Chateau L Hospitalet Wine Resort and Spa

What a disappointment. It lacks heart. Warmth. Avoid the beach restaurant. The place is an attempt at a genuine French wine chateau experience which fails. Accordingly overpriced for the experience but they get away with it through good marketing and an enchanting scenery. Much better options out there

We booked this stay many months in advance as a 2 night country retreat between city breaks. The welcome email about a week before arrival advised us that their Michelin starred restaurant was fully booked for the duration of our stay. It would have been useful to have known this might be an issue. They did, however, ask us to advise them of our arrival time which we said would be 3pm. We arrived as expected to be told the room would not be available until 4.00, normal check in time. The time we spent hanging around could have been usefully spent being introduced to the estate, but it was not. In the main most staff seemed to have far more interesting things to do than look after guests. When we finally got into the room it was very nice, as was dinner at the beach that evening. During our stay the chateau was very busy preparing for a big weekend. A huge semi permanent marquee was being constructed and the place was overrun with construction workers who used the pool washroom facilities and had lunch in the soft seating areas. The strong feeling was that the guests there at the time were a distant second priority to the upcoming wedding. The marquee construction was in front of the pool and there was zero acknowledgment that some people we’re trying to enjoy a quiet time. There were numerous examples of lack of attention to detail expected of a five star hotel and generally little evidence of management on the ground. At no time over 2 days did anyone come down to the pool area just to make sure everything was ok and at no time did anyone enquire as to whether we we’re having a good stay. Two positive notes to finish on. The barman in the jazz bar was delightful and we were presented with some lovely wine as an apology for the delay in getting into our room. A nice gesture which was thoughtful but not thought through (we are flying back to UK with little spare baggage allowance). Takeaways. The basis for an excellent resort is there but management needs to pay attention to the little things and engage with guests at the time when things go wrong. No doubt the response will be “why didn’t you tell us”. The answer is it’s your job to check. I never normally give bad reviews so I hope this is useful to the hotel and prospective guests.

A lovely estate with lots of things to discover and do (walk the vineyards, discover the viewing point over the estate and local area, pool, gym, spa, bar, etc.) but the place falls short of being a 5 star experience. The entrance section of the hotel was being remodelled so you were greeted by a building site which didn't leave a great first impression - no apology or advance warning of this by email or staff. Rooms and facilities up to latest standard; we really enjoyed view and stay in a Junior Suite and exploring the wine cellar/tasting room was a great experience. Dinner on site sadly somewhat disappointing - restaurant worryingly understaffed with 3 waiters trying to cater for about 20 tables. Several reminders necessary to move onto next course or get a glass of wine... staff very dedicated but just couldn't deliver and if you wait for 20+ mins to move from one course to the next, you do wonder what you're paying for actually. Again no recognition or apology of what was clearly woeful service that evening. The food was OK but didn't offer any (positive) surprises - both the hotel restaurant and the fine dining restaurant offer *good* food, but not to a standard you would expect given the price tag and setting of the hotel. Generally, it seemed the place was good at overselling itself (not hard to do given setting and location) but the staff (while dedicated) weren't attuned to deliver a 5 star experience. Really torn whether to come again - on one hand we had a great time because of the facilities and immediate area of the hotel, but the price tag and 5 star label were not delivered against when we were there.

I was really looking forward to visiting the estate and having spent 2 nights there i can only say ….extremely disappointing! Nowhere near relaix chateaux standards - I’m beginning to have worries on how R&C operates. The grounds were seriously dirty to start with. The staircase to our room was filthy, the sun beds were too dirty to lie on and the pool was equally filthy and not appealing. The windows were stained and filthy. The tab water smelled disgusting and we brushed our teeth with water from the bottle! Either of the two pools has service or even a bar. The indoors bar is basic - Looks like a motel or an airport lounge bar! The breakfast had a plentiful tasty variety but why have vases with the dry flowers on the tables! Our room - a suite actually - was personality less, no character at all and could have been a big room in a nice 3 star hotel. Definitely not a room to be called (or charged) as a suite. The beach Restaurant is nice. Casual, buzzing and tasty food - service is chaos, waiters are running up and down all the time. English is limited. The beach is nothing luxurious and poorly serviced but it’s pleasant to spend a day there. Overall I wouldn’t recommend it.

We spent two nights here on our drive to the Algarve. Large, clean room, modern rooms, comfy bed, friendly staff. Check in was friendly but seemed a bit disorganised. Wifi was provided but so slow and unreliable that I gave up after little while. At the integrated wine store we had a great tasting.

This is a beautiful little hotel set right in a vineyard in the country, about 15 minutes outside Narbonne. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wines, which were also reasonably priced. Staff at the winetasting room were really fun to talk to, and informative. The high end restaurant was not open during our stay, so we ate at Chez Paule twice. Unfortunately, we found the meals there to be rather bland. Not terrible food, but just not very interesting.