Hôtel de Toiras

All. The property, the location and the staff

Nothing

The reception staff were excellent, very friendly, welcoming and helpful. The location next to the harbour in Saint Martin de Ré is really nice. The decor is beautiful. Great shower

This was a special anniversary for us and we paid a lot of money (way more than we would normally pay) for a 5 star hotel, hoping for an amazing experience. This is a very nice hotel but for a 5 star establishment we expected something outstanding. Small things let it down such as an unpleasant odour in the landing outside our room; dirty glasses left behind after the daily room service; when we asked the night service staff to provide fresh tea cups, they simply rinsed the dirty ones in the bathroom sink; noisy plumbing; and the most infuriating light switches that appeared to be completely random as to which lights they would turn on or off! Our booking confirmation promised a bath but that was non existent although the shower was very good.

The hotel is in a prime position as it overlooks the small marina. The resort itself is very laid back as most people either walk or use cycles to get around preferring to park their car up for the period of their stay, this impact makes for a very family friendly vibe with lots of well behaved dogs, children and babies in push chairs, parents and grand parents; We simply loved it and this small town is very welcoming and restaurants and shops are reasonably priced and the town is clean and vibrant and utterly charming. The hotel is beautifully and tastefully decorated, is extremely clean. and the staff are really wonderful, very attentive and caring. If you have mobility issues you would need to carefully consider reserving a ground floor room which are easily accessible and all the staff are very willing to help you. The upper rooms are a little more tricky to access but all of the bedrooms and public rooms are beautifully decorated with little welcoming touches. We loved the fact that whilst there is no pool directly accessible to this hotel, there is one at the sister hotel five minutes walk away, once again furnished immaculately with staff equally as welcoming to guests.

This seems a little picky, but this is a five star hotel, so one expect certain things. On our first night we had reserved a table in the hotel restaurant. It seemed rather disorganised. Normally in French restaurants when you ask for a bottle or carafe of water it is brought and left on your table, at this restaurant it is served by the glass and you have to ask for it. We prefer still water so when we asked for a refill I received the little that was left in the bottle which was gazeuse. The refill never came and when the bread finally arrived it was far too late. As the old adage goes you only get one chance to make a first impression and our first impression was not particularly good. The restaurant staff need to understand (because the other members of staff do) whilst it is a laid back village environment there is a difference between being smart casual and being scruffy; It just left us feeling a little deflated as this was a special trip for us.

Location

No soap to wash hands. Had to use shower gel. We asked for soap bit got none. Room was not cleaned until we asked at 4.30pm and had to wait for our post cycle shower. No apology.