Mystery Check: Grand Hyatt Cannes Hôtel Martinez
Membership: Hyatt Gold Passport
Tier Level: Diamond
Room booked: Grand Twin
Room received: Sea View Deluxe Twin
Points: 9.0 out of 10
Cannes, a small city on the French Riviera and famous for the annual Film Festival. Prices are outrageous and it’s not rare to see hotels sell rooms for more than 1000 Euro per night in the summer. The Grand Hotel Martinez is one of the most famous hotels in town and shines through its prime location directly on the promenade - La Croisette.
We arrived really early and it was therefore not an issue that our room was not yet ready. One hour later we were escorted to our beautiful Sea View room though. The light-filled room welcomed us with bright colors and a modern decor. Even if the room would’ve been not that modern, I would have still liked it a lot. You can’t beat the feeling to open the balcony door and take a sunbath directly from your room. (this feels even better when thinking of my colleagues in rainy and cold Germany and Austria ;-) )
The bathroom deserves the predicate perfect. Great size, featuring a really good rainforest shower, a bathtub and double vanities. While the bath amenities looked really good (own-branded products), it smelled like Nivea but that’s the only thing I can really complain about.
As an added value, Diamond Members can order from a separate menu from the bar between 5pm and 7pm without a charge. The variety was quite good and free champagne is always much appreciated :-). While the communication in the whole hotel was flawless and everyone spoke good English, it suddenly became a problem at the bar. The waitress did only speak a few words and our first order of each two champagne with waters ended up with me being served water and my colleague champagne. Well, nothing serious but it’s still weird that even the maids spoke better English than a server at the bar.
Since we were able to enjoy the drinks on the outside patio, we sat right next to the small pool. Although I knew that every hotel puts a surcharge on their lounger at the beach (incredible for some of us - pretty common on the French Riviera) I was shocked to see that the hotel even puts a surcharge on the loungers and chairs at their pool. (26 Euro ½ day, 32 Euro whole day) But again, we are in Cannes and it’s obvious that many people here don’t care about money.
On the next morning we had the choice between in-room breakfast or access to the buffet downstairs. While I am usually not a big fan of in-room service due to the lack of variety in comparison to a huge buffet, we decided to give it a try and have a breakfast with an outstanding view. Well, I think the picture speaks for itself and it was more than worth it - unfortunately we stayed only one night as we had to return to Nice.
The check-out was done by Olivier, one of the friendliest and most service-orientated people I have met during our time in France. A lot of hotels think that the stay ends when you leave your room but the truth is, everyone likes to leave the hotel with a smile on their face. Olivier and the bellman did the exact thing and after wishing farewell to us, we were already on our way to the train station of Cannes - smiling and happy. Thanks Hotel Martinez Cannes, it's wonderful to see that there is still a great hotel out there in this small, and incredible famous city!
The Hotel has been inspected by Mr Niklas Ziegler who was a mystery guest at the Martinez Cannes. Therefore the hotel was not aware of our presence and the review has not been influenced.
