De la Fontaine - Basse Normandie, France 

Okay -- the room was small and the bathroom was basic -- but everything was spotless. The front desk could not have been more helpful and friendly. Breakfast was also a bit basic -- but for 45 euros, do you expect the Ritz? There would be only one thing which I would be cautious about: there had been an Irish pub at street level (the pub is now gone), and I would check what has taken its place -- if anything -- before I booked into this hotel. Otherwise, it's good value!

My husband and 15 month old son had reservations to stay at the Hotel de la Fontaine in early June of this year. (I booked the reservations through venere.com). When we arrived (after carrying one piece of luggage, a stroller, and a pac-n-play on my back up several flights of stairs) we were greeted by a cold stare from the gentleman proprietor. He went into the back to talk to the lady proprietor, and then they both came out, very agitated. Apparently, the reason for their angst was that we had not told them we had a toddler (I later checked on Venere.com and there actually is no place to let them know this from what I can see). The issue was not so much the price, but the fact that a child makes noise - apparently they have a special room that they put young children (the walls must be thin), and that room was already occupied. I apologized for the confusion (not remembering where I had made the reservations), and the lady then proceeded to accuse me of being deceitful and trying to trick them by not telling them we had a young child. Apparently, her confirmation email saying the room was for two persons max applied to a young child whose bed we had with us (standard convention in my mind for a 2 person room means two adults, and this was the case everywhere else we went on our trip. It is worth noting that we were in Germany and France for two weeks and nowhere else was this a problem). I think she raved on for about 5 minutes and became very rude and agitated. The bottom line--they refused us a room. They did help us find another room in Caen (only after we asked them to), and while I was in the back working with them my son laughed at one of their decorations. Immediately, both the man and the woman said 'See, see - he cries, he makes noise (I had told them that he slept well, which is true)'. I couldn't get him away from these people fast enough after that (the woman was still yelling at us as we left). If you have young children, I would steer clear of these rude people and their establishment.