Hostellerie La Montagne — Restaurant in Chaumont

Enthousiastic to book a michelin star restaurant with accommodation on our way to the south of France. Must admit it was quite a detour but it was worth close to a thousand euro’s to me to have a splendid meal with my wife and two kids and a good nights rest. I looked this place up on booking but was not able to figure out how to book a table as well. So I called : no one to pick up the phone… mm weird. So I booked two rooms using booking and asked as part of the reservation if we could get a table for the four of us. We got confirmation back. All good : we could eat there as well! table for 4 : Lovely! Also a confirmation on the rooms. What could possibly go wrong. At day of arrival, we left early as it was quite a drive. And after several hours in the car in the stunning environment of the Champagne, we arrived. Not really clear where to park the car. But found a spot nonetheless. When we arrived, a young man in fashionable outfit asked us if we reserved. We did! And I proudly showed him my reservation as my french is not so great. The young man searched and searched, asked me several questions, asked his boss (who was upstairs and only looked down from the staircase) and then came to the conclusion : there was only one room and that it was my mistake… because “I” booked the same room twice… what? What do you mean I booked the same room twice?… I booked two rooms in one reservation and there was nothing stating that it was full or anything?… So again I showed him what I booked. The young man still told me it was my bad and he even wanted to show me his reservation system. Me getting a little upset and told him that I had formal written booking email that told me otherwise and my question then was how to solve it from here. His resolution : there is an hotel couple of km’s down the road. My kids could then sleep there… I first thought I heard him wrong. So I asked : are there two rooms there then?… no : just one. My kids had to sleep somewhere else. I told him no. No solution. I wondered if maybe he bumped his head or drank to much of the good stuff so I asked him again to come up with a real solution. The young man walked up and down the stairs to talk to his boss and I saw some pride behind his mouthmask when he came back : “we can put an extra bed in the room and…” I interrupted him. I still did not hear sorry. And this still is a thousand euro a night accommodation if including the food and wine for the four of us. So I explained in not so friendly words that we would take our business elsewhere. So what to learn from this : we live in 2021. Digital reservation systems work better then booklets (which was their reservation system…). Apologize: I am still the customer : with proof I might add. Think from customer perspective (kids in different hotel?…). Make a suggestion (anything : like a drink while waiting). And as a boss : take your responsibility and come down the staircase and deal with it yourself instead of making the junior of the house sweat without any mandate to fix anything. There is no excuse for...

Enthousiastic to book a michelin star restaurant with accommodation on our way to the south of France. Must admit it was quite a detour but it was worth close to a thousand euro’s to me to have a splendid meal with my wife and two kids and a good nights rest. I looked this place up on booking but was not able to figure out how to book a table as well. So I called : no one to pick up the phone… mm weird. So I booked two rooms using booking and asked as part of the reservation if we could get a table for the four of us. We got confirmation back. All good : we could eat there as well! table for 4 : Lovely! Also a confirmation on the rooms. What could possibly go wrong. At day of arrival, we left early as it was quite a drive. And after several hours in the car in the stunning environment of the Champagne, we arrived. Not really clear where to park the car. But found a spot nonetheless. When we arrived, a young man in fashionable outfit asked us if we reserved. We did! And I proudly showed him my reservation as my french is not so great. The young man searched and searched, asked me several questions, asked his boss (who was upstairs and only looked down from the staircase) and then came to the conclusion : there was only one room and that it was my mistake… because “I” booked the same room twice… what? What do you mean I booked the same room twice?… I booked two rooms in one reservation and there was nothing stating that it was full or anything?… So again I showed him what I booked. The young man still told me it was my bad and he even wanted to show me his reservation system. Me getting a little upset and told him that I had formal written booking email that told me otherwise and my question then was how to solve it from here. His resolution : there is an hotel couple of km’s down the road. My kids could then sleep there… I first thought I heard him wrong. So I asked : are there two rooms there then?… no : just one. My kids had to sleep somewhere else. I told him no. No solution. I wondered if maybe he bumped his head or drank to much of the good stuff so I asked him again to come up with a real solution. The young man walked up and down the stairs to talk to his boss and I saw some pride behind his mouthmask when he came back : “we can put an extra bed in the room and…” I interrupted him. I still did not hear sorry. And this still is a thousand euro a night accommodation if including the food and wine for the four of us. So I explained in not so friendly words that we would take our business elsewhere. So what to learn from this : we live in 2021. Digital reservation systems work better then booklets (which was their reservation system…). Apologize: I am still the customer : with proof I might add. Think from customer perspective (kids in different hotel?…). Make a suggestion (anything : like a drink while waiting). And as a boss : take your responsibility and come down the staircase and deal with it yourself instead of making the junior of the house sweat without any mandate to fix anything. There is no excuse for...

The room we booked was spacious, so was the bathroom. We booked ahead because there are not many rooms.||Everythink was spic and spam clean; The view out of the room was very nice It reminded me of the movie "Room with a view" The staff was very friendly and helpful. Parking was in a large garage and very safe.||||Breakfast was à la carte and had to be filled out on a piece of A4 paper our choices of the next day. Since, so the receptionist said, no breakfast buffet was possible due to COVID-19 regulations. Ok I can live with this;||However, next day, another hotel and also breakfast was served: buffet style!!! and the room where it was served was certainly not larger than the breakfast room in Montagne. Why oh why can one hotel do buffet and the other hotel cannot?||||One minor thing. on the invoice there was a charge of 4 euros for "santitary hotel conditions" - not a word was mentioned when I booked the room. It would have been nice that the receptionist had mentioned this during...