Teneo Hotel

Avoid like the plague

I booked this simply because it was one of the cheapest hotels I could find in Bordeaux. It also appealed when I booked because it seemed equidistant between the town centre and the train station, and I was planning to take the train twice so I thought that'd be useful. Frankly, the fact the train station is not too far away is the only positive thing about this place. I literally find no other benefits to staying here.

It was a (disappointing) shock to find that, when I arrived, our room had not yet been made up and was in a state of chaos and mess left behind by the previous occupant. I immediately returned to the reception (which, by the way, is open only for a limited amount of time during the day, meaning that if there's a problem in the evening or at night, there's nothing you can do about it) to ask for an explanation, but instead of an apology I received merely a shrug and a reply stating the obvious that the cleaner would get round to doing it. When I found the cleaner of the floor I was staying on, I specifically requested 3 towels and 3 pillows as there were 3 of us staying there, and yet when I returned later that day, the cleaner had completely forgotten this and, with no staff on the premises in the evening, this couldn't be resolved. I was also surprised to find the room had not been cleaned again by the second night. When I later enquired about this, I was told that the rooms were cleaned only every 3 days (though if that's the case, I should have seen the room made up at least one more time given the duration of my stay).

When I later met the receptionist, I pointed out that the rather dingy and ill-lit room looked nothing like the welcoming and comfortable rooms shown in the pictures on the website. This was also pointed out by the couple speaking to the receptionist just before me. The reply to my query was that ours was a triple room and the pictures were of a double room, but the couple preceeding me obviously stayed in a double and yet they too had the same problem.

The room's facilities weren't great. The shower was mouldy but at least worked. Barely any provisions in terms of shower gel/shampoo, but I can get over that. However, the toilet seat had become detached and had not been repaired, the single bed's frame had collapsed and become disjointed and again had not been fixed, and the television had extremely poor reception and couldn't be operated anyway as the remote control did not have any working batteries.

Bordeaux in the summer is a hot place to be, and during the week I stayed it was very hot. This place, however, doesn't offer air conditioning or even a fan for the room, so just spending 5 minutes in the room made all of us feel sticky and uncomfortable. So much so that we tried to stay out as long as possible, but at night it was impossible to relax or sleep after a day of sightseeing/travelling. The place was also full of mosquitoes and all of us awoke each morning with a fresh set of bites.

The area the hotel was situated in was also terrible: run-down, badly lit estate housing, building sites and sex-shops were all around us. I did not feel safe returning in the dark, yet returning any earlier would have meant sweltering in a boiling hot room. The clientèle were also dubious: one night, we were awoken by drunkards who decided to knock loudly at our door at 2am, while in the early evenings other residents (who seemed to be semi-permanent) would hold fairly loud parties.

I decided to put with this place for 3 or 4 nights as I felt by saving money this way I could at least have enough to afford an air-conditioned room in Paris, for where I was next headed. For those thinking of staying in Bordeaux though, there are much better hotels with similar prices right in the pretty centre of town (and not in the dodgy quarter that this hotel is in) which look both cleaner, friendlier and give better value for money. For some reason none of these advertise on hotel comparison websites like hotels.com and Expedia, so try to find them through Bordeaux's official tourist site, guidebooks or by using search engines. The extra few minutes spent will be worth not having the absoluite headache of staying in a place like this. Sites like Expedia should strike this place off their lists.

Unique Quality: Nothing outstanding aside from the proximity to the train station (and numerous sex-shops!).