Renaissance Aix-en-Provence Hotel

We stayed there from Nov. 20 to 25. The service was excellent and in par with typical high end Marriott hotels. The staff was very helpful, courteous and refined. We had our anniversary dinner at the Hotel Bistro, it was excellent all around — the food and the service. The only minor issue we had — independent of the hotel — was that the car GPS could not take us there as it is a new hotel. In any case, if if/​when I go to Aix again, I will likely stay there.
Ty Benchaita, PhD
The Woodlands, TX

We had a phenominal stay at this property. We were able to walk to it directly from the train station with our suitcases, about a 10 – 15 Mins walk, ask for directions so you take the most direct route.
Check in was quick, with little desserts and we were actually shown to our room. We mentioned we were looking for a place to dinner to her and the concierge followed up with a phone call about 15 Mins later with options.
It’s a very short walk to the center of town, just over a pedestrian bridge. They are building up the area so I am sure it will even be nicer than it already is very soon.
We stayed here for a night as we made our way from Spain to Italy and it was easily the nicest hotel we stayed at.
Top notch service, the room was beautiful — a brand new beautiful property.

This Asian-​French fusion hotel was just not my thing. It is over priced for the value received, perceived or not. I paid € 7,00 for a 8 oz bottle of Pepsi, and the «complimentary» breakfast buffet is NOT. It is € 26,00 per person. I don’t think I can eat € 26 worth of pastries, dry eggs, cold cuts or fruit. Just to be clear in my «misunderstanding» — when we were seated we were TOLD it was «complimentary». I didn’t think that could possibly be accurate, so in order to verify what I thought I heard, I asked twice; that is 2 times, in 2 different ways, with my best attempt at French-​English to the «English speaking» staff. We were told 2 more times that it was no cost. The host then came back with a slip of paper, and told us to check the buffet we chose for «record keeping». I should have known at that point it was for receipt billing, my bad.
At any rate, this is a Marriott hotel, with signs posted that the staff speaks multiple languages including English. Granted, we are not fluent in French by any means, but we’d been communicating fairly accurately with others in the region who didn’t even claim to speak English. So while yes, I should have known better, I was still disappointed.
It just felt like we were taken advantage of, as we would have walked to the city center for a pastry and coffee instead.
Maybe it’s the entire city of Aix that makes it an expensive place to visit, but whatever it is I’m not interested in going back.
I’d give it one star less than this rating, but our room was clean and comfortable.
OH WAIT. Let me add a little more color. Both mornings we were rushed out of the restaurant. The first morning they came and told us and the other diners that they were closing in 10 minutes. (Not exactly 5 star hospitality). The second morning when we got up for a coffee refill, the waiter started cleaning our table, and it was NOT within an hour of closing time, nor were we finished. Seriously! We had not even walked 5 feet from our table. They had a «swat the annoying guests» away attitude.
Ah well.