Hotel Clery - Hesdin-l'Abbe, France     

All that glitters unfortunately is not gold. Having pre booked and had the room rate deducted 3 months earlier, you would expect the check in procedure to be simple. Not at Hotel Clery. I stood in front of the check-in desk for 10 minutes while the hard pressed receptionist dealt with a very long telephone query. No acknowledgment or reassuring words that I would be dealt with shortly. When the caller had finally got enough information to sink a ship, the receptionist was then distracted by an elderly lady wanting to pay a lunch bill, which being the gentleman that I am, I let her proceed. That was my second mistake of the day, the first being sadly deluded by the blurb from the hotel website: “A world apart, you soon feel at home in this relaxing, peaceful and lush green setting, where a warm welcome and impeccable service await you” For all my attempts at trying to gain the receptionists attention, I may as well have been from another world trying to check in! The elderly lady finally concluded her transaction and I was braced for the ‘impeccable service’. Unfortunately the receptionist took another call, could have been from Mars or Venus. At this stage I was tempted to call her on my mobile while standing in front of her – at least I would have had her attention. When our world’s finally collided, the receptionist was very good and walked us to our Farmhouse Room, “though being beamed-up to our room” may have been more in keeping. The Chateau without doubt is very impressive and our room was modern and clean. However, little things like the bathroom door catch being broken and neither plunge plugs in the dual hand basins working made you think that the hotel is all gloss and no substance. We have been travelling throughout France for over 20 years now and we consider we know when the service is poor. Unfortunately, the ‘War of the Worlds’ experience continued in the restaurant where the 3 aliens on duty did not come in peace. The service was impersonal, inattentive and slow – 30 minutes wait was the average between courses and when the main course finally turned up the vegetables were cold – a bit like the staff really. Having waited another 30 minutes for the dessert to arrive from somewhere much farther than the kitchen, we were about to walk out when it finally arrived which somewhat thwarted our plans to flounce out in disgust. We were so disappointed, for the experience was more in keeping with a UK Pub Chain rather than the usually pleasant experience of the Chateaux & Hotels Collection. We completed the hotel assessment questionnaire with very low scores – something we have never had to do before. It may have been a one off, for we all have bad days but it did meet one of it’s blurb criteria – it certainly made us feel at home!!

What a great Hotel. We have had several lunches here as the food is wonderful but this was the first time we stayed. We were not disappointed. Got upgraded to a smashing room at the top with a fantastic view over the contryside. As it was sunny (last weekend in April) we were able to enjoy a bottle of wine in the garden before a fantastic dinner in the conservatory. Staff are very attentive and friendly. Bedroom and bathroom were just right and we had a very peaceful nights sleep.