Hotel de La Matelote

We stayed for two nights. Our room was to the rear of the hotel. It was very clean and had everything we required. The mini bar (which we didn’t use) had a reasonable selection of drinks. The shower over the bath was quite dangerous as there was no bath mat. The surface of the bath was slippery when wet. There were no grab handles and a fixed panel of glass. This needs to be addressed. The room was a reasonable size. All the staff were very helpful.

The hotel was in excellent order. The lounge wasn’t welcoming, nor were the receptionists, apart from one particular gentleman. The breakfast wasn’t v good. The lift only went up one flight after which we had to struggle up two flights of stairs carrying a heavy suitcase… a problem for the elderly. It took three calls to have a faulty light bulb fixed.

In 15 years we have visited this hotel to stay and eat twice and twice to the restaurant alone . Honestly though the experience would be so much nicer if the staff in the hotel and restaurant were warm , friendly , engaging, smiling . Most of them have never been this . Only the wine waitress was friendly and the restaurant staff never like to use English in our experience . Dishes are not explained by waiting staff . We took the tasting menu which generally was good but the service was bit slow …so much so that two of the dishes were not served hot enough and looked tired …I think they had been left in the kitchen too long. The whole experience was underwhelming . As for the hotel …we had stayed 10 years ago for our 30 th wedding anniversary …this time for our 40 th …but there was not a single acknowledgment of this . Greeting and departure were abysmal . It was pouring with rain and windy and I used the intercom at the garage to establish where to park . It was two twenty pm. The first response when I said I wanted to park to check in was to say check in was at 3 pm ( hello , welcome to the Matelote !) . My wife then had to walk to the reception ( despite a route possible in the dry thru the garage could have been offered ) to collect the garage key . The receptionist, if properly trained could have offered us a at least to wait in the lounge with a coffee…..and of course the rooms were ready …he was just playing by the book ! On check out the receptionist , a different one, produced an invoice and I paid …..not one comment …’ hope u had a nice stay , how was everything ?have a good journey , come again . ??? The bedrooms feel very old fashioned …dark red and gold and brown furniture …dated in style …they need a lift I am a retired travel agent and have inspected and stayed in thousands of hotels in my time . I know what service should look like . Our stay here was at odds with the night before in a fabulous little four star hotel not far away …where the staff were warm , welcoming and celebrated our anniversary in many ways with us …..with equally as good food and better value . I don’t believe the restaurant holds a Michelin star any more . Really , I have always had a slight issue with the service here and was apprehensive about this stay but ready to be pleasantly surprised ….I think for us now the hotel and restaurant is past its sell-by date . We won’t return