Le Vallon de Valrugues & Spa

Le Vallon De Valrugues is situated in a beautiful spot in St. Remy. Perfectly located for day trips to towns in Provence. The outdoor restaurant and pool are very nice after a day of exploring. Weather permitting, the delicious breakfast is served outdoors (fantastic buffet of wonderful fruits, cheeses, breads, cereals, etc.). While it is all very nice, the original hotel building could use a bit of a renovation and the new building has a bit of a smell issue. We began our stay in the new building and after 24 hours, moved to the original hotel building because the staff was unsure of when the problem could be solved. The original building, while very nice had its own issues - some of the tiles in the bathroom were lose and falling off and on our last night, there was a leak in the ceiling. We do our research prior to trips and Le Vallon not only has good reviews, it is a member of the Small Leading Hotel Group which generally indicates a level of service and accommodation. Unfortunately this time we were a bit disappointed. The staff is professional and knowledgable. It was a pleasure figuring out our plans for the day with Roman! There is shampoo, conditioner and body wash in the room. There is a coffee machine with pods and a minibar.

We went here with very high expectations but unfortunately we met here the French arrogance. We were on our way to the south of France and this was our last stopover before we would arrive at our holiday villa. When arriving we were happy, there is somebody meeting you to park your car and help you with luggage. After that it was over with making you feel welcome. As we went to the reception were learned they ‘promoted’ us to a room in the dependance. This is a new building with its own swimming pool and little outside the resort. The rooms itself are spacious with a nice terrace although the interior designer should really come back for the bathroom design, there is no ventilation and I have never showered on a toilet pot?? Anyway the problem is, it is far from the main building and the service at the pool is done by roomservice, that takes a long time. It is also next to a road with cars driving right next to the pool. The other ‘surprise’ we got at the check in was about the dinner. We are picky eaters and do not like Michelin star restaurants with set menus so we booked the bar restaurant where we could eat a la carte. We booked a table when we made the room reservations which was months before arrival. The hotel decided that the evening we were there, it was bbq night with a set menu and no a la carte. No problem if they would have told us in advance, we would have made other arrangements, but on the spot on a busy Friday evening and after being in a car for long hours we were really not happy. Of course we made our complaints about all of this and when asking for the manager the first reaction was that she also couldn’t do anything about it. She did call us and offered a room in the main building but by then we were already to tired of having to fight over everything and decided to leave it as it is and order room service. And credits for the lady of the room service, she was quick and very friendly all the time! Overall we are not going back, for us it felt like it is not about our needs, you just have to take it their way and that is not our way of celebrating holidays.

The rooms and service in the hotel certainly don’t do justice to the restaurant, which is very good. Service in the hotel (reception and rooms) is no better than any 3 star hotel even though they charge 5 star prices! The rooms are very small and basically furnished (like 70’s flatpack) and badly in need of updating. The safety box was Iccked when we arrived and they still couldn’t get it to work after an hour; the fridge leaked water onto the floor, which they mopped up when I pointed out the problem but it still provided no cooling; no bottle opener in the room and could only get someone to come open a bottle rather than leave us a bottle opener. By contrast the service by the restaurant staff was very good and the food was very good value for a Michelin so I would recommend the restaurant but not the hotel.

Lovely hotel, beautiful grounds and pool area. Large well appointed room - felt small for a family however. They were accommodating when we asked to move furniture out to make more space (coffee table, chair etc). We only stayed a couple of nights before moving to a villa but it was in a great location in a beautiful part of France!