Hôtel Mermoz — Hotel in Toulouse

Here is a letter I wrote to the CEO of Expedia summarising my experience at this hotel: Hi Mark,||||After many years of travelling using booking.com I recently had reason to switch to Expedia due to unsatisfactory service by Booking. It is therefore extremely regrettable that earlier today I found myself bitterly disappointed by the guidance provided by your website in regard to the above hotel: ||||Upon arrival in the evening when it was still 33 o'degreees and after a very long and tiring drive I arrived at the above hotel. Contrary to the hotel's own marketing statements it is actually in a pretty run-down area. If the service and the hotel is satisfactory this does not matter much. Regrettably upon arrival I was told at the entrance gate that the hotel had no parking and that I was to park elsewhere. I was told to park at Q-Parking 'at the end of the road' - and it really WAS the end of the road - some 800 metres away. ||||So, here I was, guided by your website that this was a good hotel that I would able to stay at at an acceptable price. Unfortunately .... the Q-Parking will cost me way more than the entire night's stay, so I might as well have stayed somewhere altogether better with parking onsite. ||||Having parked at the Q-Parking, I trudged back to the hotel to finally check in. There was an empty parking space but I was told by the receptionist that this had been reserved, that it was not her fault that they had limited parking and no, she had no authority and no, there was no one in authority availabel to speak to. When she tried to call someone the person called did not answer their phone. Surely, if you get a call from work even if it is after your normal hours you answer the phone, don't you? Also, a hotel should have someone in authority available for guests to speak to at all times. ... Not the case here. ||||Having checked in, I had to go back to my car 800 metres away because I had forgotten something so back I trudged to the Q-Parking in the heat. There I was unable to get to my car ... apparently the regular enterance is some distance away. New to the city of Toulouse I was unable to find the entrance. The woman at the gate phone was not helpful. By now my clothes were drenched in sweat. With no option left to me I stopped a passing police van. They very kindly took me to the entrance which really was some distance away. Once there there was a throng of thirty people complaining that this entrance, too, was locked and that they were unable to get to their cars. Eventually this door opened and people were able to get to their cars. I, too, picked up the item I had come for and walked back to the hotel, desperate for some rest. On arrival back at reception the receptionist then glibly asked whether I would like to take the empty space in their parking garage. Well, surely, by now I was so exhausted and fed up that I declined. ||||I went to the pool which turned out to be much, much smaller than the picture which features on the Expedia website. It is also a bit, well, grotty, meaning it could do with a proper clean. .. ||||In my room there is very little room. I am going to send you a couple of pictures via Whatsapp which show: ||||* a well worn fitted carpet - this is so unhygenic and so seventies - quite repulsive - I dare not take my shoes off. ||* few electricty outlets which are based at floor level so you have to crawl through the room to plug in your appliances - why not place these at eye-level as is the case with most decent hotels. ||* there are only a couple of inches space between the chair at the desk and the footend of the bed - very claustrophopic ||||Last question: who on earth gave this place four stars??? It does not even deserve two. ||||I feel utterly misled by your website. On reflectio it would have been better had I slept in my car at the Q-Parking garage, this way, I am shelling out for a room each for myself and one for my car. The price featured for this hotel is misleading, the directors clearly have no interest in the business and there is no one in authority to make things better for a guest - in a nutshell, appalling ... ||||I await your response and in the meantime will post this letter in full on TripAdvisor....

We have just returned from a 3 night stay here (6 adults in 3 twin rooms) and really cannot fault it!||From check-in to a late departure, the hotel couldn’t do enough for us and made our stay in Toulouse seamless. Spotless rooms, comfy beds!||The hotel is set well back from the road and was peaceful - you really wouldn’t know you were in a big city! It’s an easy 5 minute stroll into the city centre where there’s a million-and-one things to see, do, explore, eat and drink. ||We did a 1 hour Segway tour of the city and our private guide was really friendly - thoroughly recommend it and was a great, fun experience at just €30 per person (Mobilboard Toulouse). If, like us, you’ve never used a Segway before don’t worry - we tentatively went through our training and within 5 minutes we’re zipping about!||The little pool area holds the midday sun until about 5pm and was a great place to have a dip, lounge about, and blow some cobwebs out. We didn’t have breakfast or use the gym so cannot comment (although both looked good). ||The bar area is comfortable and stays open until 1am. ||All the staff were great but the gold-star goes to Miles who made time to socialise with us and share some info about what we could do and where to go - he also related to us on our level and he really made our trip even better!||My only comment would be that, at 1am when the bar closes and you’re having a nice chat together, the lights go out courtesy of the night porter and you’re asked (politely) to go to bed - whether you still have wine in your glass or not. ||Location 8/10|Cleanliness 10/10|Facilities...

