Hotel Villa Navarre

Do not be fooled, as we were, by the five star rating or the stunning facade; this hotel is poor in every respect. On arrival we were greeted by an unhelpful receptionist. It is not really a problem that no English was spoken by the five staff we saw in the evening (we are, after all, visitors in this country) but perhaps remove the sign that claims English as a spoken language. Communication was not easy but the receptionist, with the aid of a translation app, informed us that an event was taking place that would be very noisy and last until very late. Not exactly the warm welcome one might have hoped for. Having paid on booking and arriving after 18:00 we did not have much choice but to put up with it. I imagine this event must have been booked long before we made our reservation but nobody thought to mention it prior to arrival. We mentioned our restaurant reservation but were informed that the restaurant was closed due to the event. We had booked for ourselves and two guests who were travelling to join us for dinner. There were several emails with the restaurant and written confirmation of our booking. On voicing our disappointment various staff appeared, though none seemed to care. The least they could do was recommend some nearby restaurants and offer to make reservations, but we had absolutely no help from them. Our room was down a miserable looking corridor cluttered with junk. The door to our room was half covered by a table top or board of some sort that had to be moved out of the way to allow access. Outside the room, blocking access to the fire extinguishers, were bikes and piles of cushions. The room itself was large, but sparsely and very poorly furnished. The only lighting came from two faint bedside lamps - the room was thus dingy all evening/night. A disconnected portable air conditioning unit sat in one corner with the exhaust pipe laying around, not even in any state to switch on. Not one element of the room was in keeping with a five star property. It was dusty and dirty, with mould in the shower, and various broken or damaged fittings throughout. The bed was lumpy with uncomfortably prominent springs. If it were a three star property charging half the room rate it might have been expected but this room and its fittings were an absolute disgrace for the price charged. When we came to leave in the morning, the lock and door handle were so completely jammed that we were unable to move the lock or open the door. Fortunately the room had some patio doors in poor condition that barely closed but readily opened so we were able to escape via the garden. Everything about this place was tatty and worn. It was not a case of faded elegance or something in keeping with the nature of the property - nothing we saw appeared to have ever been appropriate for a five star hotel. The exterior, from a distance, really is stunning, but that is the only positive I can offer. We have stayed in other French chateaux that offered wonderful accommodation, fine food, and friendly service. This one is, thankfully, an outlier in our experience. We shall not return. No compensation was offered.

Splendid property, old but renovated, park where you can dine (they also do BBQ). We were traveling with our cat, and they assigned us a room with only a portable air conditioner, even without the hole in the window to vent the hot air, and in a 5-star hotel this is unacceptable!!! we obviously suffered from the heat all night. I am sorry to have to write a negative review, but this room is not even remotely classifiable as 5-star

A truly terrible experience, absolutely not up to the standard of a 5-star hotel. In my opinion, not even a 3-star hotel would deserve such a rating. We arrived in the evening at 10:30 PM and there was no one at the reception. We had to wait about 20 minutes before someone arrived, even though we had called the number indicated on the reception desk several times. Once we arrived, they assigned us the rooms knowing perfectly well that we were traveling with two children. Well, they gave us two rooms completely on the opposite side of the property, without even bothering to assign them to us nearby. A truly absurd situation that shows little regard for the needs of guests. Upon entering our room, we even found a cricket wandering around the room that kept chirping. Luckily we managed to catch it, but it is certainly not what one expects when entering a hotel that presents itself as 5 stars. As if that were not enough, the bed in our room was broken underneath. In both rooms, moreover, the air conditioner had a hose that necessarily had to be run out the window: a decidedly inelegant solution and, in my opinion, unacceptable for a facility of this category. In Italy, a 5-star hotel is something else entirely: one expects attention, organization, comfort, cleanliness, and above all, service that lives up to the declared category. Unfortunately, we did not find any of this at this facility. A disappointing experience from every point of view. I certainly would not return and I do not feel like recommending it.