Hôtel Dieu Intercontinental Marseille — Hotel in Marseille

Dear Mr/Mrs,

From 23th until 29th off october we stayed in your accommodation.

During our stay we also invited two guests which stayed from 26th until the 29th of october.

We are experienced travellers and very loyal to IHG as you can check in our file.

We never wrote a bad review of any hotel we stayed in, during all those years. In this case I can't resist to share my experience, without ignoring the fact that we all have to deal with covid-19 and special precautions are taken in all IHG hotels.

Arriving at the hotel there was nobody outside to welcome guests.

Pamphlets directed us to the parking in the basement, there we saw a group of men, one of them seemed to work in the hotel and showed us the way to the check-in counter.

Upon check-in there was no recognition for us as members.

The suite was ok but not recognizable as a junior suite.

After the first night we had a small conversation with the manager, who told us there were only 30 rooms occupied, we complained to her about the waiting line at the, poor, breakfast buffet.

Because you could not take the fooditems you would like to have from the buffet yourself, you had to wait for a staff member to take it for you, no problem at all if there where enough hands to help, actually there was only one lady picking food for all guests, it took forever before you could sit down with your breakfast.

No cutlery, no tablecloths.

We noticed that the missing staff was laying tables for lunch at the terrace, sometimes for no reason because a few days it was quite windy so they had to cancel the outside lunch.

Because of covid-19 the bar was, understandable, closed.

Asking where we could drink something we were told to call roomservice and drink in our room.

Ok, but when your minibar is almost empty and no refill is made, opportunities are very limited.

Almost every day we asked to bring us softdrinks, wine etc..

Not a single time our request was met, water that is provided on your nightable was lacking too, the person who did the turndown service in the evening promised to call a colleague to bring some bottles several times, again only promises promises promises.

After a few days, we came back in the hotel one afternoon and noticed that an elevator and the staircases where blocked.

We got no information at forehand given by the hotel that a football team checked in for two nights and this was the reason. We found a letter shoven under our door later in the evening concerning this sportsteam. Facilities like the brasserie, terrace and pool, among others, where also blocked because of the sportsteam.

Suddenly we and our guests had to explain everytime when we returned to the hotel, who we were and if we stayed in the hotel!

Note: It was the same security officer every time.

One day before our guests arrived we saw on our IHG account that our guests where downgraded from a junior suite to a lower class.

After we told the reception that we were amazed they told us they had to sleep one night in that room and then move to the junior suite, as happened.

Summary: Hotel understaffed, Not following up your demands, countless unfulfilled promises, a lot of staff members are, compared to all those IHG hotels we visited, undertrained, not motivated not sensitive.

There is a lot of work to do for the management team to meat the standards of IHG.

Best...

I spent 3 nights at the Intercontinental Marseille during a 2 week trip through southern France and this property sits at the bottom. The hotel itself is beautiful and historic which is what drew me to stay here. Having stayed at the Intercontinental Lyon just a few nights prior to this stay (which was incredible), I was excited to visit this property. Checking in was fine although I was disappointed an upgrade to a nice view was not provided (I completely understand this is based on availability).

The room itself was nice and the only thing I would say is that the hair dryer was not very good. That’s minor for most and the room itself was great. The issues started to be noticed in the service department. I had dinner 1 evening at their restaurant Les Fenêtres which I had a reservation for. I was seated and the server came to ask what I wanted. The problem? Her attitude was already one of not wanting to help a “foreigner”. I ordered a glass of wine and beef dish that comes with fries. When the food came out, it was very bland. The steak was overcooked and tasted as if it was pulled from a freezer and green beans came out with eggplant. At no point after the dishes were set on my table did my server come to ask how it was. She did however do this for several other tables who were seated after me. I finally had to flag her down to ask if the fries were coming and pointed out that green beans and eggplant were sent. She didn’t want to really hear what I had to say and kind of brushed off what I shared. She told another staff member and they brought me the fries. After I had finished eating, an hour went by and watched as she helped another tables in my area but kept simply walking past me. I got the hint she did not care for “Americans”, which is a shame for a world wide hotel. After 1hr I had to flag her down to simy ask for the check. 35 minutes after asking she never came and was still helping other tables. I just wanted to leave at this point! I stood up, told the front of the restaurant to please bill my room and I had to leave.

Fast forward to my checkout. I look at my bill and noticed a very high bill for the restaurant. I asked to see the bill which they shared with me and come to find they added a whole bottle of wine and bottle of water that I never ordered! Rather than apologies, they kept looking for restaurant receipts which they could not find and finally apologized for the wrong bill and deducted the items I didn’t order. This took 15 minutes and was just an annoyance that it took this much time.

To make matters worst, I came back from a long day, called to have 6 bottles of water sent to the room. They never came. I called a second time, and was told they are busy but coming. One hour and twenty minutes later I called a 3rd time and they apologized and someone is coming now, No matter how busy, bottles of water should not take an hour and a half to be delivered…there is no cooking involved.

Overall, very disappointed with this property and will look elsewhere the next time I am in Marseille. Foreigners beware that the staff may not be...

Overall good installations but below average service for a 5-star hotel. The Hotel Dieu in Marseille falls behind the one in Lyon, which we also stayed at and was excellent in both installations and service.

Good: Location (close to Old Port and Le Panier) Cleanliness and room cleaning / turndown Breakfast service

Bad: Lunch service Dinner service Wine service Spa service / Spa in general

Location is excellent, within walking distance to both the Old Port (5 min) and Le Panier. Kudos to the cleaning staff who made sure our rooms and bathrooms were very clean everyday. The breakfast hostesses were always smiling and very welcoming, a great way to start the day. The food at breakfast was varied and of good quality, but not super impressive.

Lunch service was not so great. It was really hot outside so one day we decided to eat lunch at the hotel after a brief walk in the morning. We sat in the only indoor lunch area, which was a room just five meters from the outdoor lunch area, and were informed that the menu was super limited in the indoor area we were in. Five meters away...These are the types of things that make no sense at all. Anyways my lunch order was mixed up and I ended up getting the wrong thing. The bartender / server was not friendly either.

My wife was served a comically ridiculous "salad" which was basically half of an iceberg lettuce head with some chicken on top. They took the lettuce head, cut it in half, and put it on a plate....what? Even worse is that in France, cutting your salad on the plate after service is considered rude. But what else are you supposed to do when you are served half an iceberg lettuce head?

Dinner service was sub-par. This is not the type of restaurant where one is expected to or should need to pour their own wine. This is France right? They invented gastronomy and wine service. This is a 5 Star Hotel, in Marseille, France, and this is its best restaurant. Again, there's no excuse for having to serve your own wine from the bottle, especially when empty glasses are sitting on the table for 10 minutes plus and there's 3/4 of the bottle left. Just lazy.

One night we were served 30 degree Celcius red wine. I would have refused the wine and ordered a chilled white, had I been given the opportunity to taste the wine before being poured a full glass. Nope, just here's the glass, here's the wine, glug glug glug glug...

Another night we started with champagne glasses on the table, but we ordered white wine. The server proceeded to pour white wine into the champagne glasses. When another colleague of hers pointed out her mistake, she just shrugged and made a comment "they don't notice"...

Well guess what happened? Am I right? GUESS WHAT HAPPENED!

I honestly expect more at this level.

Spa people were ok. Overpriced for what it is. The spa is quite labyrinthine, so bring a map. The pool is quite small, and when my wife went there, there was a group of 10 kids screaming and running around. Not...