Hotel West End

The location next to Promenade des Anglais is excellent, but for this hotel's location to be appreciated one needs a room with a sea view. The staff are welcoming and helpful, especially the concierge. The hotel's private car parking facility within a nearby public car park works well.

There is no disputing the hotel's magnificent and historic architecture, and the splendour of the public rooms on the ground floor. However, the bedroom size is ridiculously small, especially the toilet (smaller than one finds on an aeroplane) and the bathroom. The bed/mattress was extremely uncomfortable and we both suffered from a succession of bad nights' sleep and bad backs. The hotel's wi-fi network is not that strong, and service was often very slow or non-existent. Similarly, the TV reception was poor on occasion. The physical arrangements for breakfast were appalling. The available space was extremely limited; one had to queue for a table, no matter what hour one arrived; often the food had run out despite the very best efforts of the extremely patient and good-humoured staff to keep pace with demand; and trying to serve oneself from the buffet was a nightmare. With the presence of dogs in the hotel, we often found the stench from dog's urine on the carpets in the hallways and lifts unbearable. The hotel should review its policy on the admittance of animals. We stayed in the hotel over the New Year period, and were surprised and disappointed that, at a time when the hotel was full of guests, the hotel's bar was closed, opening only in the spring/summer months. Hotel security was a joke! It was non-existent. Any member of the public could walk into the hotel, access the lifts and try to force entry into bedrooms. Overall, therefore, the services/amenities provided by the hotel failed, in our view, to attain the standard expected of a 4-star hotel, and frankly speaking - had it not been for the good natured support provided by staff - would struggle to achieve 3-star status.

The first room we were offered was very small - but the response when we queried this was immediate and we were moved to a much larger room with good facilities and a good view.

There was no bar or snack facility so we had to go out when we wanted a snack lunch -i.e. not in the formal restaurant.