We had a very, very enjoyable 4 night stay at Ile Rousse and couldn't fault it. We booked an offer directly with the hotel some time in advance, room only. Breakfast is quite pricey at 25 euros each, so we opted for a light breakfast elsewhere - also helps with keeping the calorie-intake down!

We were lucky enough to have superb weather every day, which meant we could enjoy the stunning pool area and beautiful beach below. The sun doesn't reach the pool until late morning, but you can still enjoy a dip in the sea early in the morning. The beach was so calm - hardly a ripple across the water.

The hotel design is gorgeous, very stylish and extremely welcoming staff. The day of arrival (Sunday afternoon) it was really busy - it was the last day the beach restaurant was open and so many people were there for lunch, using the pool and on sunbeds on the beach. Sadly the restaurant wasn't open the next day and meant that sunbeds were also put away - but we did expect this as it was the end of season.

Rooms are super (even the city view rooms), which have superb triple-glazing so no street noise. Bathrooms are beautifully appointed, with towels changed twice daily, chocolates left on pillows for evening turn-down service and bthroom products were replenished twice daily. My husband loved the Malongo Expresso machine in the room and a bottle of designer Norweigan water was also left daily - really nice touches that are welcomed.

The view across the pool to the bay as you walk into the hotel is just stuning - it wowed us every day.

We'll definitely be looking for deals next year - we loved it, in case you hadn't guessed!

I was starting to use one of their gym machine and suddenly a part of it disconnected and violently fell on my arm leaving me bruised and in pain. Nobody was there to help. I had to wait till the evening to have their restaurant manager Eric Bruno come to me. I thought he was coming to apologise with consideration for the pain I was suffering and offering a kind gesture to repair. I was so wrong! This man came very irritated and spoke to me in the most arrogant manner asking" so you got hurt? what do you want from us?" I was stunned by his tone as I was the victim here and the hotel was entirely responsible.The conversation went so bad-at some point he even told me that it was my fault as I didn't know how to put weights on the machine!!!- and as he constantly refused to come with me to inspect the machine and refused to apologise or have the least gesture showing a good will, I sent him back to his restaurant. I make a long story short here as the hotel was as well appalling in term of decoration (by the way I have been an interior designer for years a Best Western is much better refurbished than this one and therefore of better value) and more but never mind; what is striking here is the lack of respect, consideration and good manners from a manager in a so-called 5 stars towards a client being a lady of 52 in an hotel whose boss is nobody less than Ducasse for what I understood (though I might have been wrongly informed on that one, really)....

We've just come back from our 2-week stay at the Ile Rousse and we are happy with our choice of the hotel as it has virtually everything you need for a relaxing beach holiday.
First of all, the hotel is located right on the sandy beach in a picturesque lagoon. It has its own private section on the beach with sun loungers and towels available any time of the day even in peak season free of charge for the hotel guests. The only drawback of the beach might be that it lacks privacy and there are lot's of children who are quite noisy and active playing balls and surfing around, but that's not the hotel's fault as they cannot completely seprate their part of the beach from the public area. The pool area is rather small, but very nice with a gorgeous view of the lagoon.
We did not use the hotel's restaurants as there are plenty of nice restautants within a few minutes walk, which are much chaper than at the hotel. I'd recommend the K'Art and Le Marshe where we were returned a few times.
The location is also convenient for travelling around - the train station is about 15-min walk from the hotel, and in 15-min by train you can reach Cassis or in about 45 min - Marseille.
Though the hotel rooms are nothing special in terms of design, they are fresh, nice and spacious with plenty of storage space. A small gift upon arrival, a coffee machine in the room, complimentary Voss water and a couple of chocolate sweets with every evening turndown are nice touches.
The service was really firendly and efficient, we really appreciated the work of the beach attendants and the front desk staff. When we needed an urgent appointment with a dentist, Benjamin, the concierge, not only found us one with immediate availability, but also took us there in his own car (which he obviously did not have to do, but which was really nice of him) as we did not have time to wait for a taxi. The hotel also offered us a complimentary transfer to the Bandol train station on our departure. Such things do not cost a lot, but they are really appreciated and are a sign of excellent service.
To sum up, if the hotel does not raise much their prices, we'd go back there with pleasure.

A week's thalassotherapy should have been a very relaxing experience. The sea water plant packed up after our first day, so our programme of treatments had to be reviewed each day until the end of our stay, with a lot more waiting around and a different set of treatments, not involving sea water.

The air conditioning, we were advised, was not working so sleeping with the windows open meant we were wakened just after 5 each morning for the entire week by delivery vans and bin lorries.

The housekeeping was far from thorough and not at all relaible. Unsightly though it was we were glad that their trolley was costantly parked at the end of our corridor since basics like toilet paper were often not replaced and that at least allowed us to help ourselves. The maid left a cleaning cloth amongst our clothes one day, and when we alerted reception to this, not a word of apology was offered. When one evening they arrived to turn our room down for the night we asked them to come back in half an hour once we'd gone down to dinner. Perhaps they did not understand French, but whatever te reason they did not come back.

You would not expect a 'restaurant gastronomique' to tell you that your red mullet had not been deboned, since if it has been there would have been nothing left on the plate. But they did. However, that was only one seriously unprofessional moment in a week of otherwise superb cuisine and service.

Nor would you expect reception to tell you go go away and come back later to do your online check-in for your flight home. But again they did, with no apology and no explanation, nor was there any sign of them being othersie occupied at the time.

It is fortunate that this hotel is stylish, has stunning views, and for the most part staff who are charming and helpful. While we were just unlucky that the sea water plant was blocked during our stay, the other points do make one want to ask how and why this hotel recently gained a fifth star.

And in case you were wondering, the manager was around, and very aloof. We were repeatedly told that messages were being passed to him, but not once did he make eye contact, apologise or offer in any way to make amends, which makes me disinclined to recommend this hotel until its management takes steps to iron out these minor (not so minor in the case of housekeeping) wrinkles and to treat its guests with rather more respect.