J'ai séjourné avec ma compagne dans cet hôtel 1 nuit fin Juillet.||Ancien fumeur, il se trouve que je vaporise avec une cigarette électronique.||J'ai pris la liberté d'ouvrir la fenêtre pour vapoter et j'ai reçu un coup de fil du réceptionniste de nuit me demandant si l'odeur de "beu" - je cite - venait de ma chambre ?||J'ai été le voir immédiatement pour m'excuser et lui faire comprendre que j'avais utilisé ma cigarette électronique dans ma chambre, n'ayant de même vu aucun panneau ou réglement interdisant celà, mais qu'en aucun cas je n'avais consommé de substances illicites dans ma chambre. Celui-ci s'est d'ailleurs excusé pour avoir été si catégorique dans son propos et l'histoire n'a pas été plus loin.||J'ai été vapoter quelques bouffées supplémentaires DEHORS puis je suis parti me coucher.||Le lendemain lors du départ, une femme de chambre est envoyée dans la chambre pour faire le point avant le depart. Elle revient en faisant allusion a cette odeur encore présente dans la chambre. La réceptionniste m'annonce alors que je vais devoir être prelevé de 150 euros pour la remise en état de la chambre...(ma nuitée coutant 80 euros)||Stupéfait je lui demande sur quel fondement, lui demande a consulter le reglement interieur et bien evidemment aucune mention de cela et bien evidemment de ce tarif annoncé à la volée. Donc expliquez moi bien...je vapote 2 min dans ma chambre, mea culpa j'en prends acte, et on m'annonce que quoi ? 150 euros de remise en état ? Je demande des explications, les rideaux, les draps peut être la moquette vont être changés alors ? C'est nimporte quoi, abbérant, malhonnête et irrespecteux pour sa clientèle. Je refuse categoriquement dans la mesure ou cela n'apparait nullement de manière contractuelle dans le reglement interieur de ma chambre, de même en droit, une chambre est considérée comme une prorpiété privé la durée de son occupation par l'hôte. 5 jours plus tard je vois un prélèvement sur mon compte...l'hôtel s'est tout simplement servi de mon numero d'empreinte pour se servir sur mon propre compte en banque (me mettant à decouvert par la même occasion). C'est un procédé illégal, je n'ai pas été prevenu, aucune facture ne m'a été portée en amont ou meme apres ce prélèvement.||J'ai donc contacté la directrice commerciale qui a abondé dans mon sens (je suis du métier donc je connais certains préceptes de ce milieu), me disant que je serai remboursé, ce n'est pas une mesure légale de se servir sur le compte d'un client sans son accord et de manière totalement discrétionnaire comme cela a été fait.||15j plus tard n'ayant pas eu de remboursement je la rappelle. Elle m'annonce aujourd'hui que finalement je ne serais pas remboursé et recommence à me raconter une belle histoire ("C'est ma direction", "On a du bloquer la chambre" etc...)||Ironiquement l'hôtel était presque vide le soir de ma venue, quelle chance de faire un complet le jour de mon départ.||Comme annoncé à Mme la Directrice, je vais faire opposition à ce paiement et porter plainte pour utilisation frauduleuse de ma carte bancaire ainsi que diffuser ce message pour faire valoir mon droit et prevenir les potentiels futurs clients de l'honneteté discutable des employés de cet etablissement. C'est la première fois que je suis traité de la sorte par des employés d'hôtel. Ces derniers ont été jugeants sans fondement, méprisants, et malhonnêtes c'est un SCANDALE et j'ai honte pour vous Mme La Directrice de m'avoir MENTI au telephone, vous m'aviez assuré que ce prelevement bancaire contre mon gré était un acte litigieux et que vous vous en occuperiez personnellement mais vous ne m'avez jamais recontacté et vous me dites aujourd'hui avec beaucoup de forme, d'aller me faire...