Affordable hotels in city centres tend to be affordable for one of two reasons. Either they are in undesirable areas, or they suffer from small rooms and a lot of stairs. This is the case in most city centre hotel I've stayed in; it's a consequence of the high price of property in desirable areas. Hotel de Theatre fits into the second category.

Excellent location, 2 minutes walk from the Saone River. It’s in a grand old building, which backs onto the exclusive Place des Celestins by the magnificent theatre – there’s a lovely view of the square from the hotel window. This is a very safe area, we both felt perfectly comfortable walking around here at all hours. It took us about 10 minutes to cross the nearest bridge into the historic St Jean area from our hotel. There are many tourist-friendly restaurants a 2 minute walk around the corner, in the Rue de la Monnaie area.

Room was very clean, a reasonable size and nicely decorated, but the en-suite bathroom was small and the bath was tiny. Unless you’re a lot smaller than average, or a skilled contortionist, ensure your bathroom has a shower, not a bath ! Although we had a shower over the bath, it was not useable as the fitting had broken from the wall.

I also found the bed to be too small, my feet stuck out of the end – yet again, this is typical of old hotels with small rooms in good locations.

If travelling by car, behind the hotel in Place des Celestins there is an underground car park. If travelling by train/ plane, the hotel is about 10 minutes walk to the nearest metro station at Place Bellecour. After doing some research, noting we’d need to change trains on the metro, as well as crossing several city streets from the square, we decided to take a taxi instead. This cost us 13 Euros, in moderate traffic. There is also a ‘parking station’ of free city bicycles in Place des Celestins.

The hotel reception is two floors up a wide stone staircase (no lift). The reception area is a large room with tables and chairs where breakfast is served – once again, nice views out to Place des Celestins. Note that the breakfast is not self-service, you won’t be given certain items unless you ask for them specifically, e.g. cereal.

Staff were friendly and helpful, and spoke good English (but were happy to speak French at my request.)

The stairs up to the other floors from the reception area are very steep and narrow. If you’re carrying a suitcase in each hand, you have to walk sideways – easier said than done. Coming from street level to your room is consequently quite a workout – even on a cold day you’ll be toasty by the time you reach your room. There is no lift, so this hotel would be completely unsuitable for someone with limited mobility.

Although the doors and walls were quite thin, and the floorboards creaky, the other guests were all well-behaved and quiet so we had no problems with noise. However, I can imagine this could be a problem with noisy neighbours. Note that the location is a very quiet location on a side street, you don’t get much noise from the street below.

The biggest selling point of this hotel is it’s location, but it would not suit everybody. If you can’t face the flights of narrow stairs, or you’re a light sleeper, it’s probably unsuitable for you.