Grand Hotel Thermal

After a long five-hour drive from Calais, we arrived around 5ish, hungry, and found out the restaurant was fully booked. They said they’d emailed us about it, but the email had only arrived at 2 o’clock that afternoon. There was no room service either. All they suggested was a pizza place back in the village, without even offering a complimentary drink. It seems to me the restaurant gets booked up by a lot of locals.

The room looked lovely, and the hotel itself was nice, with decent spa facilities. But the bed was so hard it felt like sleeping on wood, which I didn’t expect at a spa hotel. We couldn’t get a table at the hotel restaurant even though we were guests, and with so few places nearby, that was especially frustrating. The male receptionist was friendly at check-in and gave us another restaurant address, though it didn’t help much given the limited options. At breakfast, staff were arguing loudly in the hallway just outside the dining area. It disrupted the atmosphere and felt unprofessional. Check-in began well, but the dismissive departure left us with a poor last impression. The stay fell well short of what I expected, and I’d hesitate to return.

The bed was so comfortable, and I had one of the best nights’ sleep I’ve had in a long time. Our room was spacious, beautifully decorated, very clean, and had a coffee maker for making “real” coffee, which we really appreciated. We arrived late on Friday evening, and nobody was at reception at first. When he got there, he welcomed us warmly and invited us to the restaurant even though it was past closing time. We weren’t very hungry and ordered two starters; the staff didn’t mind, and the waitress was friendly and helpful. The food was fresh, made with quality ingredients, and the menu was well put together. We’re telling family and friends about this hotel and will definitely plan another visit so we can try the spa. Anita Nuss & Guy Chevat

At 10 PM, I went down to reception for toilet paper. The woman refused at first and explained something in French that I couldn’t understand. Only after she saw how angry I was did she come back with it. That interaction made the experience extremely poor. We’d checked in at 6:30 PM on Saturday, September 23rd, with a woman whose name I didn’t catch. She said she didn’t speak any English, though her personal badge had the flags of France, Spain, and England. There was no real effort to communicate or understand us, and it felt like helping us was a bother. It seems odd that a hotel called 'The Originals' wouldn’t hire bilingual staff. I honestly think she blatantly lied to us. It’s a shame a beautiful hotel has such unprofessional, unhelpful reception staff. A disaster. If I were the hotel manager, I’d take action. I’ll leave a bad review on all social media platforms.