Welcome Hotel

The best of four good French hotels we stayed in on this trip. The Welcome Hotel is situated right on the seaside overlooking the bay and harbour. Rooms with balconies have table and chairs to sit and soak it all up: amazing view and morning sunshine. In addition, the hotel is close to a selection of restaurants and cafés and only a 10-minute walk to the train station, with trains twice an hour to Nice or Monaco and Italy. The hotel is bright and full of character with a history of famous visitors over the years. There is a lively wine bar with live music some nights (but not into the late hours). The staff spoke excellent English and were extremely helpful.

The Welcome Hotel in Villefranche Sur Mer was recommended to us by a friend who lives in the area. We put a substantial deposit down expecting to stay a few days to explore the area. Reality did not meet our expectations. The water front hotel is a typical 1970’s style inside and out. That style can be charming, but the Welcome Hotel is an old, run down hotel that probably hasn’t been updated since the 70’s. Our room was tired, the floor of the bathroom had black mold in the corners, and there were dirty fingerprints on the bathroom door. The carpet and drapes felt like they hadn’t been cleaned in years. We spent the night sleeping on top of the bed in our clothes. We had a small sea view balcony that overlooked the water, as well as piles of garbage from the boats. Even though it was very warm outside, the hotel would not turn on the a/c. They suggested we open the windows. There is an outside restaurant/bar on the first floor with many smokers and live music. Our windows were directly above it. When we complained about the smoke and the noise, they brought us a fan. We left after one night. We lost our deposit but we didn’t care. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough. The only positive was the manager and desk people were very nice.

The House keeping quiet good and excellent service, very well satisfied with the housekeeping, the team Mr Anil, and T. Das. Kungh, and others are fabulous and super good, i appreciate their good work kept my room so Clean and neat. Hats off to the house keeping team

Lovely hotel. The decor feels like you are in a yacht/ship. Lovely balcony overlooking the sea and bed super comfy. Very lovely hotel. Breakfast quite pricey at 20 EUR for what it is, and the air con in the room didn’t really work so very hot but otherwise would come back and highly recommend.

Very nice room with two balconies ( superior room ). Also surprisingly quiet, excellent double glazing. The staff were very amenable. Only downside is the cost of parking. Would be good if they had some "deal" somehow. Excellent position and close to many different priced and style of restaurants

I first saw the Welcome Hotel in 2013 while on an ocean cruise. I thought Villefranche-sur-Mer was magnificent and thought how wonderful it would be to have a room there. Ten years later, I am here and we had a lovely room on the 5th floor with a beautiful balcony. I wrote to the staff many times prior to our trip with questions and requests. They were fantastic! Always responded quickly, politely and with excellent info. They greeted us warmly when we arrived. They made first night dinner reservations for us which was great. I needed a room with a walk-in shower (one of my many email questions while booking) and they gave me the perfect room. I love balconies and ours was large and lovely. I was out there all the time! The room wasn’t the largest but it also wasn’t close to the smallest we stayed in on our 7 week European trip. It had everything we needed. The bed is very comfortable. The a/c is fair and helped on the hot days. The decor is nautical and we enjoyed it. The bathroom is very modern and I loved having a bidet nozzle. Housekeeping was fabulous. All the staff were lovely. The elevator is very good. It is standard size for a small boutique European hotel but is efficient and can hold 2-3 people and two large suitcases and 2 small carry-ones or a typical hotel luggage cart. I have been in much smaller, slower elevators in Europe. We were surprised by the very loud music coming from a nearby rooftop bar. It started at 7pm and ended at midnight. I was delighted to find that the excellent double-paned doors provided much needed quiet when we went to bed. We could barely hear the music with the doors closed and I have excellent hearing. There is an active nightlife in Villefranche. There are numerous wonderful restaurants to enjoy. We enjoyed our evening strolls around the Citadel waterfront. The breakfast was lovely and had everything you could want. Hot egg dishes, pastries, fruit, yogurt, toast, bacon/sausage, gluten-free options and more. The service was great. We enjoyed cocktails in the Wine Bar outdoor seating area several times and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Our server (female) was lovely and we enjoyed talking with her. My husband had to see a physician while there and the front desk staff arranged that for us and called a taxi. Excellent customer service in every way. He was ok thank goodness. I highly recommend the Welcome Hotel.

The service was excellent. Hotel was extremely pleasant. The entertainment has an adult aspect to it that would be good to share ahead of booking.

My husband and I recently spent 3 wonderful nights at the Welcome Hotel. This was the perfect spot to anchor while we toured much of the surrounding areas. There were so many pluses to staying here: several restaurants located a stones throw away from the hotel (which is a huge benefit if you arrive late due to a delayed flight as we experienced); very comfortable bedding; very attentive customer service; the choice to have breakfast in the dining area or up on your veranda (although the latter was limited to coffee and croissant/pastry); and perhaps the best of all was the view from our room - just beautiful!! The views alone were enough to bring us back again. Sitting on the veranda with coffee in the morning, or sipping wine at night made for very memorable moments. We would return in a heartbeat.

Wonderful four night stay. Amazing view and centrally located for access to Nice or Monaco. Enjoyable walk to marina and over to beaulieu sur mer. Was great to relax here on our terrace (or wine pier below) at end of the day. Much quieter than the busy places adjacent. Many local restaurants close by (although some may close for winter). We enjoyed La Caravelle the most.