days. A lot of restaurants nearby offer a wide variety of options for dining.

Small hotel in the old city district. Narrow street, almost fully parked in the evening. Hotel has it’s own underground parking, but it is suitable for Golf or Fiesta but nothing bigger. Breakfast is included, however there’s nothing special about it: eggs, sausages, apples, juice… Hotel room (at least the one I stayed in) needs cleaning and some renovations. Overall, I would say the price is too high for the accommodation provided.

Like most of the hotels in this area, it's not super fancy but it does the job. Room was comfortable and clean, breakfast was fresh, staff was friendly, and it's in a good location. Not a lot of additional amenities - it's a simple hotel that delivers for the price you pay.||||The TV has lots of channels but the WiFi was a bit irritating because you have to constantly log on - especially if you have multiple devices and have to switch back and forth - but also if you go do something else and then come back to your device.||||No restaurant in hotel but plenty of places nearby. Bed was comfortable, hot water plentiful and decent minibar.

Used during a week long conference in Saint-Denis. Three star hotel, not physically spectacular, but room and bed comfortable and quiet, pretty spacious. Good internet. Some small things a little tatty - loose bathroom fittings - but hardly the sort of thing to pester about. Good breakfast. Helpful and friendly Reception staff, indeed all staff, good with recommendations for restaurants on arrival, and with taxi bookings etc. Conveniently located a few mins walk from most things you'll need in St Denis

Decent hotel for just one night. Nothing super fancy but it does the job. Simple. but tidy room with AC, bathroom could use a do-over. Sufficient breakfast in the morning. There is a underground car park free of charge with limited space. We had some language difficulties with the receptionist (my bad french with his very basic english) when we arrived, but he was nevertheless eager to help and we managed somehow.

First of all I have to say that we have nothing but praise for the staff who were on hand throughout our three night stay. They were all friendly, helpful and professional in every way. The problem is that this hotel is part of the Exsel chain, boasting 3 stars and, as such, I feel it should be compared to similar chain hotels (Campanile, Ibis etc) with regard to maintenance, maid service, breakfast service, price and location. ||||Unfortunately the Austral comes up short in too many regards.||The room we were allocated (217) is large (ca 17sq mtrs) with a full width balcony, a larger than normal bathroom with bath tub, separate WC & hallway. The bed was firm and we found it to be reasonably comfortable. The TV showed about 20 French channels and BBC World in English. The Wifi was reasonably fast (about 3Mb) but the hotel requested a login at every start-up which was tedious. Room cleaning was good and AC effective & not too noisy. There was no balcony furniture. The shower had plenty of hot water although I had to ask at reception for a plug for the bath tub (apparently they have been removed because guests have left then in and allowed the bath too run over causing a flood - I find this strange as most baths including the one in our room have an overflow!) There was no hair-dryer but we allowed to borrow one from Reception, although, strangely, fixed dryers are shown in the hotel images on the web.||There was a mini-bar but no tea/coffee making facilities.||||Maintenance however is required in our room and more generally throughout the hotel. The external walls of our balcony were filthy; the balcony rainwater gutter had been used by guests as an ashtray and not cleaned; a bedside lampshade had a burn mark; the WC door was difficult to close. The corridor lighting operates on manual timer switches and because there are a number of ramps and short flights of stairs a guest could easily stumble and fall before seeing the almost imperceptible green switch indicator - it must be time for PIR lighting? The hand-rail on the back stairs from our room is loose; some exterior lights are not working; the exit door closest to our room (fire exit) opened over the top step and on first using it to go the the breakfast room I almost fell down the stairs - at the very least a warning sign is needed.||||Foolishly we decided to have breakfast at the hotel as an afterthought before checking the price. At checkout we found that we had been charged 12 Euros per person/day for a very basic breakfast in the not-very-welcoming breakfast room. By comparison the Campanile in Bagnolet, Paris, where we stayed for one night on our way to Reunion, charges only 10 Euros and offers a greater selection of bread, cereal, warm food etc. in far nicer surroundings. ||||The swimming pool looks very appealing on the web site, but in reality is very drab, small and uninviting. We decided not to use it.||||And the location? Well the street is not the most salubrious in Saint Denis, but it is only a 15 minute walk to the Barrage and Rue de Paris.||||I have concluded that the website images give a better picture of the Austral than it deserves when seen close up and may be some years old judging by the older CRT TV sets in the pictures. Or have some rooms been refurbished but not the one we were given??||||Would I stay at the Austral again? No, not at the price being charged. As things stand I consider it to be good, basic, two star accommodation and therefore overpriced. I will choose the Best Western on my next visit because the price is the same but the location next to the Square General de Gaulle far better.