Hotel la Zoologie & Spa Bordeaux

GOOD Lovely staff Great location, 10 minute walk from main station Clean and spacious room Comfortable bed Large fluffy towels Good breakfast buffet Quiet room Interesting decor, clever reuse of old University science building with beautiful zoological art motifs everywhere BAD No top sheet. This seems to be a horrible trend in hotels worldwide - travellers should not have to bring their own sheet or light covering. The doona was too hot and thick, but the room was too cold if you took the doona off. Would a top sheet and a light-weight blanket be so impossible to provide? No mini fridge - couldn’t keep complimentary water bottles cold. Although there’s complimentary tea and coffee equipment and supplies, there’s no milk, because no mini fridge No bathroom, as such, just 3 separate facilities within the room. Toilet next to main door, with its own door, but hand-washing facilities on the other side of the room in a separate alcove near the bed. No door or screen on the shower, just a very cold open cavity, next to the hand basin. No soap holders near the basin or in the shower space Nowhere to hang wet clothes, shower cap, or washing. Not enough hanging space on a small metal grill on the wall for two full-sized bath towels - one had to be draped on the back of a plastic chair No plug for the hand basin for hand washing of clothes Curtain rod is 3 to 4 metres off the floor, but no cord or rod to close the curtain - you just have to tug awkwardly at the curtain to close the gap in the middle No power points next to the bed for charging devices Air con control is a small shiny black plastic box on the wall - the power switch is an invisible touch button on the top edge of the device, in the same shiny black plastic. The controls are touch icons in tiny faint grey font, almost invisible. So completely unintuitive that you have to ring reception for assistance with something that should be easy to operate. The walls and ceiling are all concrete and the ceiling is so high, it’s almost impossible to heat the room (same for the cavernous shower space - must be a miserable experience having a shower in there in winter). While the design and decor of the hotel is beautiful and ingenious, the practical details have been ignored. It’s a classic case of form over function.

Fantastic hotel in great location as 8 min walk to tram line and buses outside the door. Funky decor

The hotel was really lovely but I didn’t like the area it was in. It was located a bit far from the city and shopping, dining etc.