Booking your hotel While some hotels in this guide can/must be booked
directly with the hotel, for many hotels iHi
works in partnership with the major booking portals hotels.com, and booking.com to enable immediate Internet booking in English at best
online rates.
Independent hotels in the uplands of southern France &
Rhone valley
A
seriously selective directory
of nice quiet hotels, the
iHi France
independent hotel
guide
takes the difficulty out of finding small quiet hotels in France. iHi listings only
include hotels recommended by travellers for their friendly welcome,
character, calm location and/or excellent value. Many iHi-listed hotels
are located in small towns or villages off the beaten track, in deepest
France where time moves slowly and old traditions die hard. Others are
in areas popular with tourists, such as the Alps. Some are medium sized
hotels, others are very small. None are expensive for what they offer.
iHi welcomes recommendations
from
travellers and hotel owners. See below.
From
the borders of the Dordogne to the edge of Languedoc and the Cévennes, The Massif Central
covers the following departments (listed west to
east): Departments and main towns.
87 Haute
Vienne : Limoges
19 Corrèze
: Brive
23 Creuse
: Guéret
15 Cantal
: Aurillac
03 Allier
: Moulins, Montlucon
63 Puy
de Dome : Clermont Ferrand
43
Haute Loire : Le Puy en Velay
* The French hotel star ranking system.
The
French hotel star ranking system was updated in 2009. but it is still
essentially an amenity-based system, rather than a quality based
system. A hotel with all the required amenities can
qualify for more stars, even when the services are quite basic.
Conversely, a bijou hotel that lacks lacks certain amenities
required for a
given star level (such as shower or bath in all guest
rooms) will have difficulty achieving the "points" required for the star level it really merits.
As a result, while the star ranking is by and large a measure
of
quality, it is not always the case, and it is quite possible to find
some really good two-star hotels, and some fairly tawdry three star
ones.
There are even some well established hotels that
prefer to remain ** establishments because it costs less in taxes.
From
the mountains of the Forez to the shores of Lake Geneva and the
boundaries of Provence,
the Rhone-Alpesregion
covers the following departments (Alpine departments
first). Departments and main towns.
38 Isère
: Alps, Grenoble
73 Savoie
: Alps, Chambéry
74 Haute
Savoie: Alps, Annecy, Chamonix
01 Ain:
Southern Jura, Dombes, Bourg en Bresse
42 Loire:
St Etienne - eastern Massif Central
69 Rhone:
the area around Lyon
07 Ardèche
- west of the Rhone, south of Lyon: Privas
26 Drome
- east of the Rhone, south of Lyon: Montélimar
Tourist
information for the regions of southern France
Free hotel listings with iHi -
strictly for independent hotels Recommend a
good and calm independent hotel in France, Spain, Italy or the UK.
If you run or have stayed
in
a small independent hotel that you think ought to be in this directory,
contact iHi-Gitelink
with details. Send an email to hotels "at" independent-hotels.info.
Maximum
size: 40 rooms. City hotels: acceptable up to 75 rooms. No chains. Only
independent establishments. Affiliation
to a referral chain (Logis de France, Relais du Silence) is no
problem.
If
you are a hotel owner and have a site that presents your independent
hotel or guest house, send us an email
giving details. We will send you further information. iHi
privileges calm hotels in a quiet environment.
Inscrire un
hôtel
indépendant à iHi
:
Pour une inscription gratuite à
l'annuaire des hôtels indépendants,
envoyer un email à: hotels "at" independent-hotels.info, en indiquant l'URL.
Ne soumettre que des
établissements indépendants,
bénéficiant d'un cadre calme et
agréable. L'annuaire iHi - France accepte des
établissements indépendants appartenant
à des chaînes d'indépendants, comme
Logis de France.
IHI - Home page
IHI is a Gitelink partner
- To contact
iHi send an email
to
ihi "at" independent-hotels.info