Hotel Review: Hotel Aquitain, Bordeaux, France
Place: Bordeaux, France
Time: It was an age of beauty and renaissance in the land. All the dragons had been slayed. All the princesses had been saved. All that was left to do was battle global warming!
I was on a 6-week tour of Europe, and had a bit of time free. I had the choice to fly back across the pond, or stay in Europe. Global warming being what it is, I decided to do my part to reduce my carbon footprint.
OKAY. OKAYYYYYY. Who am I kidding?
I wanted to see the sights, live the life, sip some espresso in some cafe, wear a beret, and read the paper like I didn’t have a care in the world!
But alas, I did. I had a budget.
So I looked at that budget, and I made a decision to allocate more of it to “doing stuff” than “sleeping in a nice place”. I knew this going in. That should give you an idea of my expectations.
So if you’re expecting to read a review about a 5-star hotel, I would stop reading now. This hotel is a 2-star or 3-star hotel at best. This hotel cost 57 Euros a night.
We’re not at the Ritz anymore, Toto.
I chose this place, like all global nomads, from their advertisement mentioning they accept American Express — I’ll talk more about that later — AND, yes, of COURSE… the free Wi-Fi.
I arrived in Bordeaux, France at 10:30pm local time from Amsterdam (see my previous review of Hotel Pulitzer) I spent the time on the train resetting my own expectations of the hotel I’d booked.
Well, not the whole time on the train. I also looked out the window, and chatted to a lovely lady next to me, who spoke a little English…and none of the other languages that I speak. Which was perfect, because I don’t speak French, nor any other languages she does.
But we DID speak the international travelers language.
No. Not that one. Stop right now.
I’m talking about the language of hand gestures and excessive smiling and over using the phrase “yeah, yeah”.
When the train arrived in Bordeaux, she helped me find the hotel, which advertised that it was close to the train station.
It was. Check.
They advertised that they had Wi-Fi. And they did. Check.
They advertised that they took American Express and they did NOT. BIG Disappointment.
It wasn’t that they didn’t take American Express that bothered me; it was the assumption that I was doing wrong by wanting to use my AmEx card. That somehow I needed to reconsider my station in life because the credit card that I was handing them was “DECLINED”. You would think that the sky opened up and all the demons of the underworld were unleashed when I tried to use it, such was the force of the rejection.
I will talk about my love affair with American Express in greater detail in a different post. However, at that moment, I thought, “Ok, maybe it’s because there are a handful of charges from a handful of countries. Let me call them and see what’s wrong. This guy, as ridiculously badly as he is handling the situation, might actually have a point.”
If you flip over your American Express card, you’ll see an international contact number. I dialed that number, at which point the voice recording mentions that they accept collect charges. I told them what was going on, and I told them that I don’t speak French, so I couldn’t talk back to the guy using sentences (see the above paragraph about travelers language.)
American Express got an interpreter on the line who had a conversation with him. And the next thing I know, he hangs up the phone with American Express, looks at me, and says. “Boss, tomorrow. Tonight no. Boss tomorrow”.
Fast forward. AmEx never even saw an ATTEMPT of an authorization. They didn’t accept American Express. It didn’t even appear that they had a merchant account with them. I’m not sure what happened. But I ended up paying for the room in cash.
If you are a frequent traveler, I know you just cringed when I said that. Yes. That’s right. Trips-to-the ATM-5 dollar-fee-from-your-local-U.S.-bank-risk-of-being-robbed CASH.
If for no other reason than the way this situation was advertised and handled, I say pass on this hotel. Do NOT stay at this hotel.
That being said, to be fair, and present the other side of this argument. I could just have paid with VISA. 
<Getting off soapbox now>
October 15th, 2008 at 09:40
Great review and even better idea. I had the idea of doing hotel reviews as I travel often with business. Never did it, would be FULL now. Who better to give a review than the global citizen himself?
Nice work!
October 15th, 2008 at 12:52
“We’re not at the Ritz anymore, Toto.” You slay me man, you slay me.
Point too – getting an Amex merchant account is a LOT easier than Visa / MC – I got one in 1994 with a startup in no time. The other guys – well, I never bothered – they just wanted to hit you with charges for doing nothing. I now use PayPal, who take anything – including cash – for a small cut. That works.