La Vieille Fontaine

La Vieille Fontaine 9 août 2011 à 11:32  

Appréciation générale :

Melanie S. (30 pts de réputation)

We had booked a room well in advance for a two-night stay on August 6 & 7. I had provided confirmation by phone with my credit card. In addition, we called on August 6 to inform the hotel of our estimated time of arrival. Friends of ours had also booked into the hotel. While they were given a gracious reception, we were told that our confirmation had never been received - despite that I had spoken with someone just one hour earlier to re-confirm the booking and arrival time. It was patently clear that the hotelier had double-booked and had assumed that, because of my name, I did not speak French. While she was hoping we would simply turn and walk away, I was able to argue our point fluently, which seemed to make her unhinge. She tried to physically remove me from her lobby while shrieking that I was a liar. To make matters worse, our sojourn was to be a reunion of friends who had travelled from as far as South Africa, and we had also reserved a large table in the hotel's restaurant. We ended up driving around in the dark for next several hours looking for a place to sleep. I have never been treated so rudely in my 20 year career as a food, entertainment, and travel writer. Unfortunately for the hotelier, I have a complete record of our email correspondence, as well as a record on my phone bill of the exact date and time of the phone call to the hotel to confirm the reservation, which will be sent to her as proof that she has made a grievous error which she will regret for the foreseeable future. I cannot stress enough how unpleasant this encounter was - the hotelier was insolent, maniacal, aggressive, and immovable, and left us stranded in Provence in the middle of August.