Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Apartments in Paris

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Apartments in Paris

Hi, has anyone rented apartments in Paris-- I've checked out several web sites including Paris Sleeps, Chez Vous, and A Home in France. Most of the apartments look very nice. Any experience or suggestions? Has anyone used these companies? Thanks, CB

Hello Cindy, My wife and I have rented apartments in Paris from Chez Vous on three occasions and from private owners on three other occasions. I have been happy with all of them. Chez Vous has a very nice user friendly web-site and many apartments available in "the touristy areas" i.e. the 4th, 5th, 6th, & 7th. They tend to be slightly expensive, and there are several add on charges, phone, linens, and I believe a cleaning fee. Thus, when we've rented a one-bedroom apartment for about $1500.00/wk the final bill has been closer to $2000. Most who have rented have been relatively happy. The advantage of an apartment is that you get a lot more room, not just a bedroom with barely enough room to turn around and a bath. Most one bedrooms are at least 50 Meters square, with kitchen, living room and bath. The other obvious advantage is that you can eat in, at least some of the time, and save money on restaurants. It's easy to pick up provisions from the local grocer, patisserie boulangerie, or street market. Therefore you can have your own beer, wine, bread, snacks, etc and you don't have to go out or call room service every time you need something. I think that for the once in a lifetime visitor to Paris, a hotel is probably the way to go. If you are a frequent visitor and really want experience Paris and not feel like a tourist, and be more independent I think apartment living wins hands down. The following is my collection of url’s for Paris apartment rentals. Apartment Rentals: Paris Apartment rental 18th: http://www.parisvacationapartments.com Vacation Rental By Owner: http://www.vrbo.com/vrbo/fra.htm Jeanette Browns #4492 (take a look at her one bedroom in the 6th) Chez Vous: http://www.chezvous.com/ Paris Sejour Reservations: http://www.psryourhomeinparis.com/ Guest Apartment Services: http://www.guestapartment.fr/ Citadine: http://www.citadines.com/ukindex0.htm http://www.lacigaleparis.com The last one is our apartment. If you feel as strongly as I do about apartment living in Paris you have no choice but to purchase your own apartment. It is a large two bedroom, with two full baths, double living room, custom kitchen, and dining room. Amenities include clothes washer and dryer, very nice oven, gas range, microwave, coffee pot, very nice bed linens, plush towels and wash clothes, two fireplaces, satellite TV, VCR, with a tape library, CD player with a CD library, reference library, cell phone, personal representative available 24 hours a day. We also have a small car available and driver by separate arrangement and parking can be arranged if needed for a rental car. I would encourage you to visit all of the above web-sites. Bon Voyage en France, Randy Smith

I haven't used those but have used PSR, which operated very efficiently and professionally, but it's not as expensive an agency as the ones you are looking at. My main advice is just be sure you know what you are getting and the full price with all the extras added in, and the size of the rooms. Also be aware that you are often required to pay very large deposits far ahead of time and they are nonrefundable if you don't like the place. Be clear on your reasons for doing this, as you will likely not save money and will probably spend more than you would in a 3-star hotel, for example. I always am surprised at how many short-term tourists want to go to the trouble, expense and cost of doing this, and why people think it's so important to cook or have so much room on a short vacation, I don't know. It is really interesting to see some folks who want very cheap hotels with rooms only a little bigger than the bed and always say "who needs a nice or big room, I only sleep and shower there" and others who feel they need an entire apartment to have more room, etc., and want to cook in their room while on vacation in Paris. Go figure. Oh, be very clear on getting details on number and types of beds (whether they are real beds, sofabeds, futons, real kings or only two twins, etc) and appliances (oven does not necessarily mean anything other than microwave, do not assume you have a dryer if they say they have a washer or that the washer will wash normal-size loads) as many apt sites are very misleading in this regard, or omit information. Find out insurance, electricity, phone, linens, cleaning, etc fees (I for one think the add-on fees by Chez Vous are absurd). If money is no object and you don't mind paying so much, Chez Vous might be okay, I've certainly read comments from people who liked their apts who were willing to spend a lot. I would not recommend ST apt rental for first-time visitors or anyone staying less than a week (many won't rent for shorter periods anyway, but some will for 5+ days), preferably 10+ days; they are not very cost-effective except for families, either. Parisian rental apartments are generally overpriced in comparison to some other cities, and you really have to check around as the same apartment is often listed on many diff. web sites with widely varying rates. Generally, I think At Home in France in Oregon(I presume that is the agency you mean) is very expensive. For example, that agency and www.vacationinparis.com have a lot of the same apts; a studio in Latin Qtr on rue des Carmes is rented for $815 a week on At Home in France and only $665 a wk by VIP (same apt). The markup on these fees is huge. I think Mr Smith has listed a few good sites but I can tell he is in a different reality than I am as he compares renting very expensive apts vs hotels with room service (believe it or not, minibars do exist in 3-star hotels without room service, that's where I stash my water, wine, Camembert, etc). I would not think someone who can afford $200+ a night needs to save money by eating in on a Parisian vacation, really, one of the joys of Paris is dining out. If you can afford $200 a night for a room, I think you might be more comfortable in a hotel, frankly, as Parisian hotel rooms are very reasonably priced, but that's obviously my opinion and does depend on your budget and how many are in your party. It really depends on how lucky you get with a nice apt (size, decor, quality of furnishings, comfort of bed, etc), also, many people expect a heck of a lot from these ST Parisian rental apartments. Here are a few more URLs: www.vaationinparis.com, www.servissimo.com, www.panacherental.com, www.drawbridgetoeurope.com (one of the best I've seen), www.forparis.com (luxury), www.rendezvousparisien.com, www.paris-apartments.com, www.rentparis.com (mostly right bank), www.barclayweb.com. I've got more but that's plenty; an overall resource that lists most firms with comments is www.parisapartment.com

Hello: I rented a apartment for two weeks on 1998 from barclay which is in Ny and it worked out wonderfully. The site barclayweb.com Barclay International Have a great trip.

I just returned from a month's stay in Paris and rented a studio apartment for $1650/mo. Worked out to less than $60/night in the 7th. Great location. Check out RentParis.com They have several rentals all over Paris. The monthly rent was cheaper, of course, than weekly or nightly. Any questions, e-mail me directly.

Hi I own a studio in the center of Paris for vacation rental. Before I invite you to visit our web site I also want to say that renting directly from the oner is a less costly . Agents will add over 40% commission on the transaction. Look on the internet, there are litterally hundreds of direct owner web site for Paris rentals. Good luck Katia http://studio.provaction.com

If a real sofa is important to you, be sure there's one in the apartment. Ours only had a futon on which the elderly relative couldn't sit. Otherwise no good chairs to sit in so not that comfortable.