djswa007

Hello,
I'm new here but I try to give a short review on the l'Hermitage Gantois in Lille (autograph collection). I went to this hotel due to their Marriott affiliation. First of all the property which is extremely nice. It's old church/monastery made into a hotel. The rooms are nice and the beds comfortable (like always). Although I have the feeling that the room is missing something. There is a see through blind in the shower area which is really see through. It lacks privacy especially when you have a room on the street side with a complete flat block looking into your room. Furthermore the room on the street is very very noisy (so opening a window is a non option). The TV is ok and has CNN and Euronews a the only English channels rest is in German and French. The free WIFI is extremely slow and you can hardly use it to download attachments so I decided to take the 22 EURO ! per day internet which is also slow (max 150 kbps).

The bar area is fantastic and you are able to sit outside (when the weather allows you) to enjoy a nice glass of wine or something else. Prices ... outrages, minimum 9 EURO for a glass of wine or 8 EURO for a cappuccino is a bit high.

Parking (valet) 25 EURO also a little on the high side.
There is NO gym and there is NO lounge. The business center is a joke (can't even sit in it) The hotel is definitely not a five star, service is so so and there are many things lacking. They have 5 star prices and that's the only thing which is 5 stars.

I wouldn't recommend this hotel. Next time I will move to the crown plaza or the novotel.
cheers

SkiAdcock

First, welcome to Flyertalk!

Thanks for the trip report. The building sounds quite interesting!

Did the room have wired internet, or wifi only? Did you mention the slow internet to the hotel staff, and/or ask for a credit? Are all the rooms facing the street (ie, noise), or are some away from the street - ie, would your recommendation be to others to request a room away from the street when making a reservation?

Since there is no lounge, did they provide a continental breakfast per Marriott T&Cs? Do you know if it was M-F only, or daily per Marriott T&Cs when outside the US?

Cheers.

kcaluwae

Thanks for the review and welcome to Flyertalk!
I will reconsider my stay in this hotel now

djswa007

Thanks for the warm welcome :-)

Indeed the building is great. When you walk around you really feel the monastery history and that is quite nice.
The internet is being provided by the hotel through Swiss Com. So when you have a problem you should contact them (according to the hotel staff). I already sent Swiss Com an email but no reply so I filled out the survey and told the issue again. I hope they change that in the future.

When I checked in they didn't even bother to look at my Marriott card and they didn't provide me with the free continental breakfast. Maybe the staff is not aware of this?? The whole process of checking in and looking on a paper for my reservation which is kept in a small box on the counter doesn't look very 'computerized' .

A friend of mine is staying in the same hotel overlooking the small garden and there is no street noise. So yeah definitively a room away from the front of the hotel. He is also not happy with the service provided in the hotel. It's just the 5 star feeling what is missing if you now what I mean.

So yeah maybe a bit negative from me but it's an honest review. I've seen many group travelers and elderly in the hotel and they seem happy. Maybe it's just not a business friendly hotel.
If needed I can put some pictures online of the inside of the hotel, business centre and room.

cheers

SkiAdcock

Again, thanks for the detailed information!

Outside of the US & Canada, Golds & Plats should receive continental breakfast 7days/week if there is no lounge. Also Plats should be asked for their Plat arrival gift.

It might be due to the hotel being recently opened/new to Marriott that they've missed that. If you and/or your friend is still there & has Gold or Plat status, remind the front desk re: the cont'l brekkie.

Cheers.

leeky

Spent 2-nights here late last month.

Was upgraded to a full suite.

The hotel is located in a residential area so not many restaurants in the immediate area (and those that are are closed on Mondays as are the banks).

Lifts are really funny as our 3XX room was on the 2nd Floor (of 2) and the
1st floor has rooms with 1XX, 2XX and 3XX.

The conversion from 16th C hospice to a hotel was done really well as the 10x10 ceiling beams are still in use as are the walls lined with tapestries and floor. This place has an awful lot of old world character.
PAG offered (the only Autograph Collection property out of 4 that actually knew how the system is supposed to work).

No lounge. No drink vouchers.

Full breakfast provided, but really not that much to choose from although the champagne was top notch but the croissants were store bought (and this is France!).

Nice chappel and interior gardens.

For me the only negative was a combination clock/iPod charging station that had its alarm set for 1AM and woke me up with a piercing fire alarm sound and a Front Desk clerk who denied there was an alarm clock in our suite (so I unplugged it and took it downstairs and placed the non-existent alarm clock on his desk).

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the trip report. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

fmkgb

Any recent updates? Has the service, internet speed and Marriott recognition improved?

rebadc

stayed last year over the holidays and loved it.
went for the Christmas markets and had a great time.

great breakfast, wifi, and interesting indoor pool.

would stay again.

fmkgb

thanks very much!

ajnz

Stayed here last night. Staff were friendly, check-in acknowledged Gold benefits, the room was very nice. The breakfast was not particularly impressive and not worth €23 pp but as a Gold benefit it was acceptable. WiFi was fine. Late checkout was honored and proactively offered.

Parking was relatively expensive and not exactly "on site", but seemed secure enough.

jpdx

Just completed a 2-night stay here. Pretty nice overall, although not without weird quirks.

The building is exciting to explore, an old monastery with lots of interesting features like an old chapel, library, some exhibits. Our upgrade was to a Privilege room in a modern annex (above the spa). Not sure if this is where they put the Americans on a hot day (our room had AC!), but in hindsight, we would have preferred a historic room. (It's very hard to tell from the website where rooms are located or what exactly you'll be getting ... looking at the pictures on the website, our room looked no different than a standard room). The room felt a little depressing ... devoid of nice touches and with a view of an ugly building a few feet away. If we were to return, I would apply SNA here and pick one of the suites in the historic building.

The numbering of rooms is very strange. We were in room 3xx, which was on the "first floor" and on the spa building elevator one has to press 2 (there's no 1). On our initial trip to the room, we wandered around for a while with our luggage and had to ask for directions twice.

Breakfast is available in lieu of points. It's one of the weaker buffets we experienced on this trip (scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, beans, etc available, but not particularly tasty, and they're very slow to replenish). Ample choices of breads/pastries, but weak in the area of cold cuts/salmon/fruits. Strangely, the mediocre buffet is complemented by free-flowing Laurent-Perrier champagne, a very uncommon sight and pleasant surprise.

The website bills the hotel as "best in Northern France." Not per our experience with service -- they failed to provide housekeeping and when we returned at 7pm, the housekeeper had gone home and all we could do was get some fresh towels. An adjacent room had a room-service tray outside the door all day until our checkout at noon the next day. The front desk people weren't particularly helpful or friendly. Checkout took forever. Also, this was the only hotel of the 8 we visited in France/Belgium on this trip with no welcome gift. Hotel doesn't have online checkin and chat with FD features enabled.

The location is decent -- less than 10 minute walk to the center of the historic town. Not a lot of restaurants or stores in the immediate vicinity, and some really terrible postwar architecture around. But Lille is well worth a visit, and the hotel is a good enough base.

frank_10b

Thanks for the reviews
If anyone had a choice which one would they choose for location and size of rooms

this hotel or the Moxy Lille ?
thanks

jpdx

Never stayed at Moxy Lille, but judging from the Marriott site, it's a cookie cutter Moxy -- very small rooms, bare-bones. I'd consider the Moxy location slightly worse, although not a huge difference. So if cost isn't an issue, Hermitage Gantois will be a better choice.

acjflyer

This is definitely a full service hotel. I was happy with my stay last year. Have not been to the Moxy in Lille but to another European Moxy and for me they are not in the same category so I wouldn’t even compare them.