This is a copy of an email I sent to the local tourist office in Amboise. It relates a bizarre…read moreexperience.
We have just returned home from a wonderful trip to France. However, our trip was somewhat spoiled by a bizarre and highly unpleasant experience at a hotel in your city.
My wife and I are 77 and 75 years old respectively. We have traveled all over the world and stayed at many fine hotels. We have never been treated in a way similar to the way we were treated by the people at Au Charme Rabelaisien. I am wondering whether or not this is the first complaint you have had about them. I would not be surprised if you have had others.
We booked a room there for 4 nights - May 12-16. Au Charme Rabalesien. On the last night of our stay I went out to ask for 3 more coffee capsules, since we had more decaf but only 1 caffeinated. I went out to the front to ask for more coffee. This was at 10 PM at night. There was no one at the front desk and I did not want to disturb anyone. So I walked into the small dining area next to the reception area. This area was not closed in any way. A guy named Maximilian, who later identified himself as a partner in the hotel, came out and told me he had seen me on the closed circuit TV. I had been trespassing on private property and was guilty of stealing coffee. Also. he said that we were only entitled to a total of 3 coffees per day, but since we were leaving the next day he granted me an extra one. I asked him if he was kidding, but apparently he was quite serious. He wished me a good night in a very sarcastic manner. This is not the way one wants to spend one's last night in the Loire Valley.
When we were checking out the next morning Maximilian was at the front desk. I decided to pay him and leave without bringing the matter up again. But this was not to be. He started berating me (and my wife) again, accusing me again of terrible behavior and of stealing from them. As we were leaving he said "Just get out of here".
I tried to explain to him that the single coffee capsule I had in my hand was one I had taken from our room to make sure that I got a similar one.
I had felt all along that this hotel was a mistake, not a serious one but not a place I would book again given the choice. But my encounter with this twit really soured our experience here.
The next night, when we were staying at CDG for our flight the next morning - this part is really incredible - I got a long email from a lawyer, more or less threatening me not to write anything bad about the hotel online or give them bad reviews. I am copying the letter below.
I would also add that in my opinion this hotel does not have the trappings of a 4-star hotel. The room was slightly shabby, there were cobwebs in a lamp, the toilet bowl was not real clean, the soap provided was tiny and the towels were small. The floors were bare and hard. Worst of all there was a TV set mounted on the wall that we hit our heads on because it was tight against the bed and hard to avoid. All in all, a nice 3-star hotel, but not a luxury hotel at 200 Euros a night.
I would not have mentioned my opinion of the hotel itself if not for the outrageous behavior of this Maximilian person and his lawyer.
Please look into this and let me know what you think.
Also, in the lawyer's email he says something about a children's bed. We have no children.
You will also notice that he threatens me with 3 years in jail for supposedly stealing coffee. I told him that unlike Jean Valjean, who was actually guilty of stealing the silver of the Bishop of Digne, we had stolen absolutely nothing.
Steve and Pat Kutay
Raleigh, NC
The lawyer's letter
Dear Mister Kutay,
I am the usual Attorney-at-Law admitted to the Paris and Luxembourg Bars in charge of representing Hôtel ACR AMBOISE and its management ("My Principals") and defending its interests and rights in France and abroad.
I was sorry to learn from My Principals that despite the kindness, availabilty and gifts (free coffee offered by the receptionist and other nice attentions for instance baby's bed offered) offered by Hôtel ACR AMBOISE's team and management when you were a dear guest of Hotel ACR during your last five days of stay between 12 and16 May 2017 (Booking: Room Prestige Garden n°10), you stole coffee last night in a private part and closed property of Hôtel ACR AMBOISE which constitutes a breach of private property (voie de fait) and an act of stealing (délit de vol) which is a criminal offense punished 3 years-imprisonment and EUR 45,000-fine under French Criminal Code and behaved in an aggressive manner towards Hôtel ACR Amboise's employees and managers during your five days-stay within Hôtel ACR AMBOISE and at check-out orally threatened My Principald to wrongfully and meanly destroy publicly or online or towards third parties My Principals' good image, adversiting and reputation.
By doing so without any grounds and led by a goal of pure wickedness, you would commit malicious activities