Hostellerie La Farandole

The staff were truly exceptional — friendly, genuine, and always ready to help without ever being intrusive. You can feel they genuinely care that you have a great stay.

We stayed at La Farandole 3 nights. Our choice was driven by the location and the fact the hotel is a 4*|We had previously read various reviews posted by customers, which were mixed. Some good, some not.|La Farandole wants to be a luxury hotel but it does not make the mark. Lots of things are not quite right. I guess it depends on what you are used to but if you are accustomed to real luxury hotels, you’ll find this one is not. |- Breakfast is very average and the hot charges for extras, like a boiled egg. |- The hotel charges you for anything extra, including bottled water in the room, except for one single small bottle for two for three days! |- SPA is 35€ per person for 2 hours |- Dinner is overpriced and of average quality |- No commun space, lounge or bar for chilling |- The telephone in the room was not working nor did the lock on the room door. |- Parking outside is limited. The hotel underground carpark is 15€|ights. |- There was an offer when we booked. Breakfast was included in the price of the room. Great. I wanted their top room. Much more expensive than all other rooms. Breakfast was not included in the price of this room !?! Why, why!? I downgraded to a simpler room. |- Etc, etc|We had a pleasant enough stay but with irritating and frustrating experiences. ||We have stayed in many great hotels all over the world where they understand and know how to delight their customers, often with small and simple things, and make them come back. |It would be so easy for La Farandole to fix most issues and delight their customers. I don’t think they get it. Maybe this might help.

Disappointing Stay at a Supposed 4-Star Hotel We stayed at Hostellerie La Farandole from 27-29 December and had a very disappointing experience. First, the room was freezing cold in the middle of winter because the heater was not working. They gave us a separate heater, but this is not what you expect from a 4-star hotel. The toilet amenities were minimal and not replaced daily. When I requested a shower cap, they simply didn’t have any. On 28 December, we noticed that no water had been replenished in the room. Upon calling the front desk, they informed us that water is only replenished every two days. Again, this is unacceptable for a hotel of this standard. The breakfast was another letdown. The spread was unimpressive, and despite paying for breakfast, they charged an additional €3 for extra eggs. We ended up eating breakfast outside, which was far more satisfying. Overall, this stay did not meet our expectations, and we wouldn’t recommend this hotel to others. Definitely not worth its 4-star rating.

The site is great. Fantastic view from the suite on the sea. With Jacuzzi on the top roof. The beach La Gorguette is also very good, clean water and not too busy. Restaurant panoramic is ok, nothing ex optional. Only point to be improved is service from people working in Hostellerie, they are smart and friendly and try to do their best but I think they are not enough to cover all requests. So you have to wait for beach restaurant or bar service, but it's ok as they always come with a smile. So I suggest this place.

Location: Nice, directly on the public Beach but not much around in walking distance, Bandol is around 10 min drive ||Hotel: not in best shape anymore, there are many places where you see and feel missing maintenance. Language is an issue, even on the front desk, calling restaurant e.g. is useless ||Rooms: we had a stay in the attached Villa, nice as you have some privacy with a separate pool for the 5 rooms, but it open to other guests too. We had just in front of our room over the days groups of people who definitely didn’t stay in villa but occupied the chairs and place, not nice at all. ||Roof top restaurant: A Desaster, poor Service driven by the lady in charge when we had our dinner. Ambiance is like in a football stadium at night with flushing light, food on average level but everything over priced compared to what you get. ||To make it clear, if you charge prices in the Range of 5* Hotels, you have to deliver, this is here not the case, therefore just 3 points out of 5.

Loved our stay at this beautiful hotel! The rooms are clean and comfortable with an amazing shower! The staff were all very nice and friendly, and spoke excellent English. The breakfast buffet was incredible. Location cannot be beat - you literally walk right onto a beautiful beach with calm water and water sport rentals. It’s also a short walk from some shops and walking distance to town.

I want to share my impressions of the hotel. I really liked the restaurant on the roof; they have very tasty desserts and a varied cuisine. In the hotel itself, all the rooms overlook the sea, which allows you to sleep very well. I am traveling with a cat, and we had a room with a terrace. But there was a gap so my cat could escaped, but the stuff was so kind to fix this specifically for our need. I called the reception and explained everything. Five minutes later, they covered the gap with a wooden board and secured it to the fence. All the staff were very nice. If you are in Sanary-sur-Mer, I recommend this hotel to you!

We were lured by the descriptions on the hotel website into paying an eye-watering price for a ‘deluxe’ suite at La Farandole, expecting it to be the highlight of our long-awaited 20th anniversary roadtrip. Sadly, it was the worst four days of our vacation.||The only luxurious thing about this suite was the view. Everything else was a 3-Star standard at best. The hotel is situated at the end of a quiet beach with stunning sea views and a nice-looking pool but the property has many serious defects and problems. Strangely, the door to our suite shared a foyer with the staff entrance to a noisy kitchen and storeroom. Our ‘private’ terrace was not attached to our suite as implied on the website. Instead, there is a separate rooftop terrace that can be booked by guests. The suite itself has only a tiny balcony with two chairs and a table. We had access to the private roof terrace and jacuzzi but the stairwell is locked - ‘for staff use only’ so we had to take a slow elevator to the roof each time. This meant an awkward wait in the public corridor outside the restaurant. The water in the jacuzzi was filthy with dead insects and yellow foam. It was only cleaned on our third day. ||The worst problem was the nasty sewage smell in our suite. We reported it several times to the manager because the smell kept us awake at night. It was only fixed on our third day (with many apologies) and the installation of an air-freshener. The other issues were minor but collectively annoying. The bed was cheap and basic with small lumpy pillows and a bedsheet that did not fit properly. The mattress was old and uncomfortable. The bathroom and shower were good quality but there were no ‘luxury’ amenities as promised in the marketing - there was a cheap hair-dryer attached to the wall that kept cutting out. The wifi did not work in our room and the unit was eventually replaced by the manager (with more apologies), but only after a rude technician kept insisting it was a problem with our own ‘foreign’ devices. There was a coffee maker and a small mini-bar in the wardrobe but nowhere to store any wine or snacks. We received a complementary bottle of mineral water every second day but they forgot to replenish our glasses and the phone to reception was rarely answered, which meant frequent trips to the front desk. ||The reception staff were friendly and kind and clearly hardworking. They were very apologetic about the many problems we encountered but unable to do anything about our room or price. Housekeeping was sporadic and we had to go hunting for pool towels to use on the terrace. These were not changed for the full duration of our stay. The sun-beds on the terrace were dirty and in disrepair, with bits of old scratchy velcro where the pillows had once been. On day one we found an old cigarette butt on the lounger that was still there when we left.||We tried to book appointments at the hotel spa, which looked nice, but we were told they were fully booked - even though the hotel seemed very empty for the duration of our stay. ||The hotel breakfast buffet was poor quality and basic - a rip off for €23. We tried to order a ham and cheese baguette from the pool menu for lunch but were informed they had run out. For dinner, we tried the hotel restaurant on our first evening but the food and wine were over-priced. There were no other dining options within walking distance of the hotel so for the rest of our stay we drove into Bandol or Sanary Port to dine.||Overall, there is something desperately wrong with this hotel. Our requests to speak to a senior manager were all politely declined and the other staff were not empowered to make decisions. Our advice is to avoid this hotel at all costs. The price for the view is simply not worth it.

This place is bizarre. Some things are are high end, like bathroom towel heaters. Others, like Ramada Inn - cheap furniture and tacky decorations - $250/night! Are you kidding me? Odd, disconnected staff. Reservations for 2 nights, left after one. Don't get me started about the restaurant.