After driving eight hours from the south of France, we arrived quite late in the day at Les Trois Hiboux (The Three Owls). I was greeted by a receptionist who, upon my asking if the room was hot, proceeded to laugh at me. At the time, I assumed the rude conversation or nuance was just lost in translation between English and French. Worried, I requested a change to one of the two sister hotels, either the other 3-star or the 4-star, making it clear that I was very happy to pay the difference, whatever it was. With two very small children, I didnât really want to take a risk. I was told not to worry, that there would be a fan in the room. I pressed, and then I was told the other hotels were âprobablyâ busy. So, ânoâ, I couldnât change. Most importantly, I was incorrectly told that the other 3-star hotel didn't have air-conditioning anyway! It did! I asked for a manager to check for spare rooms. The duty manager came out and, without even making a call or checking her computer, didnât miss a beat and said "thereâs nothing they could do and I should just suck it up and try to ignore the heat".
*I must add, when I booked the hotel just 48 hours before, I could've also booked the sister 3-star hotel. Both hotels were three stars, but the Three Owls was actually way more expensive. Therefore, I wrongly assumed it was the better of the two! It is not immediately clear on the website that either one does or doesnât have air-conditioning.
I found it amusing, checking in, that I was informed that this hotel was an âeco-friendly hotel,â and therefore didn't use air-conditioning to 'save the environment'. The comical aspect was the fact that the lobby and main building were fully air-conditioned, and yet all the doors were wide open, constantly pumping cool wasted air outside!
We decided that late in the day, we had no option. The kids were very tired, and maybe it would be okay. After dumping our stuff in the room, we went to dinner. It was the most expensive meal we had eaten in two weeks in France, but better than fast food and far better than their breakfast buffet.
When we arrived back in the room, it was 33 degrees and rising. It was then that we discovered that the window is fixed and doesnât actually open!!! So, if you want any air, you need to open the back door to the hotel grounds. Sadly, there was no movement of air into the room, just hundreds of mosquitoes and the smoke from the chain-smokers in the room next to us, (who were puffing away till well past midnight).
I went to the reception at about 8 p.m. to ask again to change hotels or rooms and begged for a spare fan from another room. One hour later, we got the fan, by which point the room had now heated to 34.5 degrees. The fans didnât help. I expressed how hot it was, but I was basically told that I was just being fussy. I asked for a senior manager, and I was told there is no other manager above her. This was the second lie from the duty manager.
The room peaked at over 36.5 degrees that night!!! , and we barely slept from the heat. We were also extremely worried that with the back door to our room wide open, anyone could just walk in. We just didnât feel safe! It was dangerously hot, and the small children really suffered from it. One of them has asthma, which can be exacerbated by dry heat.
The next day, we went to the theme park, hoping that the receptionist would help or call us, or that the manager might find any solution or even reach out that day. Nothing happened; they forgot all about us.
We called at 4 p.m. saying that we couldnât suffer this again tonight. I again asked for a higher manager. I was again mis-told there was no one higher to speak to and given a general inquiries phone number for the switchboard!!!
It was at this point, after some more rudeness from the receptionist, that I asked if a refund was possible. I was told very clearly, âwe donât do refunds at this hotel!â I expressed that the heat was dangerous. âThe sun shines and itâs sunny; thatâs not my fault,â was the rude and patronizing response I got. They then started to be ruder and push back. I was told there was nothing they could do, and it was tough luck. I said I really wanted to leave. I was told thatâs fine but not to expect any money back! I pleaded and was told someone more senior would call me. After 45 more minutes, we just gave up waiting.
We had had enough. The hotel really didnât care, and they werenât going to do anything. They obviously thought I was just bluffing about leaving. We had nowhere else to go, so we knew weâd just have to drive for seven hours back to the UK. We packed our bags and left the room. We went to reception and handed back the keys, saying that we couldnât sleep here; it wasnât safe.
I made clear that we were sadly losing not only the cost of the room that night, >âŹ500, but also the price of the park tickets for the next day and the âŹ250 we had spent on Gold filomatix (their fast-track system)! A huge financial loss overall and massive disappointment for the kids, but what else could we do? They really left us with no choice. I communicated this desperate sacrifice; the duty manager literally just shrugged her shoulders at me.
At 6 p.m., when we told them our car was packed and we were off, a new more senior manager (Emile/Emilia/Amelia) finally appeared. I again asked for a refund for anything. She said, âno way.â We went back to the park to pick up two toys from the gift shop to stop the children from crying about leaving a day early, and at 7:30 p.m., on our way to the car park to leave for England, the aforementioned hotel manager for all three hotels then finally deided to offer us a portable AC machine. âToo little too late,â I said. The car was packed, and we had just booked our train shuttle. "Why hadnât she spoken to us last night?" I asked. "Why had the hotel lied and let us get this far into leaving before they finally acted?"
We spent a very large amount of money on a hotel that didnât care about our safety or that of our children. I asked for the group manager (Olivier Le Sueur?) to call me in two days. He never even bothered. Just one more unhappy customer. âWeâve got their money now, why bother to reach out anyway,â I guess?
I made clear I would write a bad review on TripAdvisor; they didnât care. They could have found us another room; they could have moved us to one of their other hotels; they could have offered us the portable AC from night one; they could have showed any empathy or cared at any point during our stay. They didnât. At the very least, they could have partially refunded us. They didnât care, and we wonât be back.
Do not stay at this hotel. Visit the theme park, but stay in Paris or nearby. If something goes wrong, they wonât lift a finger, and they will lie, and they certainly wonât refund you. In their own words, âwe donât do refunds here.â Donât believe me? Just call and ask them about their refund policy!
Itâs 2024; what sort of hotel staff act like this?
We spent âŹ1700 at this hotel and theme park. No doubt there will be a response from them saying they did all they couldâŠ. If that were true, would I really have thrown away âŹ800? Nope, only if we had zero alternative.
Thanks for ruining our holiday.
GB
BE