Château de Sully — Restaurant in Bayeux

The exterior of the Hotel Chateau de Sully is lovely and much money appears to have been spent on the landscaping and grounds. Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. Much of the interior of the property is shabby, poorly furnished, and in need of updating. The hotel is understaffed. The front desk service is surly. And the food service, though pleasantly provided, is substandard.||||Obviously, this is going to be a negative review, so let me present my bona fides. I travel extensively – at least six-plus months a year on average. During the past 18 months alone, I have spent time in Albania, Portugal, the Azores, Milan, Innsbruck, Vienna, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, France (twice, including 3 stays in Paris), Amsterdam, London, Egypt, and Cyprus. I stayed at the Hotel Chateau de Sully for two nights during a one-month driving trip in France with a friend this September, during the course of which I stayed at 14 different hotels, all of which were more gracious and comfortable than the Hotel Chateau de Sully.||||Let’s start with the staff. The front desk receptionist had an attitude starting from the moment we checked in. There is no porter (and no elevator). The front desk was often unmanned, and the bar/lounge was always unmanned. We arrived in the dining room for a 7:15PM dinner reservation one night but there was no one in the dining room to greet us and no staff appeared until 7:40PM. In the morning, the only staff person visible in the entire hotel at 8:20AM was the hard-working woman in the kitchen. Kudos to her – she was efficient, collegial, and a delight to deal with, as was the restaurant manager. I wish I could say the same of the receptionist, who was nasty and confrontational throughout our stay. ||||My friend and I each had our own room, and neither of us were placed in the main building. Perhaps the room décor is better in the main house than in the annex in which our rooms were, but if so, why? There is no price differential. My room was a good size but the décor was shabby, outdated, and in serious need of a redo. The furniture -- what there was of it -- was old and tired, and not in a charming way. There was no dresser, no easy chair, just one straight-back chair, one very small side table, a narrow table with the television sitting on it and not much room to put anything else on it, and two bedside tables. The mattress was hard, and lacked a mattress cover or padding. The bathroom was tired, the plumbing fixtures were old, and the shower was difficult to work. No amenities were supplied. There is no air conditioning throughout the property, and the room was hot because the management makes a habit of leaving the radiators (which in my room was hidden behind the drapes) turned up despite the fact that it was 68 degrees outside.||||In the main house, some of the public rooms are quite pleasant, i.e., the bar/lounge. The dining room, however, is not. It is L-shaped and narrow, and while it overlooks the gardens, the carpet is stained, there were no tablecloths on the tables when we had dinner there, and the side arm of the L feels like a cafeteria with the breakfast buffet tables shoved up along the wall. ||||Given this hotel’s reputation and rating, it was surprising that the kitchen didn’t offer cooked-to-order eggs at breakfast (this may be due to insufficient staff as the entire property feels like it is being operated ‘on the cheap’), although hardboiled eggs were provided as well as raw eggs you could boil yourself. There were also cold cuts and cheese, hard baguettes, the usual pastries, and coffee from a large machine. I have had better breakfasts at 3-star hotels, and certainly the 4- and 5-star hotels I’ve stayed at in France and elsewhere provide a better morning meal. ||||Dinner was a disappointment. Again, my friend and I, together and separately, have years of culinary experience in many countries, and we both found the food to be overly-fussy and “designed,” and under-flavored.||||All in all, this is a place to avoid. An acquaintance who lives in the area tells me there is an excellent chateau hotel very nearby. I suggest you find it and stay there – or anywhere else – instead. ||||I have tried to find out who actually owns this hotel as I would like to provide them with feedback directly, but my attempts have failed. Even the Michelin Guide organization tells me they do not know. Perhaps the owner, if he/she reads this, will reach out to me and we can have a conversation.||||BTW, I expect there could be some nasty response to this review from the receptionist, who claimed during one of our unfortunate interchanges, to be some form of hotel manager. I have not named her here for privacy reasons, nor have I described our brief and unnecessarily challenging conversations, as I feel this review should focus primarily on the property. But if she does post a personal attack on this reviewer, you should take it as one more reason to...

