Appartement Palm d'Azur

What a terrible place. The room was filthy, smelled bad, and had cockroaches everywhere. It was too small for three adults and two children, didn't feel secure, and looked like a haunted place. Nobody helps in person, everything is handled by phone, and getting the key and reaching the parking spaces felt like an escape game. We will never return. It's also shared with Pierre et Vacances, which was appalling. Don't trust the Booking.com reviews calling it “exceptional.” We were caught out by them, and met three Italian families leaving the next day who'd had the same nightmare. I don't know how those reviews are checked. Run away!

The apartments cost far too much for what you get, and I felt they were just trying to make money from clients. We were told by email to clean before leaving or face extra fees for a cleaning team, but on arrival our room was already very dirty, with marks on the walls, dishes and a bathtub broken in several places, and a slight mold smell. Also watch out if you rent several apartments at once: they combine the deposits into one, which lets them charge you much more for any damage. I'd absolutely avoid it.

There were some good points: the kitchen was well equipped and good quality, and the pool was alright. But the rooms are really tiny, more suited to one or two people than the four listed on the website. There was no room service, so we had to clean ourselves. Partway through our stay, we were told to clean the floors and leave the place as we found it. We did, using the vacuum and the supplies provided, but the items weren't up to standard. There was a lot of train noise, lots of kids in the pool, the elevators were bad, and the halls smelled weird.

This isn't worth the low price. There's no reception or desk staff, just separate apartments in a building, and getting the keys started with a scavenger hunt to reach someone by phone. Our room wasn't ready because the AC was broken, so they gave us a sea view as an “upgrade.” Inside the gate it looked like a prison, with broken lights and dark hallways. The room smelled of smoke and a bathroom, even though it was meant to be smoke free. It was about 85 degrees, and we turned on the AC in both the living room and bedroom, but the vents looked like they hadn't been cleaned in years, with dust and lint all over. We knew our breathing would be affected and weren't going to stay. No one answered when we called. While looking at other hotels, we noticed doorknobs coming off, missing bulbs, lamps that wouldn't turn on, and a black film on our socks after walking around for five minutes. Roaches crawled out of the shower and sink drains. The toilet room reeked of urine, which explained the smell, and there were holes in the walls in every room, like there'd been an MMA fight in each one. We left the keys in the black return box at the bottom of the building because there was nobody to speak to. Apparently that wasn't the right box and there's a process for returning keys. They didn't refund us, kept the $400 deposit, and charged $600 for lost keys. Stay away. I'd rather have slept at a bus station and felt safer. This is a poorly run Airbnb without the guarantees you'd get from Airbnb. I'm sure it can't be on Airbnb because the places are so badly managed.