Sowell Hôtels Les Chevaliers

“Great View”

Pleasant stay at SOWELL HOTELS LES CHEVALIERS. The Bedroom - We paid for a balcony with a view, and what a view! Definitely worth the extra. The room was comfortable but some little touches could make it better. Despite there being USB charging points beside the bed, there were no bedside tables o… more

Pleasant stay at SOWELL HOTELS LES CHEVALIERS. The Bedroom - We paid for a balcony with a view, and what a view! Definitely worth the extra. The room was comfortable but some little touches could make it better. Despite there being USB charging points beside the bed, there were no bedside tables or shelves to place your phone or a glass on. It was a double room for two people but there was only one chair next to the table. There were also a few dirty marks on the walls that could do with a little attention. Shower was warm and powerful. The Dining Room- We ate in the restaurant one night and it was reasonable enough. My husband had the risotto and highly rated it. Breakfast was a good selection although the cooked offering could have been hotter. It was purely a buffet with no option to request poached eggs for example. The majority of prints in the Breakfast room had all slipped in their picture frames. Not a big issue but it wouldn’t take much to sort and would show the place is cared about. The Spa/Pool – The pool belongs to the hotel next door. Guests of this hotel are not permitted to use it. They can access the Spa which includes a jacuzzi and sauna but this needs to be booked and costs €35 extra. None of this detracted from our stay. Staff were pleasant enough and helpful. I would stay again. Great location and did I mention the view?

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“A 'Rough Diamond' of a hotel”

This hotel is in a great location for both the medieval castle and the main modern town centre. The room we had was clean with adequate storage space and offered great views of the castle from the terrace. That said, the terrace was dirty and shabby. Food is fair to good. Fair as for instance th… more

This hotel is in a great location for both the medieval castle and the main modern town centre. The room we had was clean with adequate storage space and offered great views of the castle from the terrace. That said, the terrace was dirty and shabby. Food is fair to good. Fair as for instance the 'hot' breakfast was always 'warm'. Butt there was a reasonable selection on offer. Evening dinner however, the menu is a little restricted. We are vegan, but we will eat fish. So we found the options very limited, despite emailing the hotel prior to our stay explaining our dietary requirements. The hotel replied saying they could easily accommodate us accordingly. It was just a shame the email wasn't shared with the kitchen Staff. We spoke with other diners who were disappointed with the limited choice on offer. The menu changes fortnightly. Talking of Staff, all were polite but not welcoming. They all seemed to lack direction in their work. Tables were not cleared quickly at either breakfast or dinner. And when they were, it was almost done under duress. Ideally a front of house manager needs to be appointed to just coordinate the restaurant. Most of the Staff are youngsters who we thought were students. Nothing wrong with that, but they all demonstrated there's definite training needed. I appreciate 4 stars relates to facilities available in an establishment and not the level of service. However, the people we spoke to were all of the same opinion as we had concluded. It's a shame really to say, but we'd not rush back to book this hotel again. It needs a little investment in training and a bit of a spruce up here and there. The only member of Staff that took an interest in guests and did shows signs of professionalism was Ocean? We wouldn't say 'don't book' this hotel, just don't have high hopes for the level of service most of us expect from a 4 star hotel. The location kind of wins you over. I'm sure the Sowell group welcome repeat business, or maybe not.....A rough diamond which might fall out of favour.

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“Poor customer service”

We were excited to be staying at this hotel. 14 mature ladies arrived at check in on 5th May. Rooms had been booked in advance and paid for. Names had been allocated to specific rooms and these had been confirmed by reservations in advance of our visit. We arrived at the hotel and Reception appe… more

We were excited to be staying at this hotel. 14 mature ladies arrived at check in on 5th May. Rooms had been booked in advance and paid for. Names had been allocated to specific rooms and these had been confirmed by reservations in advance of our visit. We arrived at the hotel and Reception appeared to not know what was going on. I had to provide the confirmation email from the hotel to prove I had paid for nine rooms. The manager was called, he was on the phone apparently ringing reservations. He did not look at us, acknowledge us, or apologies for the inconvenience we were experiencing. We were told to go away and come back at 4pm when everything would be sorted. We returned at 4pm to find a different receptionist on duty. She didn't have a clue what was going on either and called the manager again, who proceeded to ignore us all again. There was obviously lots of conversation going on over the phone and we were all stood watching this unfold. Some rooms were made up as doubles when they should have been twins etc. Finally rooms were allocated but even then reception tried to check people into the sme room! There was no rhyme or reason as to the way the rooms had been allocated and they did not fit with the room allocation we had booked. One single lady was in a suite, whilst people sharing a twin room had been squeezed into a tiny double that had been made into a twin. In short, the hotel had failed big time. It was pointless making a fuss as it was clear some of the rooms we had booked were not available. At no point did we get a smile or an apology. Finally we could get on with our holiday. The hotel itself is very nice and set in a prime and central location. It had a lovely garden with lots of chairs and we enjoyed sitting and enjoying the sunshine. Breakfast was OK. We would end our evenings in the lounge and order drinks from the bar. There was a receptionist who was downright rude all the time. Everytime she saw us you could see we were a hinderence to her. She was too busy sat in the back room on her phone. We would stand at the bar and she would walk over and just look at us and roll her eyes. We would order a drink and she would pour it, and look at you for payment. At no point was there any conversation from her. We are not a rowdy lot. The age range was 57 - 78. She was just stoney faced and rude. She is in the wrong job and so is the manager. Apart from all of the above, we had a lovely time in Carcassonne.

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