Pullman Cannes Mandelieu — Hotel in Grasse

Can you say "très chic"?

I found myself, in a very round about way, staying at this hotel back in November of 2010. Took me long enough to write the review, I know...but I guess you can chuck it up to too much traveling ever since then.

The hotel was remarkable. The "ooh-la-la-iest" hotel at which I've ever stayed, and I was the guest of a guest, so my stay was free. On that point, I can't really say if my "Euro" was well spent, but if I'd had as many Euros as they were charging, then I would say yes. However, when I happened to find out the price of the room in which we were staying it said it was over 600 euro a night: Sacrebleu! is right.

The view was incredible, one of the most enchanting things about the hotel - but not the only thing. The bed was like sleeping on a cloud hand woven by angels who use marshmallows as their sewing string. The room was beyond comfortable: carpeted floors, long curtains, BIG bathroom with a tub and shower. I think two or three mirrors - one large and two small ones to see all those nasty problem areas of your face in magnified vision. Comfy towels, and they even had cotton bathrobes with the hotel's name branded on it. I think they were around 75 euro if you wanted to buy one.

I even had the opportunity to order room service, and eat the delicious food on the heavenly bed. The TV was plasma (of course!), and there was a bench just before the entrance of the balcony so that you could watch the sea, that much closer to the sliding glass door of the room. The swimming pool was incredible lit up at night, and had it not been November - I would have jumped in the moment I arrived at the hotel.

Upon arrival, each guest received a free glass of champagne. But then after that it was business as usual down at the bar - 10 Euro minimum per drink. They had a casino downstairs, and the people who were supervising up front were very nice and had a good sense of humor. Some of the staff spoke English, and others spoke Italian - two languages which proved fortunate for me to know, since I don't speak French very well.

I can honestly say though, that THE best hotel breakfast I have ever had anywhere at any hotel or in any country was at this hotel. They had everything your little American heart could desire - and let me tell you, after having been away from the States for as many years as I have been, it was like a dream seeing some of the things they served. A full breakfast, they had anything you could think of: Pancakes, different types of syrup, all kinds of eggs, seafood, vegetables, fruits, cereal, sausages, ham, cheeses, waffles, peanut butter - absolutely everything! I sat in the downstairs breakfast area, although they did have a terrace just outside near the pool, where you had a beautiful view of the sea.

The staff was very friendly and helpful, and I would have to say that as far as the rest of the "island" was concerned, they were probably the friendliest people I ran into - so I was very lucky in that regard. Don't hold your breath on the internet though. As fancy as this place is - and it is that - the internet absolutely sucked. They had two computers free for guests in the lobby, and neither of them would connect to any of the sites I needed. I also tried internet at other places and it was scarce and/or didn't work. Also be mindful if going to France, either from the States or a different European country - your SIM card will not work there. You have to buy a new one in order to make calls.

In terms of location - the view was stunning, but the out of the way area that it's in is not so convenient, and if you don't have a car there is really nothing nearby. I was also surprised with how few people spoke English in the town in general.

All in all this hotel is a great place to go if you have the money to stay there. I can't say that all the rooms were as spendy as the one in which I stayed, but it would be cheaper to stay a Motel 8, let's put it...

Unfortunately, we were very unhappy with our stay at this hotel. We have experienced the following issues:

One of the reasons we booked this hotel was for the pool. However, when we arrived, we were told that a pool chair will cost 30 Euro per person. This was not noted on the website or during the reservation. There was no space around the pool to sit on our towels, so if we didn’t pay for the chairs we couldn’t sit by the pool. We were not prepared to pay an extra 60 Euros just for the chairs, especially when the hotel price is already quite high for a 4-star hotel. So in the end we couldn’t use the pool. The room was facing a busy road and there was a lot of noise from the road, even late into the night and early on a Sunday morning. As a result, I didn’t sleep well at all, and was woken up at 7:00am from the noise. It felt more like a hotel in the middle of a busy city, than a beach side hotel as presented on your website. If there is such a loud road next to the hotel, there should be much better insulation on the windows. There was also a lot of noise from people walking in the room above us. The rooms don’t have proper carpets so there is nothing to dampen the noise. You should have proper carpets or better noise insulation on the floors/ceilings. We wanted to eat at the restaurant in the evening, but there were no vegetarian main course options at all!!! They served a vegetarian pizza and a vegetarian pasta at the bar, but they said they couldn’t serve them at the restaurant. So we couldn’t eat at the restaurant which really ruined our visit. This is not acceptable these days, there should be at least one vegetarian main course option! We wanted to sit on the terrace in our room, but it said we had to leave the door open as otherwise it would lock behind us and we couldn't get back in. However, there was no fly screen, and we didn’t want flies and mosquitos to get into the room (especially as there is currently a health alert about diseases carried by mosquitos in the area), so we couldn’t sit outside on the terrace. Although the room decor was nice, some of the furniture and fixtures were a bit old and worn out, not what we would expect at a hotel of this level. There was only one chair in the room to sit by the table. So when we ordered room service, one of us had to sit on the sofa chair, which was much lower and it was not very easy to reach the table and eat while sitting on it. If you offer room service and expect people to eat in the room you should provide two chairs. On the website it said the TV in the room offers pay-per-view movies. However, no such service was available.

In short, the quality of the hotel was not what we would expect from a 4-star hotel that is so well-presented on the website, especially at...

I arrived from Asia shortly before 13:00, expecting to check in and have a rest before the start of the conference I was attending. But NO. The hotel knew I was flying in from Asia, tired, and jet-lagged, and the room was not ready. Not only was it not ready, they were completely unwilling to even give me an estimate of when it might be ready, other than to tell me that all rooms would be ready by 15:00, but "some" might be available earlier. They did, however insist on taking a deposit from my credit card and having me fill in a registration form. All I could do was hang around the reception desk waiting and checking periodically with the staff who kept giving me zero updates. Finally at 15:01 I walked up to the desk and asked for my room key, reminding the staff there that their (now absent) colleague had assured me that I could have my room by 15:00 and it was now 15:01. The replacement staff member then asked me to fill in the registration form and provide a credit card, which I had already previously done, so it was all already in their system and they should NOT be asking me for it a second time. At that point my patience had run out. I reminded the staff member that a) I had just flown in from Asia and was tired and jetlagged, b) I had been kept waiting for over two hours for my room, with no meaningful feedback, by a clearly indifferent staff member. c) the information she was asking me for had already been provided to her colleague so it was already in their system, and d), that as a result of the previous a) - c) I was rapidly reaching the end of my severely depleted patience and had no time for incompetent questions. I finally got my key. My conclusion is that this hotel is probably used only to the weekend sun-seeking local holiday crowd and they have no understanding of the needs of intercontinental business travellers, particularly from Asia, and no appreciation of which of their guests might arrive severely jetlagged. Avoid if travelling from a different timezone or if the hotel doing things on a "relaxed" schedule with uncertain timelines frustrates you because you have a busy business schedule. On a plus note the cleaning staff were helpful and pleasant. But the front desk staff embody all the usual stereotypes about snooty entitled unhelpful French...