Hotel Première Classe Lyon Sud - Pierre Bénite

I stayed on Aug 2 and was bitten by bed bugs in room 105. During the night I managed to switch rooms. The bed bug incident kept us up all night, and we missed our tour the next day. Bed bugs can happen at any hotel, I understand that, but the rooms were also dirty and the air conditioners didn't work. The front desk clerk lied to me and wouldn't even provide trash bags for my clothes or a dryer to kill the bugs. Afterward, I contacted the hotel manager. I had to send about 3-4 emails for every reply, and kept having to track him or her down. They promised to refund the room charge, and I gave them all my personal bank details. Their replies never included a name, which felt cowardly and unprofessional. Then they stopped answering altogether. A month later, I still hadn't received the refund, and I'm still itching from the bites. Being repeatedly ignored after something like this is beyond frustrating. That's no way to treat people. Avoid this hotel at all costs!

The air con was rubbish. We turned it off, and with four of us the room got very hot. The staff, on the other hand, were really friendly and welcoming, and the room was clean with the beds ready. Breakfast had a decent range: pastries, bread for toasting, jams, chocolate spread, hot and cold drinks, some cereal, crackers, and cheese. The bathroom was tiny, but the shower had strong pressure and the temperature control was decent.

The bathroom was awful. The shower curtain wouldn't close, the toilet was practically in the shower, and its seat wouldn't stay up, so you had to hold it to use the toilet. Mold covered the soap dispenser and about 80% of the shower. Breakfast was decent, but we had to queue for 20 minutes just to get a slice of bread. The air conditioning didn't work. We told the staff and were told they'd look into it, but when we came back at night, nothing had changed. At reception, the receptionist seemed to have forgotten, then acted like she was calling maintenance at 10pm. They “didn’t pick up”, and we had to sleep in 37° weather with no air conditioning. Looking through other Google Maps reviews, I saw people had mentioned the broken air conditioning over the past four years too. You can search for “air conditioning” yourself. This was second last on my list of hotel visits. The only thing that made it better than the worst hotel I've stayed at was that there weren't any cockroaches. Hotel PREMIERE class, my *ss.

The room was small, but really comfortable, and Quyen welcomed us warmly and kept checking that we had what we needed. She was happy to answer all our questions about public transport and things to do nearby. We were surprised by the breakfast selection in the morning, with lots of cereals, viennoiseries, and spreads. The coffee and hot chocolate were great. It was a lovely surprise, and we'd gladly come back soon.