Hostellerie Cèdre & Spa

I have never written a review before so the fact that I am writing this should give you a sense of how poorly my experience here was. But first, let me talk about the positives of this hotel:

1) It is a beautiful hotel with a very nice spa and has a wonderful courtyard with delightful food and wine
2) It is very accessible to the historic section of Beune within walking distance of all the major attractions, restaurants and other activities.

The main problem I have had with this hotel is that they told me they would pack my luggage into the car, yet they forgot to pack one bag that contained my passports, credit cards, and orher essentials that were needed for our trip in Europe.

We left our hotel and they finally contacted us a few hours later to tell us they forgot to include one of our bags, but by then we were hours away.

Instead of trying to resolve this problem that they had created, they asked for $1300 Euro!!! to have a driver deliver our bag to us 4 hours away. Obviously this was not acceptable to me, and instead they offered to ship the package overnight to us in our next hotel for $200 Euro which of course we had to pay for, instead of them for the mistake they made.

Instead of using a reputable shipping provider, they chose to use the unreliable “Chronopost”. It has now been 5 days and our “overnight” package has not been delivered to us and we will need to go to US consulate to get issued new passports and overall our trip has been ruined because they made a mistake in packing our bags. They have made zero attempt to help resolve this situation on our behalf and have accepted zero responsibility for their mistake.

Yes, it’s a beautiful hotel. Yes they have a wonderful spa. Yes they are close to the attractions. But they do not treat their customers with the attention and respect they deserve, especially at the prices they are charging for staying there.

EDITING REVIEW TO RESPOND TO HOTEL:
- you say you tried to call and also sent an email… perhaps you could have tried text message as well. I would encourage you to try AS MANY OPTIONS as possible to get in touch with a guest
- $1300 Euro to drove 3.5 hours is unacceptable and is a clear attempt to pry money from your guests.
- charging $250 euro to “overnight” ship their package and then using an unreliable service instead of DHL is unacceptable
- Chronopost told me the cost for this delivery would have only been about $50 euro so I am unsure why I was charged $250 euro by your team. Again this seems like an obvious attempt to pry money from your guests.

I think to be fair - after breakfast- which was a much better experience, and the staff in the morning, I modified the rating to a 2 star. Original review below - which unfortunately still stands. The hotel has good amenities and comfy rooms, beds and bath and good breakfast.

This was such a disappointment. We had a reservation at a nice restaurant in town but decided to stay at the hotel as we were tired. So we asked the hotel to cancel the reservation, and when my husband asked if we needed to reserve to eat at the hotel he was told by the front desk that we did not have to reserve to dine at the bistro. So we went down later but were told that the chef could not accomodate us for dinner. The option was in room dining. We requested for 4 simple things on the in room dining menu. A trout plate, a pollack, a chocolate cake and a glass of wine. We ordered at the front desk and asked the front desk to get housekeeping to bring another bottle of water for the room. When the table arrived, the waiter told us “Madame, there is no chocolate cake”. My husband asked “what is the alternative for dessert?” (I already knew there were only 2 other options on the menu - cake of the day or profiteroles) but the response was “We are very busy downstairs”. Throughout this entire escapade, trying to get a table downstairs, then ordering room service instead, I was made to feel like an inconvenience and a bother. This is a 5star hotel. This is really horrendous. HORRENDOUS customer service. Someone could have called to inform us earlier about the choc cake and ask if we wanted something else or informed us then if they had nothing.

On top of that, they brought up a bottle of Evian and charged us 7 euros for it which my husband signed for. I didn't realise it was being charged to the room or I would have rejected it. To be fair, housekeeping turned up half way during our room dining with a bottle of water and gave us two. I dont know if it was a communication issue between the front desk, service, kitchen or what, but it doesn’t matter or isn’t an acceptable excuse.

So the service experience at dinner was no good, to be fair the front desk and concierge and housekeeping had been friendly and helpful. But it always takes just one bad encounter during the stay (given we are only here one night) to really sour an experience.

One of our unpleasant encounters so far in France