B&B HOTEL Romilly-sur-Seine

The family rooms are why we keep using B&B hotels on trips to and from the Alps. Arriving late is another story: with nobody on site, getting to bed turned into an escape room in reverse. We had to work out how to get through the perimeter fence to the closed reception and find the code for the parking lot. Then the automatic kiosk wouldn't give us our room code, so we called the emergency number. The person who answered spoke good English and talked us through opening a key safe, where we found our room key. Quite an adventure after a long drive!

The hotel was comfortable and quiet, and breakfast was nice. Many thanks to the staff member who stayed until we arrived at 8:50 pm to check us in. It would have been handy to have a kettle in the room for tea.

We choose B&B Hotels for overnight stops because the locations work well for us, and the rooms are comfortable and air-conditioned, with good prices and a great breakfast. But this stay was let down by a very rude receptionist. I try to speak French when I’m on holiday in France, though I’m not a native speaker and sometimes need people to slow down. Check-in went fine in French. When I asked about breakfast, the dark-haired receptionist spoke so fast that I politely asked her in French to slow down or speak English. She repeated herself even faster. She clearly understood my request but chose not to help. A kind French school teacher behind me in the queue, checking in his schoolchildren, translated that we hadn’t booked breakfast and it would cost an extra 8€50. He seemed embarrassed by what he’d witnessed. She needs to represent B&B better and smile when greeting guests. She’d been pleasant and helpful to the two French speakers ahead of us, so I don’t think she was just having a bad day. We didn’t ask her about Wi-Fi either. The code was posted in the lift, but we only spotted it on the morning we left, and my friend’s ground-floor room meant they wouldn’t have seen it. The website connection for getting the code doesn’t work. At other hotels on other trips, receptionists have understood my French without trouble and have been happy to take my money for breakfast.

The room had a simple, relaxing design, and the stay was pleasant. Every so often, though, cigarette smoke from people outside got into the room and lingered, which was unpleasant. I’m not sure if it came through the ventilation or a tiny gap in the windows.