Best Western Le Bois de la Marche Poitiers

We stayed here on the Monday and Friday of w/c 1st June. It is a good location close to the motorway in a well wooded area. The rooms are good. However the reception/dining experience was poor. On Monday we booked dinner at reception but when we arrived at the restaurant they had no record of the booking, but reluctanly we were seated. On our return on Friday we made a point at reception to ensure our dinner booking. Again when we arrived at the restaurant they had no record and were unable to seat us, although many tables were empty. We returned to reception to complain where the lady was rude and unhelpful. As the hotel is some way from central Poitiers and it was late,we had no option but sleep with no food. We do not reccomend the hotel.

After a 10 hour drive we were looking forward to a drink at the bar and a light meal in the restaurant. We were denied both by the staff. We were told that the restaurant was not taking any new bookings for that evening when we arrived at 7pm. Instead, we thought that we would have a drink before heading out to find somewhere to eat downtown. We waited for 15 minutes at the bar trying to catch the attention of the bartender who was doubling up as one of the restaurant staff. We were the only people waiting at the bar to be served. After 15 minutes we sought out the restaurant manager and asked if we could get served at the bar. He said yes and then completely ignored us. We noted with interest that the restaurant was not full and, as the early diners were leaving, the tables were left empty. We deduced that there was some type of private function taking place in another part of the hotel. This seemed to be consuming the time of the hotel kitchen staff and we suspect that the restaurant manager had prioritised the needs of the private function over good customer service for hotel guests. After a total of a 20 minute wait, we decided to give up and drive to an external bar and restaurant as the hotel is located some distance from downtown (one of us is tea-total, thank goodness, so driving wasn’t a problem). We complained to reception before departing but it seemed clear that nothing was going to change for us. We would also add that the shower in the bath was not easy to access as the height of the side of the bath is higher than normal and there is no grab rail or internal plastic shower mat so getting in and out of the bath/shower area was tricky.

Very nice stop in the immediate vicinity of Poitiers, in a quiet and green setting. The hotel, and the restaurant, offer excellent services.