H
Google
Horror show. Arrived by car and there’s no one around so we awkwardly stand in reception for 5 minutes until a receptionist comes out. She insists on helping with our luggage, so she carries our big bags to the top floor and parks our car. A five star, R&C hotel and there’s no one to help her with that?
She offers us welcome drinks while she handles our luggage/car. We’re in wine country on an active vineyard, I’d love a glass of wine after a stressful travel day. Nope! Here’s some flavored water as a welcome drink.
We have two separate rooms, the receptionist leads us to only one because she didn’t realize we booked two rooms. So she comes back to inform me that I’m correct. So I move my bags across the hotel because this woman has done enough heavy lifting.
We ask about dinner. The Michelin restaurant is closed. No worries, that’s completely fine we had no interest in eating there during our stay. But we’d love a bar menu or some room service. Nope! No food is served in the hotel on Tuesdays and Wednesdays… but isn’t this a 5 star hotel and there’s literally a 24/7 room service menu in the room??
We ask if she could call a few restaurants near by for us and call us on the phone. 20-30 minutes go by and I go back down to reception to find out what is happening. Receptionist tells me all restaurants around are closed and the one they suggest is completely full.
She then brings up the opening party for the summer terrace. I saw this event on the website when I booked and was excited to hear more. A summer terrace at a Chateau in Bordeaux, must have beautiful views of the vineyards. Nope! It’s in an interior courtyard with no view and fake grass like a dog park.
At this point we’ve given up on dinner. We’ll just relax and have a bottle of wine, but no wine bottles to open in the room. I go downstairs to have a bottle from the hotel bar and we’ll sit somewhere and enjoy a view of the vineyards. The receptionist tells me they have no bottles of wine. Am I being pranked on camera? We’re on a literal vineyard and you’re telling me we can’t drink a bottle of wine?
I ask for a glass of wine instead which she responds by saying the bar closed at 9 and it’s now 9:30. At this point I’m getting very annoyed and start arguing. The receptionist says she can pour us a few glasses for €25 a glass.
I ask if there’s anywhere we can sit and enjoy the views of the vineyards. Nope! They don’t have that. Only in the Michelin restaurant during service. It’s a Chateau on dozens of hectares of vineyards and they don’t have a relaxing view of their surrounding vineyards
So I walk to the back of the building near the vineyard and there’s a single table among a large unused space with panoramic views that is perfect for a terrace or a simple seating area. I sit down and the receptionist tells me this is where kitchen staff hang out during their breaks. I ask if they ever thought about putting a terrace or even a seating area here given the panoramic views. Nope! They’ve never thought of it
She pours me a skimpy glass of wine with only a 5th of the glass full. I ask for basic information about the vintage, as it’s one of the Chateau’s bottles. She doesn’t know anything about it. Wonderful experience for €50
We head to breakfast. The omelette is perfect but they serve a baguette that’s stale. Yes, you read that correctly, a stale baguette. It’s a 2 star Michelin French restaurant serving stale baguettes.
I go upstairs to take a shower and the entire bathroom floods because of the shower’s terrible design that doesn’t retain any water. My clothes that were laying 12 feet away are completely soaked, including my wallet and passport that were in my pocket.
I stop by the reception to ask Zoe, the manager, to send someone to clean the flood. She says she will but gives no apology for the flooding.
I come back later that evening and walk into the shower and gag when I see that they washed the towel I used for my private areas with their hands and then neatly folded the wet towel three times and left it on the shelf in the shower.
