Hotel Point De France - Arcachon, France 

Before booking we read a few reviews on TripAdvisor, and they went from very promising to very negative. Boy, were we excited to see what we had in store... And staying there 3 nights we could see that they were all correct in their own mind... 1) The staff: All very friendly and helpful. Nothing to comment on them. Have rarely met friendlier people in all of France and this is a great advantage/surprise. Everyone from the cleaning staff to the front desk personnel was extremely friendly. 2) Location: Very good. Situated on the "city beach" (front de la mer) in Arcachon you could hardly ask for more. Supermarket and bakery across the street, practically. No minibar/fridge was a disappointment. 3) The rooms/interior of the hotel: Weeelll... Most of all we felt like staying in a 70ies-setting. Our room was placed not at the seafront or the back of the hotel - facing the "main street" (which would be noisy and not so nice- )but the sidestreet, with no sun - but that was OK as we did not expect to sunbathe at the veranda. It was OK for an afternoon drink, reading and conversation. Good size for a grown couple alone, and private. Interior decoration something in the middle of fancy retro and nasty, dark 70ies- but unfortunately the scale tipped on the nasty part... The retrolook was not intentionally, so a makeover is overdue. Considering the price, we expected a little more from our room. But as mentioned, the location is very good, so overall we found it satisfactory. We did not have breakfast at the hotel and were content with that. The breakfast room seemed claustrophobic and crowded; probably better suited for families with small children - or so it seemed. Would we stay there again ? Yes, but preferably after a makeover. The first impression was rather gloomy.