Relais de Chambord - Small Luxury Hotels of the World

Beware - this Hotel is three to four miles from any good place to eat. It has a poor restuarant that I have reviewed also at 2* = poor. Add to this that we paid around Euro 1500 for 4 nights in a dire room (14) that is designed worse than a Premier Inn room here in U.K. How it can be a boutique small hotel of the world defeats me! The room was called cosy. There is not enough space to hang your clothes. We and our friends in 16 lived out of suitcases. There is no bathroom door. The shower is OK but very small for the price. The water runs too cool to shave easily. The plug to the basin blocked so no water could escape; that was quickly fixed. The aircon failed but was again fixed quickly. But the room is not designed well. It was all done up in 2018 so should all be working well. The money looks to have gone into the exterior design being sympathetic to that of Chambord. There are some excellent staff, but, many are clearly poorly trained and badly led. Many look startled or nervous as you approach them - no smile - no feeling of how can we help. We were told 48 hours before we arrived that a rock concert would happen from 22.00 on the night we arrived; fortunately it was rained off. Watch this. The next one was being set up about 200 yards away as we left The hotel has a samll private area but for most of the day is hemmed in by tourists on all sides. Their terrace is very overlooked. Sleep quality was bad due to noise, poor curtain fit, absence of internal door etc. Green credentails? Not an option they change all linens, towels etc every day. Breakfast is like dinner - a bit of an encounter with the staff who need more training. It costs Euro 26 and whilst you can wait and go to one of the cafes that are around the Chateau they expect you to pay for it. It was not as good as the other hotels we stayed in and was more expensive; things run out all the time; coffee for my friends was awful because it often came too cool. Tea? I boiled water in our room and took the pot with their version of boiling water to our room, made tea, and carried it back. This was just dire. I would only go if I really had to for one night to see the Chateau and want to get away as soon as I could. Who would choose this modern venue near rock concerts when for half the bill you could stay at a pleasant hotel near the Loire with a super traditional, well run, French Restuarant.

There is nowhere else you can go as everything closes at 6, yet paying £300 a night does not mean you can get a place for dinner! Absolutely ridiculous. Waste of time staying if you can’t eat here. Don’t bother wasting your time and money staying here.

The room we stayed in with the view of the château was beautiful. Very clean and well-maintained. The staff were very nice to us. We ate at the restaurant and the food we thought tasted great, and the service was great.