HOTEL LE PASSIFLORE

The only thing which stops me from rating this as 'Terrible' is that it redeemed itself by being spotlessly clean and the bed was very comfortable! My husband had stayed at The Passiflore many years ago when it was a family run business and not part of the 'Logis' chain, it had been a truly great experience and we were looking forward to returning. We were aware that it was a basic hotel without all the mod cons often expected in today's society so we were not expecting the Ritz(!) but we were sorely disappointed with what we got. I don't think it's too much to expect to being welcomed by the at least one member of staff is it? Well at this place forget it! We had made previous reservations on line and were advised that our rooms would be available from 3pm. We arrived in St Pol de Leon a little bit early so went and had lunch to kill time, arrived at the hotel about 3.30 pm and it was all locked up and looked decidedly closed. There was a notice in the window beside the door saying "English Spoken" and a notice in French with a telephone number to call for reservations. We called the telephone number and the person on the other end (speaking in very fast French which we had a bit of trouble understanding as our French is not great) told us to return at 5pm. We did this and still everywhere locked up! So called the number again, and were told to wait, someone would come to let us in. By this time we were tired and beginning to get a little frayed around the edges!! Eventually after about ten minutes the cleaner opened the door to us and said she'd go and fetch someone who'd be able to check us in, so we waited another ten minutes in the empty, unwelcoming reception area. About to give up when a gent arrived to take us through our registration procedure, he spoke no English at all. OK we don't expect everyone to speak English in France like some people do, so we soldiered on in our very poor and limited French and when we got to a bit we couldn't understand, the gent spoke the phrase into his phone using google translate - unfortunately his Breton accent was so heavy the google translator couldn't understand him! He got very frustrated. In hindsight this was actually really very funny but by this time we were not really amused. Eventually after much perusal of passports and form filling we were given our keys (we were two couples each with a double room booked and hoping to have two separate tabs/bills but for some reason Monsieur didn't seem to grasp this so my husband just paid for the whole thing and our friends split the bill with us). We had booked B&B and were told that breakfast was to be at 08.00, as the following day was a Sunday we enquired if it could perhaps be a little later, 09.00 perhaps? No, the dining room would only be open between 08.00 and 08.30! After staggering up three flights of stairs and along an unlit corridor, there were lights but they were not working, we got to our room. It was very small and overlooked the very noisy busy street. It was very warm but the windows were open and a refreshing breeze was blowing so that was OK, but we did wonder what the noise would be like at night. We discovered the windows were triple glazed and luckily the evening was cool so we just shut the windows and it was fine. However when we went to check the bathroom the shower was broken and the fitting was hanging off the wall. So my husband went in search of Monsieur again (no joy) and ended up having to repeat the phone palaver all over again. Another wait of about thirty minutes brought Monsieur to our room where he proceeded to try to blame us for breaking the shower!! After much shouting in to his phone using google translate which didn't understand him, and much hot declarations that there was no other room to move us to, he took the offending shower unit off the wall which left us with a whopping hole in the wall and just a hand held showerhead - no problem! He tried to tell me I shouldn't complain because after all there was a hairdryer in the bathroom and this was a deluxe room! (By this time all I could do was see the funny side and got a fit of the giggles, Monsieur was not amused and left in high dudgeon!) Other than that our overnight stay was uneventful and reasonably comfortable, the free WIFI was very good and pretty quick. We did see Monsieur again briefly at breakfast time but he didn't look particularly pleased to see us and he was spectacularly absent when we wanted to check out, so we just left the keys at the unattended reception desk. I think I can honestly say we will not be returning to stay there again. However it was funny!

Terrible time trying to book in on a Sunday. Can only do it by phone where they will give you the code to the outside door to get into the hotel and then give you a room number for you to select a key off the hook behind reception. Don't bother at all if you don't speak adequate French. Sadly the restaurant is closed on a Sunday which is a shame as the write ups have been good. Room average which means it is a bit overpriced when you consider the booking in saga. However, if you do have to be there on a Sunday evening choose the restaurant 100 metres towards town on the opposite side of the road. Aupres De Mon Arbre. Its fantastic! The owner/chef speaks good English and the waitresses are charming. The meal was superb..

We stayed here before getting the ferry back to the UK. We were made very welcome and added to our limited french language. The staff did not speak much English so we all had a lot of fun learning from each other. We had our evening meal in the restaurant which was exceptional and great value for money. We would recommend this hotel to anyone for a short stay.