We arrived late in the evening, around 2330 local time with 3 children under 5 in tow.
I had been in contact with the hotel several weeks prior to let them know about my arrival time, and I had been assured that there was no further action needed - I would be sent instructions 24 hours prior and that there was no need for anyone from the hotel staff to be there on arrival.
On the day of travel and arrival, I received a message from hotels.com, which I mistakenly thought was from the property. Checking all my inboxes, spam and hotels.com inbox, I had no other messages. I had a message in addition from hotels.com saying that there was no need to call to reconfirm.
On arrival, I checked the email for the code and instructions, but there was no code. There was simply a generic message. I called each and every number available to me for the hotel, with everything being diverted to the same voicemail. I left a message in French, but still several days later, no-one has contacted me from the hotel to even apologise or talk about what happened.
Quite frankly, maybe I should have checked the specific contents of the email, but having received a seemingly relevant message and being explicitly told that I'd receive instructions in that time period, I trusted the property. Do not trust this property, otherwise you will be stranded outside with your three kids at midnight.
Thanks to a hotels.com representative I was able to gain access to the room. When we got in, the room was fine.