Grand Hotel & Des Anglais

We have used this hotel several times but I think it must have changed hands. The hotel is in the process of a refurb, and it now boasts a new jacuzzi/plunge pool with sunbathing area and a very slow lift from the pool down to street level. However, the walk up to the hotel from the promenade remains gruelling. We had booked through Booking.com that morning, and it is worth knowing booking through them incurs a cost of €16 for parking which is not charged to those booking directly with the hotel. We had in fact called the hotel directly that morning (as we had in the past looking for the best deal), but the hotel could not match Booking.com’s online price (which offered an additional sea-view upgrade), even taking into account the additional cost for parking and tax. Upon arrival, the receptionist, a small feisty lady with dark hair and glasses, afforded us the worst ‘welcome’ to any hotel we have e-ver experienced. She was in fact a kind of female Basil Fawlty. She was sharp, rude, and failed to listen or smile. She did not have a good enough command of the English language to communicate the bare essentials of check-in, and even if she had been fluent, her manner would still have left much to be desired. We had requested a room on a lower floor in advance as my husband cannot use lifts, but she said the hotel was full, she could not accommodate our request to change the room to a lower floor, and our room was on the fourth floor because we had booked with Booking.com, booked late, and it was all she had. The number on the key card was in fact 102 which suggested the first floor, but she was adamant & kept repeating our room was on the fourth floor. Thinking the room numbering was merely an odd quirk, and not wanting to argue further, I took the luggage up in the lift while my husband walked up the full 4 flights of stairs. He is 70+. At the top it became apparent we were indeed on the wrong floor, so I went down to the first floor, and hey presto!, found our key card opened the matching room number. So we were on a lower floor. Leaving my husband in our small but adequate room, upset and quietly blazing, I went to find the receptionist and ensure we could unpack as we now had the correct room. She was both aggressive and unrepentant. I said my 70+ year old husband could have had a heart attack owing to his unnecessary climb. Clearly she was not bothered. I asked to see the manager. He looked at the booking, and he said it was a misunderstanding of communication? Really? He apologised, but all the while I was talking to him, the receptionist kept putting her head around the office door, defending herself, making it difficult for us to talk at all! After all this pantomime nonsense, the manager looked online where it appeared our request for a room on the lower floor had been complied with and we had in fact found our correct room! Did we want to change it? No! Thank you for the room on the lower floor. We were happy with the room - the room which we had in fact booked. However, we were not happy with this receptionist. Clearly the receptionist had been unable to differentiate between the pronunciation of the words ‘first’ and ‘fourth’, and her complete lack of communicative skills had magnified the confusion. My husband was not himself for the rest of the day. After that though, things became calmer. On the positive side our room was clean & recently refurbed, the bathroom was immaculate with a hot powerful shower, the towels were fluffy & there was a bidet. The bed was comfortable, and the view will be spectacular once the building work which has been going on since 2023 in front of the hotel is completed. Tea and coffee-making facilities were provided, though I thought providing paper cups in a four star hotel to be mean. There was a safe and mini bar but no complimentary water. Take your own tea bags. Other reception staff were competent, pleasant and smiled. The hotel was full with a group of travel agents on spec and another group of Polish students we shared a table with. Breakfast was adequate but on this occasion was confused and overcrowded.

We enjoyed the hotel, but it is not normal to pay for a parking space that is not one.

Thank you for this stay which was just superb, a very warm welcome A very clean room Incredible service We will be back