Grand Hotel Dechampaigne Grande Hotel de Champaigne Hotel services were not working, forcing me to cancel my stay, but hotel is trying to charge an $850 penalty Paris, France
For a business trip, I had booked a 19-day stay at this establishment, based on location and generally positive reviews on the internet. Upon arrival, I discovered that the place was really dysfunctional in several ways (a ridiculously cramped "superior" room, an even more ridiculously cramped and precarious elevator - with barely room for one person with a suitcase, and note that I say "elevator" in the singular - there is just the one, so if you need to go anywhere in a hurry forget it). But the critical issue was that the promised free high-speed internet wasn't working. Their system is based on trying to share a single cheap connection throughout the whole building, and even when no one else was connected, it wouldn't work properly. The front desk was obviously aware of this as an ongoing issue, as the clerk was clearly accustomed to plugging and unplugging their router hoping to somehow reset the connection anytime anyone complained. We spent literally hours fighting with this issue (and another customer was doing the same) before finally giving up. They couldn't even get their own laptop (which the desk clerk was kindly offering to let me use) to connect viably.
Since internet access was absolutely critical to my work in Paris, I was forced to cancel and head to another hotel (at even higher walk-up rates).
Upon arrival the hotel had required a deposit. Despite the fact that the cancelation was due to their services not working, and further that the reservation specifically mentioned only a 24-hour cancelation policy, they now insist that they have a right to keep the full three-day - $850 - deposit.
Multiple attempts to resolve this amicably have met with delay followed by refusal, at first, and now silence on the part of their owner, one Madame Lauferon.