Ultimate Provence, SLH HOTEL

The hotel lacks soul. The staff were not very attentive at all throughout our entire stay. They could do with some customer service training for the young members of staff. It didn’t live up to a typical SLH standard. |The hotel is sadly looking scruffy already around the grounds and it’s still relatively new. |Our rooms walls and rugs were full of stains and the laminate flooring was poorly fitted. I informed the staff and they were not bothered at all. |The pool area is great, lots of beds and the pool is large and refreshing. |I didn’t use the spa as no appointments were available during our 3 night stay. |The restaurant and pool bar menu is average at best and overpriced (€24 for children’s plain pasta with oil) with poor service once again. Breakfast was disorganised chaos and staff were not around to help.|The rose wine is lovely and is one of my favourites. However it is more expensive to buy it direct at the winery (€19) than it is in the UK (€15.50) so don’t buy it from them directly. |This hotel could be amazing if it sorts out the customer service, the quality of food and tidies itself up. We sadly won’t return or recommend, but I will still buy the rose wine.

We stayed at UP as part of our road trip from Monaco back to the UK, selecting it for its location in Provence, proximity to St Tropez, and the appealing ‘lux’ aesthetic. What drew us most was the opportunity to enjoy an upmarket hotel stay paired with a vineyard tour and tasting — the idea of sampling wine without needing to drive afterwards was a real highlight in theory.||||⸻||||Location & Concept – 5/5||||The setting is undeniably charming, nestled within the Provençal countryside with St Tropez within easy reach. The concept — a luxurious vineyard retreat — is exactly the kind of escape many travellers dream of. You can sense the potential for this to be a true 5-star destination. The ambiance, the calibre of guests, and the overall premise are on the right track.||||⸻||||Accommodation – Clean But Needs Attention||||The hotel and rooms themselves are clean and presentable, which was appreciated. However, signs of wear and a lack of ongoing maintenance are hard to ignore. For a property that opened in 2019 and positions itself at the premium end of the market, upkeep seems to have slipped. For example:|| • Leaky showers showing signs of long-standing rust|| • Peeling paint around air-conditioning outlets in the lobby|| • Grounds that were clearly designed with care but now feature mismatched gravel and overgrown weeds||||These aren’t just minor aesthetic issues — they detract from the sense of refinement and relaxation that the hotel strives to offer.||||⸻||||Facilities & Environment – In Need of Polishing||||There’s a clear divide between the working vineyard/farm and the hotel experience, and unfortunately, it’s not been handled with enough finesse. A better separation of guest areas from operational ones would elevate the overall atmosphere significantly. Details like broken signage (missing letters), unkempt outdoor spaces, and general disrepair all chip away at the luxury experience.||||⸻||||Service – Friendly but Frustrating||||Staff were generally pleasant, but the hotel is clearly understaffed, and that affects the guest experience. One particularly disappointing moment was at the pool bar, where I waited over 30 minutes to be served. When I finally managed to get the attention of the (very French) waiter, I was told — quite unapologetically — that he couldn’t take my order because he was too busy.||||At this level, that’s simply not good enough. Attentive, seamless service should be a cornerstone of a luxury property, especially in spaces like the pool area where guests expect to unwind.||||⸻||||Overall Impression:||UP has all the ingredients to be a world-class destination: a stunning location, a compelling concept, and the kind of guest it clearly attracts. But it needs a serious refresh in both presentation and service to justify its premium positioning. With some investment in staff, maintenance, and attention to detail, it could easily become a must-visit Provençal retreat.||||I wouldn’t recommend visiting until some of these issues have been addressed — but I sincerely hope the team takes feedback like this onboard and realises how close they are to something really special.

The hotel lacked soul. The staff lacked interest throughout our entire stay. The hotel had a low quality finish throughout and for a relatively new hotel, it is worn and scruffy already. Walls and rugs were dirty and damaged and the laminate flooring was poorly fitted in our apartment. ||Pool area was nice. Plenty of beds. The poor bar and restaurant menu was over priced and just average. (€24 euros for pasta with just oil for children’s menu). ||The rose wine is lovely - however don’t buy from there. It’s cheaper to purchase back in the UK. ||Save your money and stay elsewhere.

