Chambre d'hôtes la Célestine

Our stay at La Célestine was a real highlight from our two-week honeymoon last December. Claude was a warm and hospitable host at every turn. Not only did he personally show us to our cozy room, but he gave solid recommendations for authentic Alsatian restaurants nearby. And his morning breakfasts were splendid! He prepared us fresh coffee each morning, served in quaint Alsatian mugs with matching plates. He cooked us French Toast one day, and pancakes the next—both of which were good—and the bread, cheeses, and jams were all very tasty. My wife loved the place so much she didn’t want to leave! Located a short walk from La Petite and the rest of Old Strasbourg, this B&B is a tucked-away gem we’d heartily recommend.

I was supposed to stay for 2 nights, but I only stayed for 1 night - I chose to leave because of many reasons: - there is no reception - you have to call a contact person and hope he's close by to come and welcome you, check you out, or for anything else - they only have 1 key / room, so they force you to leave your door key on the common hall where there are also other keys - so no security, no surveillance cameras, no room safe box. I was expected to leave my laptop inside the room, specifically been told I could also just not lock the room door, but if I do it, to not leave the key out of the hotel, with the explanation that it's a safe house and there are only other 10 guests accommodated - A night's cost was 125 euros (breakfast included) and strongly feel it was too high a cost for what the room looked like: the floor made sounds at every step (plain long wood planks), the bed sheets where a dark maroon which didn't feel clean, no direct sunlight as the windows would show a small 'garden' created between 4-floor high buildings (I was on the base floor). Also no TV, and wifi had max 2 lines reception so it was almost useless - In the room there were a lot of paintings and pictures - while I don't like dolls (they were both in shape of pictures and 3D ones) as these ones look creepy, one of the painting was of an animal which had earrings in both ears representing crosses, but the cross were upside down (like a devil sign). Same for other picture which seemed to actually represent a devil, but whatever - while I was talking to the contact person face to face in English about my belonging's security and the key issue, he also talked in French (which I understand) to two house keepers I believe saying 'she's asking about security and the key, like someone could stole - she's Romanian' and laughed to them and them back to him - so here it's also a racism issue, which was the main trigger of the checkout He was very defensive. I only gave this hotel a shot because it's small and wanted to encourage them, but now I am at a 4-star hotel with less money and I can only tell there is no comparison in how great the new hotel is.