Hôtel Barrière Lille

The first junior suite we had the AC was not working so they put us in another one that worked until it shut off in the middle of the night so they moved us to another suite and the AC worked fine but at 3:00AM we woke up because this load noise started like someone outside our room was grinding a medal wheel. Then it turned off four hours later but happened again the following night. The manager was very nice and tried to do everything he could but I slept maybe 6 hours in total for all three nights we were there.

The hotel has a casino, a theatre and is in the good condition, but thats about where the 5 stars end, I would say. There is no pool, no proper spa (only two tiny rooms: one steam room and one sauna, fitting maximum two people each) and an option to have massage on the side. Being a family we have booked a suite and had a room with nice views, however there was nothing you could do with a child in this hotel, or anywhere near.. There was just a shopping mall and a busy train station nearby. I think this hotel might be suited for busy businessmen, but not for families, which is what you would expect from a five star. Also there was a terrible smell of sewage each morning in the breakfast restaurant we had no choice but ignore every day while eating our breakfast. Staff at reception and in room service is very friendly but has very limited English, so I found it hard to communicate with them. We will not be back.

Two items that we'd consider standard were missing from our junior suite: a microwave and an ironing board. The hotel is near the train stations, which is convenient for travel; however, it's also near areas of town that have homeless individuals. This made walking to local restaurants feel unsafe for our family with a young child.