Hôtel Continental Pau Centre

Horrendous. Truly horrendous. I’m not posh but travel the world. In mostly 4 star hotels. I wouldn’t stay here again if it was free. Smells. Dirty. Olathe of date by 30 years. Eberything broken inc coffee machine in reception No cups. Coffee machine in room just poured hot water all over the side. Broken. Fridge in room not even cold. Shutters on wind are dangerous. Is opened would fall apart and kill someone walking past Truly one of the worst hotels I’ve ever had the misfortune to stay in. You have been warned

The hotel was in a great location and there was a balcony with a nice view, but that's the only positive. The room itself was poor condition. The carpet was filthy, and the baseboards were dirty. There was a portable AC unit that had to be plugged in next to the bed and only had one setting, which was too loud to sleep. The counter top in the bathroom was unfinished wood. The bathroom had been recently remodeled, but the toilet was in a separate tiny closet with no sink to wash up. The room key was a large old skeleton key attached to a weight, and you were expected to leave the key at the front desk when you were out, which meant lots of stops at the front desk. Throughout the stay the staff was disorganized - for example, they couldn't find the nearest laundromat for us, and on our last day kept asking us if we wanted the room made up the next day. The worst part of it was that when we booked we arranged to keep our belongings at the hotel until the evening of check-out because we were coming in to watch one of the Tour de France stages that ended in the afternoon. A once in a lifetime experience. The day of the race we confirmed we could keep our car in the garage with our luggage until 7pm, but then around 4pm when we were at the race we got a call from the hotel saying that we needed to come straight away and move our car or it would be blocked in indefinitely because they had promised the entire garage to a large group. I was able to talk them into letting us stay until the race ended, but after that we had to rush back to the hotel on foot, missing the awards ceremony and the chance to see the riders up close at the team busses. When we got to the garage there was a big scrape on the fender that wasn't there when we parked.

The Hotel at first glance is full of oldie world charm, however on close inspection it is not only old but very tired. The staff are really nice, their booking system a little haphazard as they struggled to Find our reservation, in the end I had to Produce our confirmation! Upon entering our room we eventually found a light switch which showed curtains and shutters closed, the room was stifling hot, there was no air conditioning just a mobile electric fan The room cooled down after 2 hours with the windows open and the fan on The refrigerator had a few drinks inside including a can which was about to explode after was out of date We had requested a double bed we got two Singles pushed together Sleeping without air conditioning was difficult The breakfast was adequate at 13 euros Please note there is no restaurant and no room service as advertised on booking .com Parking is non existent In review it’s good enough for an overnight stay any longer and you really need to look at modern hotels with all conveniences Sadly I would not stay again and that’s no disrespect to the staff but aimed at the state of the premises and the owners

Walking into the reception area and passageways there is a feeling of faded grandeur reminiscent of the great hotels of 100 years ago. However the bedroom and breakfast room were all clean and modern. Our room was of good size with a long wall table giving plenty of space for laptops etc. Initially there was only one chair but a second was quickly provided on request. Breakfast was excellent with a lot of choice. Outstanding above all was the friendly and helpful attitude of the staff – day reception, evening reception, breakfast room – all of them. With two nights bed and breakfast for two and underground parking in their car park next door the cost was €201 which we felt was very good value.