The exterior of the Hotel Chateau de Sully is lovely and much money appears to have been spent on the landscaping and grounds. Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. Much of the interior of the property is shabby, poorly furnished, and in need of updating. The hotel is understaffed. The front desk service is surly. And the food service, though pleasantly provided, is substandard.||||Obviously, this is going to be a negative review, so let me present my bona fides. I travel extensively – at least six-plus months a year on average. During the past 18 months alone, I have spent time in Albania, Portugal, the Azores, Milan, Innsbruck, Vienna, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, France (twice, including 3 stays in Paris), Amsterdam, London, Egypt, and Cyprus. I stayed at the Hotel Chateau de Sully for two nights during a one-month driving trip in France with a friend this September, during the course of which I stayed at 14 different hotels, all of which were more gracious and comfortable than the Hotel Chateau de Sully.||||Let’s start with the staff. The front desk receptionist had an attitude starting from the moment we checked in. There is no porter (and no elevator). The front desk was often unmanned, and the bar/lounge was always unmanned. We arrived in the dining room for a 7:15PM dinner reservation one night but there was no one in the dining room to greet us and no staff appeared until 7:40PM. In the morning, the only staff person visible in the entire hotel at 8:20AM was the hard-working woman in the kitchen. Kudos to her – she was efficient, collegial, and a delight to deal with, as was the restaurant manager. I wish I could say the same of the receptionist, who was nasty and confrontational throughout our stay. ||||My friend and I each had our own room, and neither of us were placed in the main building. Perhaps the room décor is better in the main house than in the annex in which our rooms were, but if so, why? There is no price differential. My room was a good size but the décor was shabby, outdated, and in serious need of a redo. The furniture -- what there was of it -- was old and tired, and not in a charming way. There was no dresser, no easy chair, just one straight-back chair, one very small side table, a narrow table with the television sitting on it and not much room to put anything else on it, and two bedside tables. The mattress was hard, and lacked a mattress cover or padding. The bathroom was tired, the plumbing fixtures were old, and the shower was difficult to work. No amenities were supplied. There is no air conditioning throughout the property, and the room was hot because the management makes a habit of leaving the radiators (which in my room was hidden behind the drapes) turned up despite the fact that it was 68 degrees outside.||||In the main house, some of the public rooms are quite pleasant, i.e., the bar/lounge. The dining room, however, is not. It is L-shaped and narrow, and while it overlooks the gardens, the carpet is stained, there were no tablecloths on the tables when we had dinner there, and the side arm of the L feels like a cafeteria with the breakfast buffet tables shoved up along the wall. ||||Given this hotel’s reputation and rating, it was surprising that the kitchen didn’t offer cooked-to-order eggs at breakfast (this may be due to insufficient staff as the entire property feels like it is being operated ‘on the cheap’), although hardboiled eggs were provided as well as raw eggs you could boil yourself. There were also cold cuts and cheese, hard baguettes, the usual pastries, and coffee from a large machine. I have had better breakfasts at 3-star hotels, and certainly the 4- and 5-star hotels I’ve stayed at in France and elsewhere provide a better morning meal. ||||Dinner was a disappointment. Again, my friend and I, together and separately, have years of culinary experience in many countries, and we both found the food to be overly-fussy and “designed,” and under-flavored.||||All in all, this is a place to avoid. An acquaintance who lives in the area tells me there is an excellent chateau hotel very nearby. I suggest you find it and stay there – or anywhere else – instead. ||||I have tried to find out who actually owns this hotel as I would like to provide them with feedback directly, but my attempts have failed. Even the Michelin Guide organization tells me they do not know. Perhaps the owner, if he/she reads this, will reach out to me and we can have a conversation.||||BTW, I expect there could be some nasty response to this review from the receptionist, who claimed during one of our unfortunate interchanges, to be some form of hotel manager. I have not named her here for privacy reasons, nor have I described our brief and unnecessarily challenging conversations, as I feel this review should focus primarily on the property. But if she does post a personal attack on this reviewer, you should take it as one more reason to...

This could rate as one of the greatest hotel disappointments ever….||I normally don’t write hotel reviews, but given how bad this was I feel obliged to warn others to avoid this place.|(I entirely agree with the brilliantly made points by NYC7002 in the similarly rated review below, which I only wish I’d seen before we went!)||My husband booked us to stay here for 4 nights to visit D Day sites as family during half term.|It wasn’t his first choice but given our dates were so close to the D-Day 80th anniversary events most places were booked up. |We should have realised why this one wasn’t….||We had a “suite” and our two boys (10 & 12) had a double room.|How a large room with a small walk in “cupboard” area to the side (a rail on wheels & a badly placed dressing table) classifies as a suite is ….a mystery.||The mattress didn’t fit the bed. The decoration was appalling. The bathroom was an embarrassment (disastrous grout, gaps to the floor, stains in the loo, serious lack of cleanliness, see photos) There wasn’t even a full length mirror.||The lighting in the boys room was a joke. Even the receptionist who showed us the room seemed surprised by how dark it was with “all” the lights turned on.|There was also a mystery “spray” up one of the walls – they thought it was hilarious to guess what the stains were, but I was horrified.||The Nuxe Miel liquid soap dispenser in the bath/shower didn’t work which I pointed out on day 2; it was never fixed. The receptionist seemed to sneer when I asked if it could be.||It is situated right to the side of a main road, so if you dare to sleep with your windows open you are in for a noisy night.|If that doesn’t keep you awake then if you are as unfortunate as we were to have a weak-bladdered-Heffalump sleeping in the floor above you, you will hear every step as they pound their way to the bathroom throughout the night. There is no form of sound proofing whatsoever.||Details such as the pen and paper in the room looked more like they had been left by a previous guest, rather than deliberately put there. And obviously any attentiveness such as checking the pen actually worked was considered too much.||We decided to have a glass of wine and a cheese plate having returned from dinner one evening. The cheese plate presentation was on a par with the bed making; utterly substandard and clearly done by someone who just didn’t give a damn.||A lovely lady occasionally appeared at breakfast, but was the only member of staff we encountered who smiled. ||Given the unimpressive level of breakfast (I suspect the croissants come out of packets and the congealed scrambled eggs would likely have been rejected by a starving animal) we decided to avoid eating dinner here at all costs – instead chose to go either into Bayeux or Port en Bessin down the road.||The garden area is lovely and we decided to sit out in the deckchairs to take advantage of a brief spell of sunshine; only to find that every single one had bird poo on it. |The birds had clearly taken exacting their duty far more seriously than the largely non-existent staff.||To add salt to the wound it is HEINOUSLY overpriced for what it is. (Luckily for them, we had already left when my husband told me what the bill was or I would’ve turned around and asked for some money back).|Had I known breakfast would be supplementary to the criminal room charge I would have escaped to a local cafe each morning without a doubt.||It’s basic Holiday Inn level, at best, concealed within a deceptively lovely exterior.||It needs someone to come in & take over to throw some money at it because given the exterior it could be SO much better. |It’s been done on a shoe string of a budget and it shows.||All in all - I advise you to stay anywhere else you can,...