Hôtel la Falaise

Hotel La Falaise provides a grim look at the state of hospitality in the post covid era. Be sure to bring your phone and subscribe to an international data plan. You will need it for checking in and getting into your room each time. You will need to download an app that didn't work for two tech savvy travelers until the 5th and 7th tries. Curiously for a place that is in love with QR codes and soul less communication, they offer their visitors wifi with a security certificate that expired a year ago. My phone rebelled each time i tried to connect. Luckily, a nearby cafe has customer centric values and offers what used to be defined as hospitality, that human connection. The room was fine, the guest experience wasn't so great.

What a terrible experience! This hotel aspires to be the exact opposite of welcoming. We arrived today, only to learn that we needed to download an app in order to check in. The app is poorly engineered, needed several tries, but eventually it onboarded us. It then required a phone number for access, so we had to pay $10 to turn on our US phones for the security code. The app unlocked the hotel door and our individual rooms—zero humans onsite and no help with luggage. Then we’re in our rooms, where we were greeted with a QR code that linked to a site with more info, including the wifi access link—which we couldn’t access because (duh) we weren’t connected to the Internet. (What are these people thinking?! ) Our rooms are functional and well enough equipped, nothing particularly warm about them. Housekeeping is only every 3-4 days, and replacement towels cost €5. No robes provided. The hotel is on somewhat of a thoroughfare, so it’s noisy, even at night. We love Cotignac. That’s the good part.

Clean and comfortable, but Spartan. The absence of a manned reception desk and nobody around made it rather ghostly. A small lounge in the hotel would be pleasant. Keyless entry great once we got the key card, but getting that not easy for us. Not the most viable route for entry into the hotel. Easy to find breakfast in the Cours Gambetta.

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