Hôtel Vendome Saint-Germain

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Overall we enjoyed our stay at the Hotel Vendome. We stayed a night on the way to Strasbourg and a night on the way back. The first room was rather small but clean and comfortable. The second was larger and had a great wet room-style bathroom. It is near a metro station and there is some noise from the metro system, but we wear earplugs at night, so that was OK. The staff were friendly and helpful. The second time I had to visit the local A and E because of an infected mosquito bite and the young woman on reception was very attentive and helpful, giving me the address of the local A and E department, which is only fifteen minutes walk away. We were in and out in an hour and a quarter with a prescription for antibiotics! As a vegan, I think there could be some more breakfast options, considering that it's a three-star hotel. However, perhaps they haven't been asked, so hopefully the manager will read this. They did have almond and soya milk, but no oat milk, which is great in coffee. I realise that plant milks sometimes get wasted though because not many people choose them, so I understand and don't want to add to food waste. It would have been nice to have a plant-based butter alternative for the bread though. It's a choice for me, but some people can't eat dairy products for health reasons, such as coeliac disease. The free coffee in the reception area is a nice touch, as is the carafe of water in the rooms.

The payment processes at this hotel are terrible. I booked online directly with the hotel, which asks for card details as a guarantee - no problem with this, as it’s standard practice. When I checked in, payment was requested, which again is quite normal. However, when I checked my bank a few days later, I found the confirmed payment had gone through fine, but there was an identical amount that was ‘pending’ or ‘on hold’! This meant that the money (several hundred euros) was unavailable to me until the pending transaction dropped off. I don’t know why there was a pending transaction as full payment had already been taken at check in, so this in itself was annoying. However, pending transactions usually drop off after a few days at most, so I waited. A week later it was still there and the money was still unavailable to me. At this point I emailed the hotel to be simply told ‘we haven’t charged you twice, there is no problem’. I emailed back explaining that there was clearly a problem that had nothing to do with my bank, and I didn’t receive a response. I then emailed again asking why there had been no response, only to be told basically the same thing. A few more emails back and forth and a phone call later, I was told ‘Yes this is NORMAL, it will drop off eventually at some point’. In actual fact it took an entire MONTH for this money to be released back to me. This is absolutely outrageous and the blasé attitude of the hotel is difficult to comprehend - they didn’t seem to think it was a problem that, due to their own payment processes, customers could be left for a whole month without access to funds. It was fortunate that I had enough money in my account to deal with this deficit for the month, but if I hadn’t, then the hotel made it clear they would do nothing other than just ‘wait’. Absolutely nowhere is this temporary ‘double charge’ mentioned. From looking at previous reviews, it seems I’m not the only one who’s had this experience. I honestly cannot recommend the hotel for this situation alone, even though the hotel itself has a lot going for it - clean, comfortable, great location.