Le Refuge - Maisonnette atypique, Vieux-Lille

😊: Distinctive decor and stylish use of wood.

😊: Collection of keys was easy enough with codes being sent.. 😢: Once we got the keys we didn't realise there would be a row of properties. We tried the key in all as the home was the last property. Approach messy with front courtyard being untidy with dirty furniture and some that looked broken and overturned. Got in side to a very musty smell, walls dirty and floor. Flaky window cill with leaflets scattered on. Bench has a cushion it felt damp to sit on and not very clean. A throw on sofa with what looked like pet hairs. The main bedroom bedding was not inviting, with flat pillows. There was no mattress protector I didn't look to see if the pillows had protectors on or not. Open bathroom to the bedroom which i didn't realise before booking it as I wouldn't of booked it as we were sharing with adult daughter. No bedding made up for the sofa bed, it was hung in main bedroom with quilt underneath for you to make up yourself. We only stayed 20mins to allow us enough time to find alternative accommodation. I would not recommend for couples or family looking for a comfortable place to stay. I wish I would of taken photos as the photos on the website do not represent the reality..

😊: The location is absolutely fantastic - and the kitchen is a wonderful little spot to sit and relax when you need a break from wandering the streets.. 😢: Overall, it seemed like the accommodation had not been maintained for a while. It is a really great place, well located, but for the price you pay, the value for money is not there. On the day of our check-in, I also received a message that EUR500 would be reserved on my credit card. This is more than the entire stay cost me. This was not communicated at the time I made the booking or in advance, (nor was it in the house rules). In principle, a security deposit is not an issue, but this should be communicated in advance - and if this is expected, then the facilities need to be in mint condition. They were not. Firstly, the Wifi router is so old that new phones refuse to connect to it. So if you have an iPhone 17, for example, you cannot access Wifi. If you are travelling on the reliance of Wifi, this is really problematic. The kitchen is poorly stocked. There js no corkscrew (but lots of empty wine bottles on display) and there is one very blunt knife. So while the kitchen itself is great, cooking was not easy (oven is fine so making pre-made meals in there is easy enough). Overall, the flat was not very well maintained or clean. The toilet cleaner bottle was empty, the fitted sheets on the bed were stained, the outside patio was completely overgrown and the paint is chipping off the downstairs walls badly, for example. Also, the downstairs blind is broken so cannot close, which means the person sleeping downstairs cannot close the blind. The one kitchen chair broke on the first evening at dinner - one of the screws in the chair was missing and basically caused a weak spot that resulted in the chair simply collapsing while my mother was sitting on it. All of this we could still stomach, but on our last day we had no hot water. We communicated with the property at 17:00 the afternoon to let them know and by 10:00 they had simply offerred instructions for checking the boiler that did not help..

😊: The location is excellent for exploring the old town of Lille. Very easy to find and right next to the Esplanade which was brilliant for antiques at the Braderie. The two top floors of the house were lovely and homely, bright and sunny with great facilities and good storage. Lovely bath next to bedroom. Nice to have the outside space of the courtyard.. 😢: The ground floor did smell a little damp as others have said, although can imagine with the fire lit in the winter it would be cosy. Our main issue was that there is an outdoor nightclub directly next door. Others mentioned noise from the nightclub but I wasn't prepared for how bad it was - during the Braderie it was pumping out extremely loud music from 2pm-2am Saturday and Sunday. The bass was vibrating through the bedroom and so it was impossible to sleep..