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FAQs About Your Apartment in Nice

The booking web portal of Nice Pebbles was born in 2005. The website, guest management and process of all bookings are controlled by SAS Chez Bleu. The registered office of SAS Chez Bleu is 32 rue Tonduti de l'Escarene, 06000 Nice, France.

The booking procedure up to your arrival
Can we stay for less than one week?
What is included in the price?
Which floor is my apartment on?
What extras and lifestyle packages do we offer?
How do I book?
How do I pay?
How will I know how to get to the apartment?
What if I need to cancel?
How do I know my hard earned money is safe?
Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)travel advice

Our terms of business with our guests
What time can I check in?
What time is check out?
Do I have to pay a security deposit?
Are pets allowed in the apartments?
Is smoking allowed in the apartments?
What if I want to change my dates?
What if I want to change my apartment?

Information and tips to assist you when you stay
How do I get to Nice?
What is provided in the apartment?
Should I pack anything for extra comfort and convenience?
What about sofa-beds?
Why are extra linen and towels so expensive?
Wi-Fi in the apartment
TV in the apartment
Where can I park?
What will the weather be like?
Do I need travel insurance?
Where can I obtain a mobile phone during my stay in Nice?

For investors
I have an apartment and would like to advertise on your site. Can I join in?
I am interested in buying an apartment. Can you help?
I need a lawyer to explain French Law. Can you help?
I need advice on French tax. Can you help?

CAN WE STAY FOR LESS THAN ONE WEEK?
Of course. We appreciate that you might like to come for a long weekend, or take advantage of inexpensive weekday flights. You can check the prices for any length of stay on the automated system.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE PRICE?
Our price includes one of our representatives meeting you on arrival, a basic starter pack to get you started in the apartment, all utilities, and cleaning the apartment at the end of your stay. Your bed will also be freshly made up with Egyptian cotton linen and towels will be laid out for your use. You will have our contact number to use during your stay to deal with any difficulties which may arise. You will be entitled to use our free luggage store and concierge service.

WHICH FLOOR IS MY APARTMENT ON?
In European terms, the floor at street level is called the ground floor. We refer to the floor above this as the first floor (this is what north Americans would call the 2nd floor).

WHAT EXTRAS DO WE OFFER?
Make your stay even better with one of our additional packages. We offer baby-cots, high-chairs, beach towels, additional linen, mid-stay apartment cleaning, airport transfers and a few other extras.

HOW DO I BOOK?
You can book on-line at any time. If you have difficulties you can email us during the hours of 9:00 - 18:00 Monday to Saturday, and 11:00 - 16:00 on Sunday and we will help you process your booking. Or you can leave us a voicemail and we will take it from there. We ask for a deposit to book the apartment of 25% of the value of the booking, booking fee and local stay tax payment to secure the dates. This deposit is non-refundable. Two months before arrival, we will request the remaining balance for your stay. There are no hidden or extra charges. Additionally, any extra services such as one of our extras will be added to the balance. If you want more information on this, please see our Terms and Conditions.

HOW DO I PAY?
Chez Bleu SAS accepts payment through all major credit and debit cards online through our website. We can also accept payment by bank transfer. Please contact us for more information.

HOW WILL I KNOW HOW TO GET TO THE APARTMENT?
Once we have received your deposit, you will receive detailed information about the location of the property and all details to contact us during your stay. You will be given choices of where we should meet you. After we have met at the agreed meeting point, you will be personally taken to the apartment.

WHAT IF I NEED TO CANCEL?
The 25% paid on booking the apartment is not refundable. Any other monies are the owners monies and it will depend what cancellation policy the owner has chosen. Owners decide between a FIRM, FLEXIBLE or RELAXED policy. You can see which policy they have chosen on the listing page in the PARTICULARS section. When funds are due to you, to comply with money laundering regualtions, our refunds can only be made by direct payment back to the credit card the monies were received from. In some cases you may incur your bank's small handling charge for this service. We cannot refund monies any other way to avoid the risk of inadvertently “cleaning” money. We thank you in advance for your understanding. Should you wish to claim for any lost monies through your insurance company, then we will assist as far as we possibly can.

