Historic vandal, but there's a French one at the hotel (3)
I believe the answer is:
hun
'historic vandal' is the definition.
'hun' can be an answer for 'vandal' (I've seen this in another clue). I am not certain of the 'historic' bit.
'there's a french one at the hotel' is the wordplay.
'there's a french one' becomes 'un' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'at' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'the hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'un' after 'h' is 'HUN'.
'but' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hun that I've seen before include "One led by Attila" , "Eg, Attila" , "Attila the ... invaded Europe in 5th century" , "Warlike nomad" , "Ancient invader" .)