Paris: more 'budget' hotels gone by the wayside...

Well, there's only one Etap Hôtel inside Paris, at metro Laumière (the one on rue du Docteur Babinski is on the outer side of the périphérique).

In the outer arrondissements, there are still plenty of "nice" hotels for less than 75€, as well as "clean and basic" hotels for around 50€. Plenty of people who come to Paris are not loaded with money -- think of all the tourists from Czechy, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Slovenia, etc. Most of them are not staying in 3 and 4 star hotels. If you are not afraid to rub elbows with them, no problem whatsoever.

Meanwhile what about the very chic and brand new Mama Shelter in the 19th? www.mamashelter.com ? 79€. Worth a try!

Travelnut - Too much for the brain!
No way would I spend around 200E a night anywhere in Paris unless.................I really, really did not know how to spend zillions of ...whatever.

Talking about Etap & others, Keouac.....there are plenty out there if a person is willing to just spread their wings a little.
Some are not the usual... but comfortable and clean and nothing wrong with the neigborhood either.
Others are modern and clinical bit very cheap at weekends. I personally feel chain hotels offer the greatest bargain.
We love The Ibis @ 49 euros!

I stayed at the Regent Hotel back in the 80s and it was quite nice. I didn't pay a whole lot for it.

Many of the former budget hotels started biting the dust in the early 90s. Remember, I've been staying in the 6th since around 1981. The cheap hotels...Hotel de Seine...which I stayed at for nearly a decade, I could then get for about $18. in the early 80s.
It closed its doors a few months after I last stayed there (Aug 1990), renovated for a year, and then reopened. I had paid $50. in Aug 1990 and when it reopened, my SAME room was almost three times the price.
I thus moved down the street to the Welcome Hotel...same owner...but not as nice as the Hotel de Seine. I stayed there until I had had it...about a decade...and then moved to Hotel Clement. I only stayed so long because my friend was managing the place so it was easy to stay there and we could meet up for lunch and go out and do things after she got off as she had a car.

Both the managers of the Hotel de Seine and Welcome Hotel were close friends of mine. I got a walk through of the hotel after it had been renovated and was shown my old room.
The same friends also managed the Deux Continents and Hotel Marroniers(sp?) same owner as of the Hotel de Seine and Welcome Hotel at that time. I was introduced to the owner back then.
The other budget hotels were the Louisianne, on rue de Seine, and Hotel de Buci along with Hotel St.Andres des Arts, to name a few.I've either been shown most of them or stayed in a few as my friends gave me walk throughs of various ones.
When one hotel got the renovating bug and idea to hike up the prices, then the rest followed.
And after renovations, nothing was really new except new wallpaper or paint and some fabrics. It's still the same cramped 15-20 square meter rooms, if that. It's not like walls were knocked down to create more space and to partially justify the enormous price hikes.
Before I had decided on a new hotel in the 6th, one of my hotel manager friends invited me to stay at her family's apartment building. Her father owned a huge building in the 19th and had a three story apartment with a roof top deck, 4th story, and glass den-style room. So, I moved there for about 3 trips and then went to the Hotel Clement which she had highly recommended to me. The other choice was to stay at the apartment of the other manager friend which was a couple of streets down rue de Seine. Happy Travels!

I'd perhaps call this the Accor effect - old hotels with old plumbing, etc. losing out with the business type crowd and French themselves for the modern Novotel, IBIS and Sofitel hotels now dotting Paris.

To compete old hotels must spiffy themselves up in creature comforts and Internet access, etc.

One and Two star hotels are disappearing all over France and motel-like hotels are replacing them it seems - often, outside of Paris, on the periphery of towns by autoroutes rather than in the city centers.

The plus side of the "Accor effect" is that you can sometimes get Ibis hotels within Paris for 49 Euros/night (as previously mentioned). All of the Accor hotel brands can be reasonably cheap under the right circumstances.

esp in August, during holidays and on weekends when their business clientele is not there

I applaud the Accor effect, personally - even ETAPs or Formule 1's on the periphery are great for me and my budget

I have gotten a SuiteHôtel (by Accor) for as little as 65€ on the Accor website and I find them spectacular! I now have the free a-club Accor card and will be getting free hotel rooms soon.

Someone I met over the phone, while calling Accor, in Ohio, booked me into the Suite Hotel at Charles de Gaulle and it was great. This was about 4-5 years ago. He said it was a new concept in that it's very self-service.
So, he got me a really inexpensive room rate, and asked if I'd take photos so that the folks in the office could see how the place was.

