Abbaye de la Bussière

Let us be clear: the setting and surroundings are truly exceptional, this is after all a refurbished medieval monastery. The hotel has been redecorated in a neo-gothic style, sometimes a bit over-the-top Hollywood style but it remains impressive. It is part of the 'Relais & Chateaux' offerings. You can dine in the gastronomic restaurant but better reserve in advance, it looks like groups of tourists are welcomed too. The domain is very nice with a little lake, poneys walk freely round the premises. The staff is overall friendly but when we arrived it was raining cats and dogs and no one came out to help us get our suitcases out of the car. We got totally soaked. At least umbrellas would have been welcome. Although we had booked a 'superior' room, the room itself was a big disappointment: the room did not correspond at all at the pictures shown on their site, we were located under the tiles in a small room and often hit our heads to wooden bearings of the ceiling. The carpet was simply filthy and one of the roofwindows had clearly not been cleaned for months: mold and fungus were building up on the outer side of the window. Half of the spots in the ceiling did not work so it was pretty dark to find our way around. If we wanted to take a shower then we had to crawl in the jacuzzi (a nest of bacteria) and we could hardy stand up with the faucet being on the other side out of reach. There was also a slight but very present distinctive scent of the sewers in the bathroom. No individual flasks with shampoo or shower gel, only these kind of cheap push-button containers that you find in budget hotels. The safe was located down at the bottom of the wardrobe so you had to lay on your belly to get your valuables stored. We are very disappointed: in the 80's and 90's Relais and Chateaux was a guarantee for fine hotel staying: this seems to be no longer the case. Been there, never again. Take a look at our pictures.

Food was really great and the parc is amazing. The service is good and the staff very helpful. A ploace to come again and again.

My wife and I are regular guests of many Relais & Chateaux Hotels. My identification client code is RCXXXXXX41. Most of our reservations are directly managed with the hotels and we spend every year one or more SPA holidays at the fantastic R&C Hotel Singer at Berwang in Austria. Our complaint is for the Abbaye de la Bussiere in France. Our booking was done through R&C web site for 03 nights with check in on March 7th, 2024, and check out on March 10th, 2024. Already the reservation procedure in January 2024 was difficult and we had to send multiple mails to obtain an answer from the hotel. The hotel required a full prepayment which we did. First impression for the location was breathtaking for the beauty of gardens, the sounds of running waters, the splendid architecture. Unfortunately, this feeling vanished very soon. The reception desk assistant was not very friendly, formal, and red tape. No help for our luggage was offered, no welcome drink. The main disappointment was the room (cost with breakfast and pet supplement € 400.00 per night. The furnishing was different from the web site pictures: for example, only one armchair instead of two. The room was dirty and with the presence of spiders and other insects. The bathroom - difficult to describe as a bathroom - was old and dirty and in lack of any comfort. The furniture was all in terrible conditions: scratched, stained, and mostly broken as showed in the attached photos. The soundproofing was simply not existing because the door was old and with the four sides detached from the external wall for many millimeters. The room was cold because of the inadequate door. The windows were old and scratched and without double glass, not offering protection against freezing weather. We asked a room change, but the receptionist said that no other room was available due to the renovation works in hotel. Manz workers were always around with vans and materials deliveries. The Restaurant Gastronomique le 1131 offered only a set menu which was not displayed: it was a kind of surprise menu that was not acceptable for us. We dined twice at "Bistrot des Moines" and the whole experience was quite bad. Service was unfriendly and difficult because the waitress did not speak English or any other language. We had to wait for long to get the menus and wine list. Mise en place was modest and poor with plastic/rubber sets sticky and untidy. Menu a la cart offered an extremely limited choice - two main courses only - and the food quality was average, certainly not on R & C level. Breakfast was basic and service as always inefficient and terribly slow: we had to search for waiters to get a cup of coffee or a bread roll. No choice for many items like marmalade. Overall, a negative experience, which disappointed us. The Abbaye de la Bussiere does not deserve a R & C membership and we do hope that it will be cancelled from the hotel list in a near future