L'Auberge de la Mer — Hotel in Batroun

Our expectations as per the reviews & the location were really high. Sadly, only the latter was faithful; || ||We stayed there for 2 nights; The premises are really charming; It is an old house with several rooms displayed on 2 floors with a small Jacuzzi & bar at the rooftop; The bedrooms are nice; Bathroom is separated from the room with a glass door. Beds are comfortable (yet some of them feature small beds of 160cm), staff is kind. The breakfast is good & varied in a pleasant room overlooking the sea.||Yet it all ends here..||||Toiletries were poor & many shower bottles were used & left for use. Some of the bathroom towels were really tired. Cleanliness was not at the top as well. ||Common areas were hot (No AC on) and the main issue was the air conditioning in the rooms; the first night we faced an annoying water drop sound from the AC so we changed room; Unfortunately, we faced a far worse thing in the second one. An awful smell coming from the AC duct & probably from the fish restaurant underneath. The staff did their best to put nice smell in the room & ventilate it yet it kept always coming back once the AC is on; At the end, we were in a hurry to leave the place due to the discomfort we faced in it.||||The lack of Lebanese generous hospitality that you usually expect in this kind of boutique hotel, the lack of reaction & professionalism to deal with clients in the presence of owners & the misguidance at the time of the booking were so deceiving that our stay turned out to be total a flop. ||There is a huge room for improvement in order to meet at least the expensive rates requested; ||Would definitely...

Let's put things into perspective, you don't stay in boutique hotels to expect 5 stars, you stay in boutique hotels to get the experience of living locally and this hotel did just that for me. The safety and security and the friendliness of the staff was next level, a true authentic experience of the warmth and hospitality of Lebanon, from the reception to the homemade breakfast even right down to the cleaners and maintenance, this hotel not only gave me a glimpse into life in Batroun with fantastic location, it gave me an insight to the unity and the hospitality of the Lebanese's people, everyone always eager to help and accomodate any request and a absolute god sent by far was Maroon, a young and handsome local man that works here took me under his wing when he found out that I was going to be here beyond my friends stay for a week, I will always be grateful for our time spent together and how much he showed me around and our conversations on the balcony, there was not a stone left unturned for the safety and security and hospitality that he showed me. I feel like I'm leaving a family member behind. If you want a shallow resort style accomodation with all bells and whistles don't stay here but if you want to immerse yourself in the culture of this beautiful country, experiencing is authenticity then I couldn't recommend any other place. The hotel was clean, not one bad smell or underrated level of service at all and I should know as over the 3 weeks I stayed here, I was in 4 different rooms. Thank you to all the staff that made me feel at home and a special thank you to Maroon for treating me like...

Horrible management and reservations department. They make you prepay your stay and then they don't confirm your room and tell you you can use the deposit on another date. You keep chasing them for a reservation until they finally tell you sorry your deposit has expired. (apparently there is an expiration date on U.S. dollars). and I quote: "You are only allowed to book weekdays if we make an exception (our money was not good enough for the weekend). Because on weekends we are fully booked and we can’t do July because your deposit is expired. They said: "you should follow your money, it’s not our duty to follow up with us on the reservation it’s not our money" (of course the 7 or so follow phone calls trying to get a reservation was not following up with our money). They decided t is their money now without even giving you a service in return, unless we take a day away from work and want to go and stay at their property. Our $$ were already in their pocket and they gave preferential treatment for new reservations for people willing to send them more $$.

This Hotel represents everything that is wrong in the tourism and hospitality industry in our country: bad management, bad communication, right out insolence and disrespect, disregard to procedure and horrible...