HOW DO I KNOW MY HARD EARNED MONEY IS SAFE?
We bank with Wise. All monies received are held in a trust account until a guest has vacated the apartment. Owners are only paid after our guests have left. We have been vetted and approved for merchant bank status. Guests can make payments via a secure line. In the event of a dispute, guests have the right to challenge the payment and our merchant bank will hold the money until the dispute is resolved.

FOREIGN & COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (FCO) TRAVEL ADVICE
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) issues travel advice on destinations, which includes information on passports, visas, health, safety and security and more. For the latest travel advice from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office click here.

WHAT TIME CAN I CHECK IN?
Our standard check-in time is 4pm, if you have opted for our standard Meet and Greet check-in. We will facilitate an earlier check-in where we can. If an earlier check-in is important to you, then you have the option of choosing a Hello&Go Travel Extra or a Transfer with keys handover service. Both can be ordered on the Travel Extras page up to five days before your arrival. These options secure an earlier check-in time of 1pm. If you are arriving after 8pm, then you have the option of either choosing a special late arrival meet and greet service at a cost of £72, or a special late arrival taxi transfer from the airport or train station. The driver of the taxi will provide you with keys to the property. If you do arrive later than the agreed meeting time, then we cannot guarantee that we can meet you at a later time. In this case we will place the keys in our key collection point for you to collect at your leisure. Our key collection point is available 24/7, 365 days per year.

WHAT IF I WANT TO CHANGE MY DATES?
Changing dates will require us to update the owner, the cleaners, our assistants, and the calendars. There will therefore be an admin charge of £50 to £100 for date changes for the same apartment once your deposit has been received. We may not always be able to accommodate date changes, but will try to do so where possible. If we cannot change your dates and you no longer wish to stay with us, our cancellation policy will apply. Please see our Terms and Conditions for more information.

WHAT IF I WANT TO CHANGE MY APARTMENT?
Changing apartments will require us to deal with two owners, update two sets of calendars, updating assistants and cleaners for two apartments. There will therefore be an admin charge of £150 for apartment changes once your deposit has been received and the confirmation form sent out to you. We may not always be able to accommodate apartment changes, but will try to do so where possible. If we cannot accommodate a move to another apartment and you no longer wish to stay with us, our cancellation policy will apply. Please see our Terms and Conditions for more information.

WHAT TIME IS CHECK OUT?
Check-out time is 12 noon. Later check-outs can be secured for a fee on our Travel Extras page, up to five days before arrival. We do offer a luggage storage facility in our office. This is situated at 32 rue Tonduti de l'Escarene, in close proximity to the Durandy Tram stop. This service is free.
If you have a late flight on your departure day, then please consider using this service since we can never guarantee you will be able to leave luggage in an apartment after the 12 noon check out. Outside of opening hours you can book luggage storage through Luggage Hero.

DO I HAVE TO PAY A SECURITY DEPOSIT?
We do not charge the card unless damage occurs. In the event of any damage, you are advised to call us so we can assess the damage together. Failure to do this will result in our decision on the value of the damage being final.

ARE PETS ALLOWED IN THE APARTMENTS?
Although pets are not allowed in the majority of our apartments, there are some exceptions. Please contact us directly to find out more. An extra cleaning fee of £150 will apply.

IS SMOKING ALLOWED IN THE APARTMENTS?
No, all of our apartments are non-smoking.

HOW DO I GET TO NICE?
Nice is a well-connected city with TGV, an airport, and a port. The Nice airport (Aéroport Nice Côte d'Azur) has two terminals and is well served by budget airlines.

