The Originals Access Hôtel Le Beaulieu La Rochelle

The location works if you want to shop at the nearby retail park, including B&M, but it’s a long way from the beach, about a 45-minute bus ride, and Ubers are expensive. Our first room at Ibis Pilboro had dirty sheets and too few towels. When we complained, the staff insisted on moving us instead of just changing the sheets. The replacement room smelled strongly of drains and had a cockroach. We didn’t want to move a second time, so we stayed. When we checked out, we left a pack of cookies, a broken charging cable, a towel over a chair, and messy beds. There were four of us in the room. A man from the cleaning staff came downstairs, called me out in front of my children, and shouted at me about the things we’d left. He took me upstairs and kept shouting for several minutes, asking if I was “disrespecting him” and “embarrassed.” He was extremely patronising and kept saying in French that he’d never dealt with anything like this in 20 years. It was completely uncalled for over minor things like cookies, an iPhone cable, and body cream. I told the woman at reception what had happened. She acted as if she hadn’t heard and only said she knew the staff member had been upset about the room. The rooms were unclean, we found a cockroach, and the staff behaviour was shocking. I’ve never been treated so badly at a hotel, and I can’t recommend this place.