Résidence Odalys Les Océanides

“Nice location, decent hotel, questionable rules..”

We actually love the place and spend our holidays there not a first time. As people write, you get removed from a city life, the sea is nearby, the wine yards are around. Apartments at Les Oceanides are spacious enough and well equipped (refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher etc). The way the vacati… more

We actually love the place and spend our holidays there not a first time. As people write, you get removed from a city life, the sea is nearby, the wine yards are around. Apartments at Les Oceanides are spacious enough and well equipped (refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher etc). The way the vacation residence works is that a number of obvious things has to be paid as extras: e.g. bed lining, TV (remote control), cleaning. One may actually choose between cleaning himself after the stay or pay for it (ca.65-75€). This ends up in that the kitchen or dishes are not always really clean when you arrive, i.e. previous guests did not care so much. This can be frustrating that after a long drive you have to spend an extra time on cleaning. One other recent discovery: our car was scratched on the parking lot of the residence (by a door of another car, probably). No note left, but also the residence does not care: "the responsibility for Odalys could not be committed in the event of loss, of flight or degradation of personal effects in our residence, as well in the apartments as on the common carparks or buildings.", as they write. Just be aware, otherwise a nice place, at least we come back there again and again :-)

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“Very decent hotel in a quiet town”

This was a last-minute booking in the (just) mid-season. This hotel is basically a set of holiday homes, part of the Odalys chain of French holiday homes. The apartments come in 3 flavours: studio, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom. The 2-bedroom is actually the 1-bedroom joined with the studio. There are 8 … more

This was a last-minute booking in the (just) mid-season. This hotel is basically a set of holiday homes, part of the Odalys chain of French holiday homes. The apartments come in 3 flavours: studio, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom. The 2-bedroom is actually the 1-bedroom joined with the studio. There are 8 rooms (4 studios, 4 1-bedrooms) per floor of the 2-floored buildings. All houses come with a balcony, however due to the location of the hotel (400m from the sea) there is no view of the beach. All apartments come with air conditioning and kitchen. At arrival, I did find it quite difficult to find the hotel. It turns out the hotel was not located on the GPS coordinates provided by the website. If you look for "Odalys", you will have more luck. Note that the Odalys also includes a 2-star hotel (l'Ile d'Or) to the west, and the reception of that hotel can also assist you at arrival (there are basically 2 reception desks). In the low/mid-season, the Oceanides reception will be closed more often. The city La Londe itself is quite small, and the part where the hotel lies is quiet. There is no evening entertainment apart from the hotel restaurant (basically only for food) and some restaurants nearby. Its location near Toulon and 1 hour drive from St.Tropez make this not a big deal. There is also a nice boat trip you can make to a set of islands nearby (Ile de Porquerolles, Parc National de Port Cros). My apartment was a studio and the size was good for 1-2 persons. The studio comes with a small cabinet, in which a kitchen is built. All kitchen-tools and utensils are provided (water cooker, coffee machine, microwave oven etc.). I found everything I needed during my stay. The studio and bathroom, which includes a bath, were all very clean. The 2-person balcony was small, and barely gave enough room for the (included) parasol, which meant it was limited to 1 fixed location, providing cover against sun only partially during the day (depending on the location of your apartment). I found it sufficient for breakfast and dinner, however. My booking included end-cleaning and bed-linen + towels + TV + WiFi. There is an all-in formula at the hotel which is approximately double the cost, which I did not use. There are apparently cheaper options that do not include TV + end cleaning + bed linen/towels - I think this is mostly when booked via the Odalys chain directly. Parking was good, and free near the apartment. You will have to walk a bit if your apartment is near the swimming pool. The hotel and its surrounding felt very safe. The Oceanides has 1 swimming pool which is open from 10-19, which is split in 2. I found no noticeable difference in both parts. Although the pool is open from 10, you can mostly get in by 945, after the cleaning is done. Take your parasol from your apartment, there are mounting locations on the sides of the pool. The pool is mostly catered for swimming only, and you must have proper swimming gear (ie. no shorts), although this was not strictly checked when I was there. Then a few improvement points: * during my stay, the owner decided to order a drone company to film the hotel for marketing purposes. I was at the swimming pool at that time, which was pretty busy (30-40 people). The (4kg) drone hovered above the pool and the people to photograph it. I alerted the drone operator and the hotel director of this, warning that (apart from the privacy concerns - guests were not informed) flying above people could be dangerous in case of malfunction. The director took time to listen to my arguments, and discussed this with the drone operator (who insisted they had all the permits, which I did not argue), ceasing operation temporarily. Although I do not know the end-result (in which hopefully security would be taken into account better), I found it very good that the hotel listened to their guests. * I decided to extend my holiday with a few days, and inquired at the Oceanides reception. The lady told me the hotel was fully booked, and no extension was possible. Since I originally checked in at the other (2-star) reception, I decided to try my luck there: there the reception told me (after consultation with the planning officer, who housed in that 2-star reception building) it *was* possible to extend, and arranged everything for me. In case of issues or questions, you might want to try the 2-star reception desk. In the end, apart from 2 small shortcomings, I found my stay very good, and can surely recommend this small gem to anyone interested in a quiet holiday.

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“No WiFi”

I would have given this establishment an excellent overall score, but the WiFi connection in my room did not function and I was unable to get any staff members interested in helping to put this right. Because nobody else had complained it must be faults in my iPhone, my laptop and my Kindle. need… more

I would have given this establishment an excellent overall score, but the WiFi connection in my room did not function and I was unable to get any staff members interested in helping to put this right. Because nobody else had complained it must be faults in my iPhone, my laptop and my Kindle. needless to say, they all functioned perfectly well elsewhere. Since my booking confirmation said that WiFi was available in all rooms and was free of charge, I was told that even a refund was impossible. I got the impression that the staff simply did not care and were not prepared to even check out the fault I had reported.

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