Please refer to our Transport Pageto see a map of the tramway and details of the stations and stops along the way. Most of our apartments are situated within a 5-minute walk of a tram stop. For information on the complete public transport network of Nice Côte d'Azur, check the ligne d'azur web site.

For private transfers between the airport and any of our apartments, we suggest using Friend In France who we have worked with for several years. Their team have always received very positive feedback. They wait for you at the airport terminal with a card with your name on it. It's a stress-free way to start your holiday. All drivers speak English and they will be familiar with the location of your apartment. You can book a transfer through our packages page at check out.

Nice can also be reached by TGV. The train takes five and a half hours from Paris. You may find a budget airline ticket is less expensive than the train. The Nice train station is situated at the top end of Avenue Jean-Médicin on Avenue Theirs. SNCF trains are plentiful and frequent to all destinations on the coast between Saint Raphael and the Italian border which makes Nice a fantastic base for exploring most of the Côte d'Azur. If you are planning a trip around Europe, you may want to take a look at the European Rail Guide. More modestly, SNCF still offers good services into and around Nice.

Nice is also easily accessible by car, the fastest route being the A8. However, once in Nice, we would advise that if you are a group of less than four, you ditch the car in favour of public transport. Considering hiring cars for the days you need one, rather than for your entire stay. Car parking is expensive in Nice, around 30€ a day, and with such great public transport options to most of the popular destinations on the French Riviera, you will probably find a car is not necessary.

WHAT IS PROVIDED IN THE APARTMENTS?
We want to offer a home away from home feeling for all of our guests, so all of our apartments have all the necessary kitchen equipment including a kettle, cafetiere and toaster. The glassware, crockery and cooking equipment are all provided.
As part of a Welcome package we provide a tea towel, 2 washing tablets, 2 dishwasher tablets, and two full rolls of toilet paper to get you started. For items such as a microwave please go to each individual apartment and view the amenities; if the apartment has it, it will be listed here. Each apartment is equipped with an iron and ironing board, and a high speed hairdryer. We also provide 2 pillows per person, one set of sheets for the made-up beds, a bath towel and hand towel for each guest, and a bath mat as well as a mini soap, mini shampoo and shower gel per bathroom.

We do not provide the following: linen and towels for a sofa bed, extra towels and linen (although these can be provided at extra cost), beach towels, kitchen roll, or endless supplies of toilet rolls. If you wish to purchase a package that provides you with these items, please consult our packages and special offers. Please check the white box on the individual apartment pages to check if the apartment has the amenities such as a washing machine, Wi-Fi, TV connection, etc. All the apartment amenities are listed there.

SHOULD I PACK ANYTHING FOR EXTRA COMFORT AND CONVENIENCE?
Between April – November, it is worth bringing mosquito repellent. You can pick it up, but if you’re very susceptible, and already bitten, it can spoil your holiday. Insects can be vicious in the South of France.
Standard paracetamol / acetaminophen and other mainstream painkillers have to be bought over a pharmacy counter in France, so it is often easier to bring your own.
We also suggest ear-plugs and eye masks for very light sleepers, staying in a city.
Whilst we try to offer a hotel-style service, we are limited in what we can supply. Space is a premium in Nice city centre and our team have to distribute supplies all over the city and are limited in what they can carry, often on foot. We also can’t micro-manage the stock levels of certain standard kitchen items whilst keeping prices competitive for all guests.
For these reasons you will not find things like salt, pepper, tomato ketchup, cling-film, kitchen foil, extra toilet roll (more than the two rolls we supply), kitchen roll etc in the apartments unless other guests have bought them and we’ve decided they are in a good enough condition to be left for future guests’ convenience. If such things are important to you, and you don’t think you will be wanting to do much grocery shopping, then please pack some in your luggage and bring with you.
Since many apartments now have SMART TVs, you might want to bring your login to NETFLIX, or bring DVDs.

WHAT ABOUT SOFA-BEDS?
We do not list sofa-beds, nor provide linen and towels for sofa-beds in our listed prices. If a sofa-bed is in the apartment, it is for owners use only.

