Maison Albar Hotels Le Monumental Palace

"We enjoyed this hotel very much! It is intimate and beautifully decorated. Service was impressive and they make great cocktails at their bar. Our friends stayed at the Intercontinental down the street and it did not have the intimacy and class that “The One” has! Too many people everywhere and their breakfast room was not inviting at all. Very crowded. Tables too close together. Also “The One”has a great Spa!"

"This hotel purports to be five-star but behaves like a one-star. To begin with, only one or two people work the front desk, and they act as both concierges and front-desk staff. It is very understaffed, and many things fall through the cracks. The worst part was that the air-conditioning and the telephone did not work for the four nights we were there. I told the front desk people three times during the first day. The best cooling we got was 22.7 C (72.9 F). It was often at 24degrees C. This temperature was too hot for us to sleep. No one did anything. Additionally, when I checked around seven P.M. that day, the staff had not told the evening staff about any problem. I repeated this procedure every day until the third day, when they put in a Dyson Fan. They did not leave a remote or instructions on how to use it. The final evening, they brought the remote, but the person who brought it didn't know how to use the Fan. They left it running, but it stopped working after about an hour. Again, I complained several times a day, and no one did anything or seemed to care. The worst part was that we couldn't phone the front desk because the phone didn’t work. (Even though we complained about this daily, it was never fixed.) So we had to put up with it at night. I asked to change rooms, but no one was willing to do that or make any accommodation. They just said, "Air conditioners at this hotel work like that." Next, for $1000 a day, you get a hotel room the size of a three-star hotel room. My husband and I could barely move in the room, and the bathroom was so small. The two of us could not be in there together, even though they had two sinks. It was like a ship's galley. The hot water in one sink wouldn’t even turn on. So my husband had to use my hot water to shave. Next, the breakfast. The food was good, but not stellar. However, every single fruit juice was watered down so much that it lost its taste. When I finally asked, on the third day, for orange juice without water in it, they said we don’t add water to the juice, but they brought me juice from the kitchen that hadn't been watered down. Finally, it came time to check out. Only one person was at the desk on Sunday at 9:30 in the morning. When I told her we had just had the worst experience and that it was obvious, nobody cared; she apologized, but she said that she had no authority to do anything. I explained to her. That was further evidence this was not a five-star hotel: they have only one person at the desk with no authority. Next, the hotel only had one porter on duty. He picked up our luggage from our room and brought it downstairs, but then he left it in the lobby with no one watching it while he was outside helping other people. Since we had no telephone, my husband had to go downstairs to get them to come and help us. The worst part of the experience is that nobody cared or told management what was going on. No one with any authority contacted me during our four-night stay. The only response I got was when I went downstairs and spoke to the front desk. My husband said, "I feel like we were swindled." We did not leave the hotel because we were staying at the same hotel as our friends. For context, we have been traveling across Europe for almost 5 weeks. We stayed mainly at carefully curated four-star hotels and some five-star hotels. The four-star hotels delivered at least twice the experience of this hotel. At an average cost of $400 a night. The five-star hotels we stayed in during this trip were 2 to 3 times better than this hotel. Many hotels in Europe try to limit you by setting the air conditioner to 21 °C. But if you complain about the temperature, they will manually override the system. Save yourself the aggravation and find another “five-star” hotel."

"I travel alone now days. I do not mind paying extra for a drink in a comfortable and safe environment. I believe the extra price gives me comfort, honesty and protection. I used the American bar twice for cocktails. Only realised 2nd time. Although I asked to pay in euros the bar actually charged me sterling plus a 5% conversion. When I mentioned it the chap said I pressed euros, that was it. The amount is not the point. It is honesty and comfort. Second time he also gave me a piece of paper to sign. Im getting old and hate people thinking Im stupid!"