Our 2-night stay was great! The staff was exceptional and very helpful to this non-French-speaking…read moreAmerican, the room clean and large enough, and the breakfast was perfect for us. They could stand to upgrade some of their amenities (fitness room, billiards and darts), which is the only reason for 4 instead of 5 stars. I would absolutely stay here again!

CALAIS STOPOVER WAS A NIGHTMARE!…read more We booked a room at the Calais City Centre location for the afternoon of September 9, 2018. Although we paid for the full night, we told them up front that we only intended to use it for a maximum of 4-5 hours. We were a large group (of 17) traveling between England and Normandy and needed a place to stop for our mother (with terminal cancer) to rest while we rented cars in Lille. We were very upfront when we reserved and said that we would like a room for a maximum of THREE people and our bags for the time we would be in town. Our intention was that we would store our bags and that my mother would rest. The children and other adults in our group not procuring our cars had plans to explore the parks, restaurants and street fairs occurring throughout the city. Not only was our room NOT ready when we arrived at 12:00 (check-in time) yet not a big deal, but I received a call while on a train to Lille to say that the front desk manager was kicking my family out of the hotel out and was threatening to call the police! Nine children, my elderly parents and my sister-in-law. She stormed into the room she had allowed my mother to inhabit briefly expecting to find I don't know what, and after having deactivated all keys, requiring all bags to be removed via stairs was quite rude as she yelled at my mother and accused her of hiding other people in the room. When my mother invited her to inspect and indeed discover that it was only her lying in bed, the woman withdrew and went downstairs. It was only then, with the help of some very saintly other hotel staff (cleaning and support women) that someone was able to finally talk some sense into this woman and she relented and allowed my family to stay. The manager then stormed out of the hotel. These sweet women proceeded to calm my crying children, nieces and nephews down, brought them food and drinks and pointed them in the way of a local park that had them forgetting the episode in the next hour that it took us to return with the cars. I can only imagine what would have happened if the manager had called the police! While I can sympathize with people taking advantage of lodging situations and trying to keep costs down (cheat the system) I was very upfront about our intentions from the beginning and had no intention of trying to do anything nefarious. We kept trying to explain this and from our previous experience in speaking with her, it wasn't a language barrier that was keeping up from being understood. She had made up her mind and was not going to listen to anything we said. It is unfortunate that this occurred. We travel quite extensively and I was initially impressed by the price/quality of this chain. I joined their reward program and was looking forward to trying them out. I would NEVER stay at another one of these again and will do everything in my power to persuade everyone within my reach to avoid any of their hotels. Their treatment of my group for many reasons was abhorrent and inexcusable.

Good clean and not very expensive hotel to visit the WWI sites and museums in and around Ieper…read more The hotel gives you a 5 min walk about 100m to city square and another 100m to the Flanders Fields Museum. Impressive sights to see. Breakfast is solid and the set menu I. The restaurant has traditional Belgian 'friet' which must be eaten with their mayonnaise! Culture, proximity and friendly personnel makes this the way to visit all the sights of Ieper!

My husband and I checked in to the Novotel Ieper Centrum earlier this evening. We are scheduled to…read morebe here for three nights. We just finished having dinner in the hotel dining room. The food was quite good but what compelled me to write a review immediately was the service and staffing. It took forever to get waited on, to get our food delivered, and to have our plates cleared away. It certainly was not due to laziness on the part of our server. There was only one woman to staff the entire dining room, including seating people, taking orders, delivering food, clearing tables, and on top of all this, she also had to tend the bar. The poor woman was running ragged. I did not see her stop to rest for one second. This poor woman deserves a medal. She was continually cheerful, friendly, and seemed genuinely interested in whether we were enjoying our meal. We asked at the reception desk whether some staff members had called in sick or if this was typical for dining room staffing. We were informed that no one had called in sick and that this was the norm regarding staffing. It is quite apparent to us that management values the bottom line and profit more than the well-being of their employees. I would highly recommend that you avoid this hotel at all cost until they learn to treat their employees with dignity and like human beings. Addendum: In addition, I would like to express my great unhappiness at this hotel. For 2 nights, we have had no air conditioning. The weather had been very hot and humid. Promises have been made yesterday and today to fix the air conditioning which remains broken. We will never stay again at this hotel and recommend that others avoid it as well.

We only had the pleasure of staying one night at Hotel Jan Brito but we all wished our trip had us…read morestaying longer. We (4 adults) stayed in the quad room, which was a charming loft-style room with the bed on the lower floor and two singles in the upstairs portion of the room. The room felt spacious due to vaulted ceilings. The bathroom was nice. We received free wifi for all of our devices and it worked well. The hotel is old but was clean and beautiful, it's age not an inconvenience (although the elevator was a bit scary!) The hotel is in a great location. Walking, it was 7 minutes from the market/belfry and 25 minutes from the train station. Don't make our mistake though!--if you have rolling luggage, take a bus or taxi, don't walk! The town is all cobblestone and it's a hard walk with rolling luggage! What impressed us most was the service! We arrived early, but the nice receptionist personally checked to see if our room was ready (it was). She then set us up with a map (all the hotels seem to do this) but helped point stuff out so we could make the most of our short stay. Finally, discovering that we would be leaving at 5:30am the next day (which is outside of the hotel's reception hours of midnight to 8am), she helped us check out, arranged a taxi for us, and then arranged a free 5am breakfast for us, 3 WHOLE HOURS before the breakfast opened to hotel guests!!! The next morning, the man preparing the hotel's breakfast was ready for us with fruit, bread, yogurt, cereal, and juice/coffee, and opened the door so we could get to our taxi. This all very much impressed us and was unexpected. We all plan to stay in Brugge again someday and will be staying at Hotel Jan Brito again.

In our travels we only had one night to stay in Bruges. We wanted a quaint but luxurious hotel…read moreclose to the Centre. The pictures of the rooms at Jan Brito were lovely and just what we were looking for. However upon check in we were escorted to our room-I think the attendant was afraid to turn on the lights as she gave us the key and started to leave. The lights were key activated so it took us a moment to fumble around in the dark but finally we had lights, Only to see our room looked like a broom closet with a small bed, burnt out light bulbs and nothing close to what we were shown online. Also who in this country serves instant coffee? Do not be fooled by booking online-while I'm certain they have nicer rooms ( surely hope so) you'll end up in the broom closet resembling a Motel 6 if you are not careful!

From the owner: Voici une adresse gastronomique qui respire le terroir…read more Installé face au chenal de l'Aa, Au Retour d'Islande est réputé pour ses spécialités de fruits de mer et ses menus de poissons (grillades, soupes...). Jean- Christophe Truant officie en cuisine. Sa passion de la cuisine de la mer se nourrit de l'histoire familiale. L'arrière grand-père de son épouse était capitaine d'un des bateaux partant pêcher la morue en Islande. La décoration remémore ce riche passé maritime local. La clientèle régionale côtoie les Belges, fins connaisseurs. Le poisson est travaillé selon les arrivages de saison. Saumon et flétan sont fumés sur place. Parmi les spécialités, on relève un "Foie gras de la mer" savoureux, une "marmite du pêcheur", un "Mélimélo" surprenant. Des pâtisseries maison, dont cette "mousseline au Grand Marnier, gelée de Bayles, et son zeste de cannelle"Les menus débutent à 18,50 euros : Le Matelot large choix de 4 entrées, 4 plats (dont 1 viande),et un dessert( sauf weekend)