I've had the chance to stay at a couple of the Accor group hotels in the city over the past two weeks. This is my first review. The next will be of the IBIS Plateau.

Location

The Pullman is located in the Plateau district of the city, so very central.

Check In

Check in was friendly and efficient but I realised on arrival that I had my 2010 Platinum card with me (don't know if I'm still Platinum - this was done via Amex and I don't use Accor hotels often). They had no way to enter this onto thier system so took a photocopy.

The Room

The room was speciouss with a generous desk, power supply and 32" Samsung LCD TV. However, the only English language TV channel at this hotel is CNN. The bathroom is as I would expect from a five star hotel, so a generous bath and shower with decent soap, shampoo, conditionar and so on.

Within the room (and anywhere in the hotel, as long as you activate first in the room), WiFi is free and relatively fast. However, they do throttle video services like Youtube which is fair enough in a bandwidth constrained environment. Skype worked well though and I was able to call home a couple of times using the Skype application on my iPhone.

Complaints about the room? The bed is excellent but comes with large pillows that I don't like (not big enough to use just one pillow but too big to use two when sleeping). The chair is not good, and certainly not recommended for anyone with a back complaint.

The Bar

The bar was a pleasant environment that served up a decent range of drinks and snacks. Service was unhurried, as it should be! Surprisingly, for this category of hotel, they do not sell wine by the bottle (by glass only, presumably out of a box). However, I would note that the bar staff seem to have a sideline in pimping as one did try to set me up with a lady of negotiable affection.

Breakfast

Breakfast was a buffet at the hotel's restaurant with a decent selection of cereals, the makings of a typically French cold breakfast (breads, cheeses, cold meats) and warm options, including excellent crepes. Since where I work is a long way out of the city, I don't get to eat lunch out here so I make sure my petit dejeuner is anything but petit.

The Restaurant

Well, I have to say I'm not looking forward to presenting my expense claim when I arrive back in the UK. The restaurant was eye wateringly expensive but with a decent menu and a good selection of wine. The wine was expensive but not terrible value for money (think a £10 to £15 bottle of Chinon or Mouton Cadet plus 100% markup), service was unhurried (as it should be) and the staff were helpful with language. By the end of my stay, I was able to conduct my meal mostly in French.

Security

There's a UN technical with machine gun emplacement outside of the hotel. We had a security briefing with our customer on arrival and were told not to go for a walk!

Overall Impressions

It's the real, five star business class experience that I expect when working in locations with security concerns.