After driving eight hours from the south of France, we arrived quite late in the day at Les Trois Hiboux (The Three Owls). I was greeted by a receptionist who, upon my asking if the room was hot, proceeded to laugh at me. At the time, I assumed the rude conversation or nuance was just lost in translation between English and French. Worried, I requested a change to one of the two sister hotels, either the other 3-star or the 4-star, making it clear that I was very happy to pay the difference, whatever it was. With two very small children, I didn’t really want to take a risk. I was told not to worry, that there would be a fan in the room. I pressed, and then I was told the other hotels were ‘probably’ busy. So, ‘no’, I couldn’t change. Most importantly, I was incorrectly told that the other 3-star hotel didn't have air-conditioning anyway! It did! I asked for a manager to check for spare rooms. The duty manager came out and, without even making a call or checking her computer, didn’t miss a beat and said "there’s nothing they could do and I should just suck it up and try to ignore the heat". *I must add, when I booked the hotel just 48 hours before, I could've also booked the sister 3-star hotel. Both hotels were three stars, but the Three Owls was actually way more expensive. Therefore, I wrongly assumed it was the better of the two! It is not immediately clear on the website that either one does or doesn’t have air-conditioning. I found it amusing, checking in, that I was informed that this hotel was an “eco-friendly hotel,” and therefore didn't use air-conditioning to 'save the environment'. The comical aspect was the fact that the lobby and main building were fully air-conditioned, and yet all the doors were wide open, constantly pumping cool wasted air outside! We decided that late in the day, we had no option. The kids were very tired, and maybe it would be okay. After dumping our stuff in the room, we went to dinner. It was the most expensive meal we had eaten in two weeks in France, but better than fast food and far better than their breakfast buffet. When we arrived back in the room, it was 33 degrees and rising. It was then that we discovered that the window is fixed and doesn’t actually open!!! So, if you want any air, you need to open the back door to the hotel grounds. Sadly, there was no movement of air into the room, just hundreds of mosquitoes and the smoke from the chain-smokers in the room next to us, (who were puffing away till well past midnight). I went to the reception at about 8 p.m. to ask again to change hotels or rooms and begged for a spare fan from another room. One hour later, we got the fan, by which point the room had now heated to 34.5 degrees. The fans didn’t help. I expressed how hot it was, but I was basically told that I was just being fussy. I asked for a senior manager, and I was told there is no other manager above her. This was the second lie from the duty manager. The room peaked at over 36.5 degrees
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