hotel_user

Introduction Ibis Cahors (Central France)This was a one night stop on our travels through Accor Central AKA France.The hotel is a new build / conversion from another chain and is situated just of the major A20 toll free route south from Limoges to Toulouse. There is a restaurant on site, and opposite a sandwich / patisserie shop and the ubiquities McDonalds and KFC within easy walking distance. Despite our problems, I think when the hotel is more established it will be a good stopping point on the tourist routes in the area.This was a last minute booking, as our travel plans changed. We paid 8000 points for a room and full breakfast for two. The web site stated it had a sauna, gym and pool, and so it was an easy decision.Arrival was easy, followed the sat nav to McDonalds and it was opposite (thanks to Google Earth / Street view) The hotel had plenty of available parking (and one very strange parking place). The outside of the hotel is confusingly branded both the Ibis Budget Blue and the Red logos. We found that the budget entrance was around the corner of the building, but it was not clear. Others were observed making the reciprocal mistake also. We were entered in the main Ibis entrance, and were greeted by someone who was probably not trained in hospitality, but had an identification badge as a “welcomer”. He was everything but.After a few minutes he found our booking, and offered us one welcome drink voucher, for one person. I know that this is normal for France, but we find it less and less when there are two persons traveling. However, the production of a second Platinum card gave us a second drink voucher – valid for a small fruit drink or beer, so a hollow victory as this took over 20 minutes in the deserted hotel, as he had to phone someone and then write the number down, very slowly, on the computer. Our preferences state that we like a room away from the lift, but this was ignored, and we were allocated a top floor room (no upgrade – despite the hotel being almost empty and having empty suits available).The room had not been cleaned from the previous guest (rubbish bin full) and was hot, very hot, about 36 deg, and we could not lower the air conditioning to below 22deg. The view was mostly of a tin roof and the flat roof of the adjacent budget hotel.Returning to reception, I asked for a room change. The Welcomer gave a new room key card for the room directly below. Again next to the service areas and lifts. The room looked better (no full bin) and was cooler, but again the air conditioner would not go below 22deg. Back to reception. A third room key was then given, and I asked the reception welcomer to help me set the air conditioner to 17deg that he said it would go down to. He came with me to the room (directly below the last room so no change on the lift) and set the air con to 17deg, but the air con did not work at this temperature. It was just an illusion on the display. Also, when he turned on the lights in the room, the light switch flickered and cracked, sounding dangerous to me, and I declined the room, and said that we would take the second room. I went back to the top floor room to move our bags from the room, and received an unexpected visit from a family who had been given the room upon check-in 2 minutes prior who were already in the room looking confused as it looked occupied. I had seen this couple previously in reception, and they were having problems checking in as their booking (also pre-paid) could not be found by the hotel, and talking to them later in the bar, they said that they had had to phone their bank to talk to the hotel as the hotel would not accept the booking from the reservation e mail the hotel had sent (this is just stupid of a hotel imho ) After the welcomer had re allocated the family to another room, he then said “how do you wish to pay for your second room? “ …… Puzzled I asked at this point for the GM At this stage it started to get Kafkaesque and surreal. And not in a good way. The GM ( no name given despite being asked for ) could not or did not wish to speak English. He asked for someone to come to reception to talk to me in English. The hotel web site states that they speak a range of languages including English. The original welcomer, who could and did speak English, somehow “forgot” and reverted exclusively to his native tongue. So when everyone was assembled for my question about being charged for two rooms to be asked and answered there was six people behind the barricade of the reception desk…… Abridged version. Why are we being charged for two rooms?You have key cards for two rooms and denied entry to a hotel guest to one room, so obviously you still wish to have that room, and you have the second room on a lower floor.You should not have re-allocated the room without (1) checking that we had returned the key card and had moved into the second room and (2) sent housekeeping into the room to clean it from the previous guest and make sure that it was suitable to be re let. You did neither of these things.But you have two rooms, so you need to pay for two rooms, our computer said you have two rooms.We do not wish to have two rooms, just an acceptable room with a cool temperature and is clean. We had not moved out of the original room, so why give it to someone else? But you did not wish to have that room?So why are you charging us for that room? – showed GM invoice for second room from hotel.Pause.You allowed another hotel guest to have access to our original room, and invoiced us for a second room that we did not want. And we cannot reduce the air conditioning to 17deg despite being told that it is possible. An engineer will need to be called to set the temperature of the hotel. You cannot change the individual room temperatures. It is set to be 22 deg as it is summer.Pause.Also we cannot find the hotel pool, and gym and sauna.The hotel has a pool. It is outside. The gym and sauna are not built yet.There is a pool labelled exclusively for guests of another hotel. Is that the pool that we have access to?Yes.Long discussion between the sixThenWe cannot refund you as you have paid on points, so you have a room here for the night. Have the original room. Give me the keys for the second room and we will remove it from your bill.Wow. Words fail me. So if we had not paid with points we would have been excluded from our booked hotel. Some Platinum treatment. Not impressed. Very angry. Including letting other guests have potential access to our bags in the room.After explaining this to the one person who now spoke English, she had a very discussion with the GM, who then left along with his Greek chorus, leaving the lady to explain to us. She explained to us that the hotel was new, and the staff were new, and untrained, and it was a mistake and agreed it was not acceptable, and that they were wrong. To compensate we could have had the room for free that night if we had paid for it, but as it was a free night for us (we paid 8000 points and a few euros) so that the best that they could do was to offer us a set menu at the hotel budget restaurant, to the value of 20€. This was then expanded to 20€ each.What has happened to the 15-minute Ibis guarantee?We had originally arrived at just after 2pm, and it was now 4pm. Our tourist activates in Cahors were now in tatters. The day was a bust.The pool was warm, but not clean, and we were not alone in assuming it was not part of the Ibis, as we overheard at least two other guests asking. Why they could not have replaced the sign is unknown. There is no path to the pool, only a mud track.The restaurant was not busy, but the food was well prepared and not re heated from frozen. The waiter allowed us to order up to 40€ worth of food and drinks and then without explanation did not deliver the deserts ( we assumed that we had exceeded our allowance ), and just ignored us. The coffee was interesting as it was severed with a small jug of cold milk separately. This was explained due “to a lacking of coffee machine”.Breakfast was professionally organised, but with a disappointing range and depth of product. The cups for the machine coffee ( in the bar area ) were mostly dirty from the previous day and had to be re washed by hand. There was only one member of staff from 6am till 11am who had to cope with re stocking food and clearing tables, as well as running check out and reception. We checked out at 11am and left.The hotel seemed to have rushed to have finished before the holiday season, and corners and training had been cut. The rooms were well designed for and Ibis,but had building dirt and poor housekeeping. Reception could have done with more staff, especially in the morning, as the hotel had “spare” staff in the afternoon. Equipment was missing (gym), and the air con needs sorting. It will be a pleasant route break once they have been established and bedded in.