It was a really nice room, with a bathroom and a half, and a mini bar area, counter, fridge, dining table and chairs, and a day bed along with a queen-sized bed. And the best thing was that it was 30 square meters, exactly double of most of my hotel rooms in inner Paris. There was also a restaurant directly across from the hotel.

I just took the free shuttle to the airport, and then the bus, from the airport, to rue Scribe and got off there. That trip was a short trip...3 days I think as I was flying down from Copenhagen. Happy Travels!

Guenmai just illustrates why older hotels either have to remodel and raise their rates as a result of increased amenities to stay in business IMO

you can lament it but not criticize why it's happening.

The SuiteHôtels also have a microwave, a flat screen TV and internet access. If you don't have a laptop, they have a keyboard that plugs into your TV and gives you the internet.

On my first land trip to Paris about 4 years ago I stayed within a block of the Louvre at 2 star - the rooms certainly could have used some paint, new bedspreads, sheets, and mattresses...couldn't call it shabby-chic,,,it was closer to shabby BUT the bathrooms were big with huge soaking tubs, and the location for buses and restaurants was terriffic.

The following year I went back, and it was now a 3 star with almost double the price, but no new paint, bedspreads, mattresses...etc. Nothing had changed but the stars and the price

It's a shame - I was reading that they are worried about tourism and seeing fewer Americans and more Chinese, Japanese, and others from the Eastern bloc.

Then again if the Euro drops enough maybe Americans (who have taken all their cash out of the market will return).

Still, because of the hotel rates being raised so high, renting an apartment has become a better bet.

Bookmarking - thanks, everyone for the hints for cheap accommodation!
Happy travels, Di

It cannot be true that a hotel turns from a 2* to a 3* for no reason and with nothing changing. The govt. assigns those ratings from inspections and there are criteria that fit you into one category or another. Hotels don't make up their own ratings, so something changed to put them into a higher category, even if you couldn't perceive it or didn't know what it was.

I think I agree with the idea that a lot of the older, more budget/cheaper properties are upgrading and increasing prices just because they can't compete in the current market as well any more. I sort of can see that if I want a cheap hotel and have a choice between a new, modern one with good plumbing, etc., versus an old rundown place without an elevator, bizarre plumbing, etc., I'd probably go for the modern one, as I don't really care that much about quaintness.

It may be interesting to know that the last "star" standards in France were set back in 1986 and will be updated next year. In 1986, for example, a 2-star hotel had to provide a pay telephone in the reception area. It will be interesting to see what the 21st century criteria will be.

The "4-star L" category will finally be modified to "5-star" to end confusion by international visitors.

"..choice between a new, modern one with good plumbing, etc., versus an old rundown place without an elevator, bizarre plumbing.."

My post isn't about that kind of 'difference', it's about serviceable, functional places that might have a little wear that are at a reasonable (for my budget) price - now becoming out of range by doubling the price (no matter how pretty it looks now).

I remember way back when the budget hotels were renovating by adding a toilet in each room and then hiking up the price about another $20. a day. That's one reason why I stayed at the Hotel de Seine for so long. I could still choose if I wanted a toilet inside the room or not.

I kept my old room, Room 52, forever and the toilet was about two steps across the hallway from my room...much closer than the toilet is from my room at home. So, I'd really save by not requiring a toilet in the room.
At some hotels, it was the same with showers...in the room...vs...down the hall. Choice. Happy Travels!

In February 2008 we stayed at the Hotel Saint Augustin Elysees across from the St. Augustin church in the 8th. We used reward points for our stay but it was on Expedia for $125/night which I consider a great deal for a cute hotel in a nice neighborhood. It was a bit far removed from all of the more touristy areas of Paris (it was a 20 minute metro ride with transfer to the Marais) but it was a great location for our week-long stay in Paris. Quiet too. At the time it was part of the Best Western chain but if the reviews I've seen on other websites are any indication, it is no longer.

Mahya2- I agree. renting an aparmtent is a much better option to fight inflation. Plus, I'm personally tired of being cramped in 15-20 square meters of space, in a hotel, at almost the exact same price of a 40 square meter apartment. Plus, I save a lot of money by cooking at least one meal a day which is usually dinner. So, breakfast at the apartment, lunch out, and then dinner at the apartment.

I would have rented an apartment many years ago had I known about vacationinparis.com then... where I'm able to pay a low deposit and do everything by personal check and in U.S. dollars, along with having the apartment keys in my hand before leaving home. How easier can it get? I hope they stay in business for many years to come. Happy Travels!

Agreed Guenmai.

As I remember the first hotel I stayed at was on rue St honore and if not mistaken it was also called the St Honore. From the photos online I see no difference from what it was to what it is - so how the price changed and from 2 star to 3 star is beyond me.