Chateau de Roussan

Overall disappointed in the property. The hotel was dingy, appeared run down even though they say it was renovated recently. In need of a good paint job and some new furniture. The grounds also looked in need of some attention. Did not get the warm and fuzzies from staff. Breakfast was very nice but expensive. Not worth the money, stay somewhere else.

The Château is run down and delapidated overshadowed by stunning plane trees. Room a good size but tasteless and without any style or luxury. Bathroom dismal and basic. Dinner very disappointing, over complicated and failed to match its pretensions. Chef needs to go back to basics. Trout overcooked on one side and raw on the other. Pork over cooked and dried out. Desert a mushy mess. Waited 30 minutes at the table before we were offered a drink. Only 2 choices on menu which means you would never eat there twice. Hopeless receptionist on arrival had “mistakenly” told us the nightly room rate was double the actual. Had planned to stay 2 nights but 1 was enough. What a pity. Could be fabulous but needs money to be spent to justify the room rates.

We stayed one night with our 10 year old daughter at the Chateau de Roussan in July and we had a less than enjoyable experience. Despite beautiful grounds and comfortable bedrooms, we had some billing issues In the way of being overcharged and/or attempted overcharge. We booked a suite on TripAdvisor through Agoda for 2 adults and one 10 year old child, which appeared on our booking confirmation. When my wife called few days before our arrival to make a table reservation, we were told that they were unaware of an extra bed and asked if my 10 year old would sleep with us in the same bed! My wife immediately emailed Chateau de Roussan confirming the room reservation for 2 adults and an extra bed for one child. However, upon arrival at the hotel, we were shown an invoice with an extra bed charge, despite the error being corrected over the phone few days earlier. The manager said that they were “unaware of the arrival of our “13” year old child”, which is simply not true as a phone conversation clarifying this point and an email showing a booking confirmation for 3 had been sent few days earlier Things got even worse as we had dinner at the restaurant. We ordered 2 menus (the a la carte option not being available) and a child’s menu. We waited a minimum of 45 minutes to an hour between each course. Being vegan, I asked for substitutions. My main meal consisted of simple grilled vegetables, called “tagine”, which didn’t even apply being aware of what tagines consist of. No sides were offered, despite a choice of side being available on the 59 euros menu. The next day, as we checked out, we were presented an invoice with 2 extra errors. We were charged for a 59 euros adult menu for our 10 year old, who ate off the Child’s menu. The hotel manager justified by saying that ”our 13 year old daughter ate like an adult”. They made a decision, on their own, to charge 44 Euros more than they originally told us. Then the white wine that my wife ordered was also overcharged by 3 Euros, which again was justified by an “error of reference”. We didn’t catch these errors until a few hours after checking out and when we called the hotel to have the overcharges credited back to our credit card, we were told that this couldn’t be done and that we had to drive back to the hotel. The manager, Sophie de Bouteiller, told me when I asked why they couldn’t just credit my card that their system was old and they couldn’t do so. I thought it was interesting that they could charge our card but not credit our card… She stated that it was a wifi problem and that the 81 year old owner wouldn’t spend the money to upgrade. In the end we had to drive all the way back to the hotel to get credited for their unprofessional overcharges because they had an outdated system. Hard to believe. The worst is that Sophie de Bouteiller, the hotel manager, ended up blaming us for not catching the “billing problems” at the hotel. It seems they were taking no responsibility for anything

What a shame. The grounds are simply gorgeous and the rooms beautiful in this historic house but unfortunately, the experience doesn't live up to its potential. Service at the restaurant is extremely slow and unprofessional, doesn't cater well for dietary restrictions (my husband is vegan and the substitutions offered were rather poor) but what really hurt our experience is that we were overcharged on 3 different occasions (an extra bed, wine and a 59 euros a menu my 10 year old didn't take). We had to interrupt our holiday to drive back to the hotel to get reimbursed and when we did, we were told by the hotel manager that we should have looked at our bill more carefully.