On the face of it this should have been a brilliant experience. A week ahead of arriving we received a form to complete to make all the reservations we needed for the spa, padel and the restaurant. This felt good and organised.|| ||When we arrived the place looked beautiful and the large pool with plentiful sun loungers was super enticing.|| ||But things were not as they seemed. It became quickly clear that there are a lot of challenges for this property.||* The front of house were distant and aloof. When I asked to confirm the bookings I had made they knew nothing of any form and claimed this was not something they did (I have now seen this referenced in other reviews). Nothing had been booked and the spa was full. My frustration was met with a lacklustre shrug and the response was ‘there is nothing we can do’||* The keys to the apartment doors repeatedly failed and needed reactivating. One of the doors to the apartment didn’t work properly - the staff said it was ‘too bad’ and to ‘just keep trying - it usually opens on the third of fourth go’||* The WiFi dropped in and out constantly and I was unable to stay connected to several work calls I had to attend.||* The lights in the room went on and off intermittently ||* The treadmill in the (very small) gym didn’t work. Previous reviews from some weeks ago state it wasn’t working for them either. ||* A €45 ‘wine tour’ was taken but more time was spent talking about local wildlife and the tasting part at the end was a paltry sip of four wines. This really was not a wine tour.  Having said that the wine is very good and of a high standard. It’s well priced at €19 per bottle. But pointless to buy direct when you can buy in the UK for £16. ||* Breakfast was woeful. Grumpy staff glared at you for ordering coffee and food supplies seemed to be in decline. By our last day there was ‘no yoghurt left’ and the bread was inedible.||* On the last day, following a brief storm, once the sun came out and everything was dry, the pool bar remained closed and no towels were available. There were 24 people around the pool and no one could get a drink or a snack. No towels were provided. Seems an oddly missed opportunity to (a) provide the advertised service to the clients and (b) make a load of money from bar orders.||* The pool was in fact dirty with an increasing number of dead wasps floating around - it appeared that it was not being cleaned or filtered and got increasingly murky over the 3 days we were there.||* As I write, we have had to ask three times for our room to be cleaned (it’s 4pm) and no one is remotely interested in our request. The repeated response is that ‘they will ask someone’ and then we don’t see them again.||* Finally, we witnessed a man being stuck in a lift, the skeleton staff were running around panicking and after a protracted period of no-one actually doing anything to resolve the situation, the family of the man smashed the lift glass to get him out. It was total chaos and there appeared to be no-one who knew what they were doing. One of the staff members was crying and not a single UP person took control of what was a pretty hideous and distressing situation.||Sure, some of this can be put down to ‘end of season weariness’ on the part of people working here. Hospitality is hard going. But it certainly seemed to us that there were insufficient staff and most of those that were here were not a happy team.  It must be said that if the place is open to guests (paying handsomely for it) the service should be there irrespective of the time of year. This place has great potential, but the facilities are tired and the staff seem to resent the presence of the customers. In its current guise it is definitely not deserving of the four star rating it carries. This hotel needs a total rethink on staff, customer service and it needs to invest in an increasingly creaking infrastructure.|| ||Will not be coming back.||

With our plane ride home unexpectedly cancelled and two additional nights in France ahead of us, I found UP on the Hilton app and it did not disappoint! We stayed for two nights in July and got to enjoy the pool, food by the pool, and dinner at the restaurant. What a special place! A beautiful property, welcoming and helpful staff, wonderful food and even better wine. The rooms were so comfortable and they really made our two nights so special. I would go back in a heartbeat!

We stayed 3 nights at Ultimate Provence to extend our time in the region. The estate and vineyard are beautiful—you can tell it was carefully designed a few years ago. Check-in was professional and effortless, and our room was spacious and very clean. There’s a lovely small town nearby that’s perfect for dinner or breakfast. The hotel’s padel court is modern and easy to book. However, maintenance and service need attention. On our first day, we tried to order food by the pool, but a staff member explained at length that the kitchen was “broken,” so only fries were available. In the gym, the treadmill didn’t work on any of the three days of our stay. We had also pre-booked the padel court via email and received a confirmation, but on arrival it wasn’t actually reserved and we had to book again. Most disruptive, the lights in our room turned on and off several times during the night, waking us up. In short: a gorgeous, thoughtfully laid-out property with friendly, efficient front-desk staff and very comfortable rooms—but some basic operational issues undermined the experience. If management addresses the maintenance glitches and tightens up service follow-through, this could be a fantastic stay.

Had a great stay. We did not run into any service or cleanliness issues mentioned in previous reviews. Padel in the vineyard was a highlight for my wife, would recommend, especially compared to some higher priced properties in the area.

A very quiet and relaxing place for vacation. We can feel the welcome and warmth from the people who work there. Very delicious food and good Rose wine. Thank you all for your hospitality and warm welcome. We will definitely come back again.