Hotel Europole

I arrived at night, the door was closed and it was raining outside. I rang a bell, but a guy who was inside did not want to let me in. After some time when I eventually was able to come in, turned out the ‘receptionist’ does not speak English and had no idea how to check me in. Even though I showed reservation document. Then he gave me a temporary room. In the morning, no one even tried to apologize and the hotel just decided to move my things to another room while I was out. I did not get any notification about this action and they did not even need my approval. I paid 600€ for this service. And should say, it’s the worst experience I have ever had! Earlier when I tried to cancel my reservation, they did not let me to do so. But I feel like I should not be paying for this kind of disrespect!

Let's start with the good; reception staff were friendly and helpful ( especially the lovely Rasha), location across from the train station was good and the cost was fairly reasonable. I'm guessing this hotel was built for the 1968 Olympics and has not been updated since. Felt very Eastern European cold war. Hard to find an outlet, let alone USB. Drab, dingy, outdated. Shower was cold, towels were practically threadbare. Bed has seen better days. Breakfast was understaffed. Had to cook your own eggs, squeeze your own juice and to help the harried staff we bussed our own dishes. We were next to the stairwell and could smell cigarettes when someone smoked there. Otherwise we smelled food from the restaurant and could hear lots of other guests. Dinner in the restaurant was pretty good. After walking around Grenoble maybe this is as good as it gets!

decent, basic, excellent response, sheltered garage, extrordinary staff, off area, a town transmogrified, the Novotel hard to read option, a town that is torn like King John. We had no breakfast, our travelling was swift