Another great stay (the 2nd this year !!) in this superb hotel. My rewiew will be short as all has already been said before. I apologize again for the problem of pictures rotation, but FT seems unable to address this issue properly and this is very annoying (and TBH I have other things to do than spending hours to finally find a solution to this). Some relatively minor issues that I wll explain hereafter.

This time there was no communication received from the hotel prior to stay.

The hotel was very busy, especially during the 1st part of my stay (I stayed 4 nights)., with several weddings and various celebrations and receptions.

Check In

My Uber dropped me on the historical wing side and the majordome had a list of all check-ins of the day with some names highlighted in yellow (including mine), and I understood those were the customers needing to be escorted to the lounge for check-in.

At the lounge, I was bring a cup of Champagne. 

Booked a premium room and was upgraded to Grand Premium. So it was exactly as in my review of last march. This time my room was on the club lounge floor (#7) and I just had literally 5 steps to go from the room to the lounge.

Room

The room was exactly the same as the one I shown in this previous review (not the same room number, but same design and arrangement). So I will not post pictures, as you can refer to my 1st review. Several welcome notes in the room.

Every evening during the turndown service, they were giving a macaron.

Dining

The meals at the 2 main restaurants (Vietnamese : Spices garden; French : Le Beaulieu) were truly excellent.

The club lounge : this where I encountered some service issues. The service was not as good as last time (despite it was the same people, I recognized them). Several times, they were not paying attention at all to you, not taking your order, etc like if you were invisible. Several times after spending 10 minutes to wawe hands or calling them, I had to stand uo and go to speak with them. OK the lounge was busy but that's not an excuse in that kind of hotel. Overall, nothing really too bad, but I mentioned it to one of the managers who seemed to consider the issue seriously and asked me afterwards, when I saw him in the hotel, if it was OK.

Pool, bar, etc

A couple of more pictures

Overall

Overall a very good stay and I would return without hesitating a second !

A last issue to mention : when you stay there, check your LCAH points posting. It seems they are unable to post the correct number of points (I had the problem in march and have it again now). A bit annoying...

I stayed two nights at the Metropole. My first ever "Legend" stay. In retrospect I am not sure what I was expecting but to be honest I felt a little bit underwhelmed.

Before I arrived, the hotel got in touch requesting pre-arrival information and I had requested an airport transfer.  There was some confusion about the room but in the end it was sorted.

At the airport (after the dreaded immigration delays) the greeter was waiting and the BMW was summonsed. Nice car: cold towels, macaroons and water were available. The promised wifi did not work but that did not matter. After a 50 minute ride I arrived at the Sofitel.

Check In

Upon arrival I was enthusiastically greeted by the staff and immediately directed to the room (historic wing) and check in formalities were done there. Voucher (one drink) and information about the perks were all ready and handed over.

While the room was as such not upgraded they accommodated my request for outdoor space so allocated the only room in the historical wing with a very large balcony.

Room

Rooms in the historic wing are smaller by their very nature. It definitely has an old world charm but as experienced guests (ahem Goldorak) will tell you the rooms in the Opera wing are bigger and maybe more luxurious. That said it felt cosy, and for 2 nights was sufficient. The room had: large screen TV (no HD which I thought was odd given the calibre of the hotel), Nespresso machine (3 capsules), desk, mini bar. The bathrooms both featured a small tub and an walk in shower). Toiletries were Hermes.

Welcome amenity: fruit and chocolates and nice personalised GM welcome note, not extravagant but sufficient. 

Executive Lounge

At check in the staff reminded me that the rate did not include breakfast, upon which I reminded them that I have lounge access. Slightly odd thing to say I felt.

Having been at many Accor hotels in Asia with lounges I felt that the lounge did not live up to expectations. I did not get a sense of recognition or enthusiasm. Every time I was there I had to provide room number and name and while this may not sound like much many other hotels make it their business to remember.

Service was ok but not anywhere as friendly as say at a Thai hotel. The beverage offer in the evening was ok: cocktails, beer and wine were on offer. However the food options were a bit underwhelming. The evening buffet resembled the (limited) breakfast buffet in almost every way. Afternoon tea was ok. Again nothing was wrong but I was wondering were the "Legend" part was coming in (also given the not insubstantial amount of money this hotel commands).

The presence of some obnoxious guests playing videos on their mobiles with the sound on and kids out of control did not help with the atmosphere at times. Staff seemed unperturbed.

Service

Service was broadly ok, with the exception of the Angelina bar/lounge where service was dreadfully slow. While the website touts it being open late, I was told at 11pm that they were closing, a rather early time for a hotel of this standing. Maybe the surprisingly large amount of intoxicated guest falling over brought this on.

Overall

Overall while pleasant and technically nothing wrong, the stay failed to wow. The hotel has a lot of charm but I personally did not get a sense of the offer being top of the range.

That said, I would probably return, most likely choosing the Opera wing instead.