Ustaritz
Google
Make no mistake, this a well laid out if basic establishment with facilities, such as one of the best pool areas I have seen outside Asia, very helpful staff and management, electric bikes for hire, great outside space although all closed at 20.30. |However, it is the not a “hotel” it is a very expensive B&B!!!!||We were planning a motoring/cycling holiday and looking to stay on Ile de Oléron as part of that trip. I booked this place many months previously and well before a pothole put me in hospital for a serious operation precluding me from cycling for the rest of the year.||I booked and paid extra for a Prestige double room for three nights from a Booking site via Trip Advisor which listed it as being a room that “featured a garden view and free WiFi”. ||We arrived to be given a room overlooking a busy road When we explained our reasons for the booking, we were told that they did not have any say in the description we had read and that some rooms have such a view but not all! Furthermore, they said that there was nothing they could do as they were full! However, the next day we watched as a couple plus baby checked into one such room with the view and left the following day!!!||Looking for an “hotel”, I read the details with things like “Room Service” and “bar” as amenities and presumed, wrongly, that I was booking a reasonably priced “hotel” at 120 Euro per night! A “hotel” being defined as “an establishment that provides accommodation, MEALS, and other services....”||The bar closes at 20.30 (when everything closes) and the “meals” available was solely breakfast which, to us, makes this a B&B!!||Not being able to cycle due to medical advice, we further discovered that there were no restaurants within walking distance and told that taxis were hard to come by “it being an Island”!! The fact we had then no option but to drive, meaning no alcohol, was met by mirth and a degree of sarcasm by the young receptionist!||As I have said the pool area is fantastic for the size of the B&B, well planted and with comfortable and plentiful beds. It is unfortunate that our use had to be curtailed by a late and noisy lunch being enjoyed by the neighbours culminating in loud music and an attempt to sing along to Viva España for some reason!||For 120 Euro a night, we were very disappointed at the basic room quality and finishes, being awoken at about 05.00 every morning, being bitten by mosquitos (no anti mosquito tablets being supplied), receiving no information on the “hotel” facilities or surrounding area in the room, having just plastic cups in the bathroom, no mini bar facilities to store drinks, no air conditioning, having to ask twice for milk to go with the in room tea and coffee facilities and the very, very slow WiFi which required constant reconnection!||The good people at reception, despite being openly upset by my trying to explain my dismay, did offer restaurant recommendations and these were fantastic but some miles away!||I understand it when they told me that they cannot be held responsible for the misinformation that we were given by the booking agent (“why did I not telephone the hotel to ask?!!”), based upon which we booked the accommodation. However, they can read (and should have corrected) this information which has been on the site for many months as well as we can, and there are basic faults outlined above that are within their control!||If you understand that the rooms are really quite basic, that it is an isolated B&B, you want a nice pool, you want to rent and can ride bikes, you want to pay 14 Euro each for bikes plus a further 11.50 each for breakfast plus the Euro 120 for a Bed and Breakfast, then this is the place for you!! Unfortunately, it was not for us although the rest of our stay on Oleron was superb -even though we could not cycle as planned......and managed to not drink and drive!!
