Château de la Berchère

We spent there two nights and loved the location, also if our room was very close to a secondary road that has some traffic also in the night. It is a 3 star hotel and the room size and interior quality is adequate, despite being tired. The staff is friendly however not always effective in providing normal service level. In the morning after the first night the cleaners abruptly entered the room, without knocking. We told them to come back later (it was appx 10.30 am) but when we came back at night we discovered that the room had not been cleaned at all, with bed and bathroom untouched as we had left them. Also, the light bulb of one of the bed side lamps was not working, hence the first day we arrived we had asked the reception staff to get it changed but this was still not fixed when we left two days later. The place has certainly lot of potential but the management needs to improve beyond friendliness.

Really wanted to enjoy our one-night stay here but found many opportunities. Read on and there's hopefully a light at the end of the tunnel. When you drive up you see what must have been an impressive estate in its prime, and you can see some things need upkeep or repair, like the silo roofs that are collapsing, absence of landscaping around the property or it's former moat, weeds growing out of the well in the back, fake grass around pool, etc. Receptionist was friendly, offering extra towels when I asked about the pool (was too cool for me but some young kids seemed to enjoy it). Empty glasses and bottles at the tables outside the "bar" by the pool. No wifi in rooms (or ours at least), and barely worked in the bar area. We were in #30 in the main building, where we also found a broken window pane in the room, a tiny shower that was hard to move about in, and a slow drain that needs to be unclogged. Our bathroom and a sitting area was reached from a small circular stair that was very creaky. During breakfast the following morning the table top at the table behind us literally toppled off the table legs, with the mom holding it while her kids moved their breakfast to a stable table. Breads, cheeses and especially jams were all great, and the staff worked hard to keep up with the guests who flooded the room at once. When checking out i mentioned our rooms broken window to the receptionist who was sincerely troubled by my finding. As we chatted she mentioned that the property had recently been purchased by new owners who planned considerable reinvestment. I'm hopeful for the Chateau's future, the people who work here who have hearts, and the new owners who (hopefully) have the funding and foresight to realize that you can't shave expenses and upkeep to become profitable. All being said, we did enjoy our stay. Just hard to not note so many opportunities for the new owners and to thank a staff that seems to care but just needs some help.