Negative Auberge Experience-Opinions Wanted
I’m getting married at an Auberge property later this year and just did a mini honeymoon post legal/courthouse marriage at a different Auberge property, Domaine Des Étangs. We were there 5 days and it is safe to say it was the worst treatment I’ve received from a hotel. Given I’m getting married at their sister hotel, I have contacted corporate and the hotel directly to express my disappointment and am hoping to hear anything back…
I have severe food allergies and contacted this Auberge property 6 months ago upon booking to make sure they could handle my allergies. Upon check in they forgot to note half of my allergies after countless emails and during my stay I was served my allergies over 5 times. I was also told they could not adapt any of the 3 entrees they serve at lunch or dinner with in room dining to my allergies. They told me they’d only serve me soup or salad. If you don’t do room service at this property you have to get a picnic lunch, where I was served my allergies like nuts and gluten on a sandwich, or at dinner you can go to their restaurant. Their restaurant had one safe offering for me but it was a two person steak so my husband had to order it with me. I was told my first day when expressing my hesitation to dine at their restaurant given the menu I had seen didn’t offering me much choice in food. Their staff promised I’d have ample choices and made us the reservation anyway. I don’t understand why this Auberge could not handle a six month notice for one guest with allergies when I’m successfully planning a 250 person wedding at their sister property and have had zero issues with allergens / chefs being lost on what to feed me when brainstorming menus/dining at their property during meetings, etc.
Next, the amount of mold in our room and their facilities is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It is thick, caked up black mold in showers, in their saunas, their indoor sauna’s pool, and a strong mildew odor pouring out of these locations. Their thermal spas had only one of three temperate controlled working and they did not care to fix the other two thermal spaces. There is a shower in the thermal space with a broken drain so you just stand in your own filth and this shower also is black mold city.
They offer a floating tennis court but their racquets look like they came straight from a donation center and they only had two tennis balls. I asked if they had grips because I know how to regrip/fix racquets or more tennis balls and they never followed up.
When we booked they promised their pool would be open, but randomly in April their website said their outdoor pool opens in June. We asked concierge to confirm this given their previous confirmation to us and all they could say was the pool would be opening mid-May and we could enjoy it, but our stay was the first week of May and shock the pool wasn’t open.
They offered bikes and fishing poles/row boats to be picked up at your discretion but could not provide you a fishing pole without waiting in the lobby for an hour. They then will tell you this had to be pre booked, but we emailed them at least 8 times the past six months to set up activities (including fishing and row boats) and was continually shot down/ ignored/promised a follow up and wouldn’t hear for months/ told it didn’t need to be preplanned but then would be met with attitude in person when asking to do activities.
Their row boats were all water logged and only one location could we successfully get enough water out to be able to use the rotting boat..
We had to cancel an activity on our last day and instead of confirming they received our message, they waited 6 hours, one hour after the activity was scheduled, to confirm and admit we would be charged anyway. We cancelled because I became sick from being constantly exposed to my allergens and gave them a 5 hour notice on our activity cancellation. I’d have popped Benadryl had I known I’d still have to pay for the two person activity.
You had to WhatsApp or text for room service, amenities, etc. They never once answered their texts. Somewhat their WhatsApp, and you could wait almost an hour and need to do a phone call follow up to make sure your dining order had actually made it to their kitchen. Room service would come without utensils or with the wrong food or with them not respecting my allergies and serving them to me.
They had two communal bottles of water on the entire property and they would not refill them throughout the day.
Their WiFi would cut off nightly at 9pm with no explanation and we had zero service as their hotel is remote.
We asked a day in advance for our car to be ready upon check out at 7am and it did not come until 7:40am where we almost missed our train.
Throughout our stay we spoke in person with staff about our disappointment, my concerns for being served fish, gluten and nuts on numerous occasions, the mold, the activities, the lack of follow up on anything with their WhatsApp and they just genuinely could not care and would almost laugh back in our faces.
I don’t want to be dramatic and complain to corporate to just complain, but for a 13 room hotel to not have the ability to safely serve food to one of actively 12 guests seems insane to me and serving folks their allergies could kill them. Also seems ridiculous they could not provide clean, functioning amenities as an Auberge or normal communication through out the past six months or during our stay.
Are our frustrations justified?