Slow Village Séveilles

The start wasn’t great. We booked a safari tent at Slow Village Seveilles at 11 AM, with a check-in time of 4 PM. Upon arrival around 4.30 PM we were simply told that it wasn’t clean yet and asked to wait for an hour. When we got to the tent, the terrace was completely different than advertised. 1 cheap chair, no relax chairs, but mainly: absolutely zero shade. They simply said that pictures on the website are no guarantee and didn’t offer another solution. We would have been happy with a second chair or an umbrella. Since there were no other tents available we opted to change our booking for a Cottage Premium 2ch. For €60 more a night, this was a whole other experience. We stayed in nr 10, the one highest up the hill. This was quite a walk to the pool but offered an incredible view, long sunsets and stargazing nights. That said, the cabin, but also the campsite itself, is definitely not meeting its potential. Apart from the debatable level of customer attention at the reception, with a few simple touches, the experience would be much better. The cabin is new and nice, but lacks quality and eye for detail (kitchen hasn’t been caulked so it’s leaking, electric stoof is of poor quality and stays way too hot for a long time, curtains were placed inside out, door didn’t close well). There are no activities for kids during the weekends, the restaurant is closed during day time so the terrace is dead and the kids cannot grab an ice cream or drink, which is a small thing but makes a big difference. Overall we had a good stay, but the biggest room is the room for improvement :)

This site now uses dynamic pricing so you might pay more than you bargained for. An example of this we were charged €160 for one particular night in August. We successfully argued this was vastly more than the advertised price and secured a refund. We were unsuccessful in securing a refund on other dates we believe were overcharged. Apparently it’s not illegal for this charging policy, similar to the way some airlines operate. We used this site when it was family run, it had a bar/restuarant , huge spacious peaceful grounds and a very good pool area. This site is now owned by a company marketing itself as an outdoor hotel. The site has changed beyond belief, they have installed many lodges making the site feel very cramped, the bar/restuarant has now gone to be replaced by a shoddy takeaway by the lake serving pizza and bottled beer. The pools which were designed to cater for the previous number of customers is now so crowded as to make it a no go area. Two parasols for the whole area, and the small number of sunbeds always loaded with towels with no one using them. We stayed on one of the cozy pitches which are very large and fully serviced. However the fridge had a broken bottle holder which was reported but never resolved. The showers closest to us were at the pool complex , the water was invariably cold, we reported this on numerous occasions to no avail. It seemed any problem we encountered was either dismissed or ignored. It seemed the priority was for the lodges and the camping emplacements were just an annoyance. The grounds which used to look immaculate had the look of a building site, I think the priority was to get the site open so as to recoup some of the money they had invested. In over 25 years of problem free camping in France this site (company) has left a very bad taste…