Gounod Hotel

Pros: staff, location, available amenities Staff: The staff was incredibly kind, spoke English, gave excellent recommendations and helped us settle into the city. The hotel was kept clean. Amenities: The pool at Hôtel splendid (sister hotel ) that we had access to was beautiful , including the rooftop view and the drinks were tasty. Location: Gounod was close enough to walk to the shops, the train, the restaurants, the mountain, and the beach. However, we did average about 7 miles a day in walking. Cons: temperature, accessibility, comfortability- Nothing that can’t be adapted for or was a deal breaker for us. Temperature: it was 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit throughout our stay. The “air conditioning” is not American air conditioning. It was a the same as putting the “auto” fan on your home furnace/ AC with no coolant in the AC. Just air. We found out that that’s what the French mean when they say air conditioned. There will be air. It will not be cold. You’re not in North America. You will be ok. To help make our room less uncomfortable, we kept the patio door open when we were in our room. This worked nicely with the green shutters which we could shut for privacy while still getting a little breeze. However, there was road construction on Rue Gounod and all night it sounded like cats being tortured as the concrete was being ground down beneath our window. Not hotels fault- just an unfortunate consequence was restless hot nights with windows closed to keep out construction noise. Bed: The bed is was comfortable enough to be able to fall sleep but not comfortable enough to feel rested or awaken without pains. I’m 31. Breakfast: 14€ each and was about the same price if we went to any other neighborhood restaurant so we went out ( fresh smoothies and pastries down the block) instead of getting the standard underwhelming continental breakfast at the hotel. Overview: This is an older hotel and is relatively close to the city center, train station, and beach. It’s also priced accordingly in comparison to nearby hotels. It does the job. Comfortable enough. Close enough. Cheap enough. Cute enough. Clean enough. Think Days Inn or maybe a La Quinta type of experience. Not going to ruin your trip but probably not a highlight. I would recommend it to: - adventurous pals - young people looking for basic lodging - anyone who is working within a budget and looking for something close to town, is able bodied and ready to explore the city on foot. I would not recommend to: - my parents - fancy people who can’t hang - people looking for a honeymoon suite( oops!) - anyone with heat intolerance - anyone who has mobility issues. There is an elevator to go up and down stairs but it was very small definitely not ADA compliant. If you have limited mobility I would look for a different city altogether unless you want to stay in one place and travel exclusively by taxi and train.

Can not be worse... If you book the hotel Gounod be prepared the friendliest permanent member of the hotel, mr bedbug will welcome you and jump on you a number of times at night. You will be swollen so you can fly away like a balloon without taking your flight back. I have read many many reviews about the hotel and now I realize that the information is monitored and deleted. We have stayed only 3 nights and we had an awful experience with a monster size bedbugs. As antique specialists, we can estimate the furniture and the carpet in the hotel are up to 50 years old. Because the management does not want to renew and refurbish the hotel the bedbugs are living there forever as a result of their ignorance. You can also feel the smell of mold and sneeze many times because of the condition of the furniture and the dust that can not be cleaned by the diligent cleaners. We appreciate our clothes were cleaned and the stuff tried to be very helpful, however the value of all these efforts goes to zero after adding to it the presence of bedbugs and the condition of the hotel.