Why are extra linen and towels so expensive?
We hear you! Unfortunately Nice is an expensive city and professional laundry is not much cheaper than dry cleaning. Unlike a hotel we do not have the facility to do laundry in house and then wheel it up on a trolley in a lift between the hotel floors. Instead, it has to be picked up, delivered, taken back and forth from apartments and laundered too. If we explain that our service laundry charges us €2 a pillowcase, we hope you can see how a full bed of linen and towels can add up. Service laundry is one of the major expenses of our business.

Wi-Fi IN THE APARTMENT
Where Wi-Fi is advertised in our properties, access is free unless stated otherwise. However, the internet consumption may be limited by the provider and we offer no guarantees that the internet connection will be available for the duration of your stay. Often a signal failure will need the assistance of the provider and this can take several days or weeks to resolve. The internet connection should not be relied upon for business or work purposes. Where internet is required for business or work, the guest should make their own arrangements. Where an internet connection is not available, we operate a policy of a maximum of £20 compensation for up to 7 days stay. We cannot be held responsible for the non-compatibility of your device with the modem. The same policy applies with cable TV. Where we cannot resolve a technical problem for you, we can give compensation of a maximum of £20 per 7 days to allow you to use an Internet café, go to the cinema, or phone home. This is offered as a good will gesture as compensation for your disappointment.

TV IN THE APARTMENT
Basic French television is not great and there are certainly no English channels. For this reason, some apartments have chosen not to hook up to the TV and just have a smart TV with possibility to login to your own Netflix or Prime account. Where there is a connected television, this will be advertised as such in the highlights box on the apartment page and in the apartment description. Some of our apartments have a cable package. This will have at least one news channel in English. It will also have some music channels that play English music. Occasionally, the cable TV signal can fail. If this happens, we will try to fix it as soon as possible and contact provider where necessary, but we are afraid that we cannot be held responsible for signal failures.

WHERE CAN I PARK?
There are plenty of public parking lots in Nice but you can expect to pay around €30 a day. You can find the nearest car par to your apartment on the particulars section of the apartment's web page. For more information on parking, please read our Online Guide article.

WHAT WILL THE WEATHER BE LIKE?
Nice enjoys a similar climate to other Mediterranean cities, but has the advantage of being protected from the wind by the surrounding hills and mountains. This enviable micro-climate assisted by Nice's proximity to the sea means there is still a mild climate in winter and the heat is reduced in summer. You should enjoy sunshine all year round and it is not unusual to slip on a t-shirt as early as February. Average monthly temperatures for winter (November to March) range from 9 to 13 degrees C. and in summer (May to September) range from 17 to 23 degrees C. BBC Weather and Meteo France are good sources for long- and short-term forecasts.

DO I NEED TRAVEL INSURANCE?
It is advisable for you to have your own comprehensive travel insurance that will cover all liabilities incurred by you in France. This is not limited to, but will include any accident, injury, accidental damage to property or persons that you may cause. Most policies provide, as part of the general cover, third-party personal liability insurance at no extra cost so it should not cause you any problems to obtain it. Travel insurance will also assist in lost luggage, any expensive accidental breakages, or if you are a victim of crime or have a medical emergency. Please do not ruin your holiday by not taking out insurance.

I HAVE AN APARTMENT AND WOULD LIKE TO ADVERTISE ON YOUR SITE. CAN I JOIN IN?
We are always looking for great, well maintained and stylish properties to add to our Pebbles' portfolio. Please contact us. If you would like to find out more about us first, you can you take a look at Riviera Pebbles where you will be able to find out more about our services.

I AM INTERESTED IN BUYING AN APARTMENT. CAN YOU HELP?
A lot of past guests who have visited us see the great potential of buying in Nice as a holiday home and long-term investment. We are happy to help, please call or email owners@nicepebbles.com if you wish to chat about buying in Nice, or selling your Nice property.

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