L'Ecrin de l'Ecusson, Loft avec cour intérieure

😊: My husband and I travel to the south of France several times a year, it's a long trip and we stay in roughly the same area each time to break the journey, usually Orange. Now that we have a dog our favourite stop over is off the list and another has stopped taking guests so we used this trip to look for a new favourite to become our regular overnight stay. L'Ecrin looked great and although it was a little further down the road we're drawn to the certainty of comfort, privacy and those little extra feel at home touches. After a gruelling journey on the A9 into Montpellier we arrived 2 hours behind schedule and could not find the apartment. - First let me flag up, that there is no Alex, we thought we were dealing with a private host and took 'his' listing comments as a genuine description of a private home. In fact the property is one of a dozen managed by Eddie and Ingrid a management team with a flashy website and stylised photos who promise much but deliver little. - We are an older couple and we were travelling with our even older rescue dog on one of the hottest days so far this month. When I reached out for help, Eddie asked me to send him a pin so he could locate us and send directions. I don't know how to do that and from that point no further help was offered. After a lot of stress we did find the apartment, in the centre of a pedestrianised zone in the old town. This was why all the apps had failed to direct us in the car, Eddie of course knew this but chose not to mention it. Instead he told me that no previous guests has ever had an issue. We had a minivan, filled with items of furniture we were taking to our house and so the vehicle could not be left on the street. The 'parking' referred to in 'Alex's' description turned out to be the municiple underground carpark. No problem at all but with a height restriction of 185cm, our vehicle could not enter. (CONT BELOW). 😢: These two pieces of information, 1- apartment cannot be accessed by car and 2 - nearest secure parking has a 185cm restriction were vital but not included anywhere. In fact I was told (bizarrely) by Eddie that we should have known that Montpellier's old town is fully pedestrianised. Had we known we would not have booked L'Ecrin for this trip because we needed to come in that car. For our winter trip we would absolutely have booked because our usual vehicle would have no issues and as I mentioned we like good places and we like to stick with them once we find them. We didn't enter the property when we saw there was nowhere to park. We got online despite the heat, exhaustion and silence from Eddie and booked ourselves into the Ibis. A couple of days later I reached out to Eddie and asked if he would offer a 50% refund, a way of meeting in the middle since we had both incurred costs. He ignored me. I notified Booking who also reached out with the same request and again it was refused. L'Ecrin may look nice in the photos but is it all style over substance? A little grace here on the part of this young flashy management team would have gone a long way. I may be an old fart but I'm one who is willing to pay for what I want and I'm loyal. These guys lost regular business because of sloppy marketing and a mean spirit. BOOK WITH CAUTION because if anything goes wrong as it so often can you will quickly find yourself abandoned and out of pocket..

😊: The location, how cool the place is when is very hot at night (close doors and windows), the interactions with the host and the authenticity of the flat. Good neighbours, too.. 😢: Nothing worrying to report.

😊: Beautiful and quiet With an awesome shower . Surround sound and a great tv. Excellent location right in the centre.. 😢: There was nothing wrong with the property. The host was very accommodating and kind..