BW HOTEL LEFT BANK - PARIS
 

Does anyone have any input about this hotel? We have narrowed our choice to this or Hotel Dauphine St. Germain. <BR> <BR>Thanks very much. <BR> <BR>Judy

Which BW [best western?] hotel are you asking about? There are several on the left bank:)

She has answered your question regarding which hotel. . .It is called the Best Western Left Bank and is on Rue de Ancien Comedie. I have stayed there and it is quite nice if you opt for a deluxe room. Otherwise the rooms can be very tiny. The deluxe rooms, however, are at the back of the hotel, quite a bit larger, but quite dark because they open into a "courtyard", really more of an air shaft. Although those rooms have an extra full day bed which can serve as a sofa or a great place to lay out luggage, the air conditioning is not individually controlled and we nearly froze. Have not stayed at Hotel Dauphine, but it looks quite nice. Same neighborhood, similar price, we most recently opted for Le Regent on Dauphine, where our deluxe, large room and great bath were not only decorated very well, but had two large sets of French doors right out over the street offering great light, but double glazed so offered quiet at night, and very good individually controlled air conditioning. Of the three, that would be my preference.

S. Fowler--you weren't the only one who thought "left bank" meant the location of the hotel, not its name. I didn't even realize BW stands for Best Western. Anyway, I'm glad Judy got such useful feedback from Patrick.

Yes, it is confusing. The first time we stayed there we kept telling the taxi driver, "Hotel Left Bank" and "Best Western Left Bank". He just looked at us like we were some more crazy Americans who didn't know where we were going. He kept asking us the NAME of the hotel. Finally I remembered I had a brochure which I retrieved from my luggage and showed it to him.

Well I'm glad I'm not completely stupid:)

Many thanks for all your help! Guess we won't switch to the BW Left Bank Hotel. Is about $100usd more for the six nights but includes breakfast where the Dauphine doesn't. <BR> <BR>Patrick, do you have an email address for Le Regent? Do they have a website? <BR> <BR>Thanks again! I can always depend on the people here! <BR> <BR>Judy <BR> <BR>

I am shocked! Patrick gets upset about people wanting info on a McDonald's but he stays at Best Westerns. Isn't that ironic?

I'm not commenting on the recommendations themselves, but I don't see that McDonald's has anything to do with Best Western. McDonald's are what they are, but Best Westerns in Europe are not necessarily cookie-cutter bland hotels as they usually are in the US. Most of the BW are individually owned and operated and have the potential to be as individual and charming as any other hotel. Perhaps not all are, but many are, same for other chains like Comfort Inn and even <BR>Holiday Inn.

Shocked, you don't know what Best Western is. It is a hotel consortium and a very good one in Europe; hotels are locally owned and operated and belong for advertising and marketing purposes. In Paris, they have a very nice selection of hotels, 3 and 4 star (I don't think any are 2 star, but I'm not sure). In fact, one great thing I have is a Best Western directory of all their Eur hotels with pictures, phone numbers, amenities, etc--when traveling thru Eur without reservations or at the last minute, calling BW is a great time saver as one phone number can tell you about all vacancies, and you are almost certain to get an acceptable hotel. That's what the name is for -- I like it because it does have quality standards. As a matter of fact, Holiday Inns are also a franchise and locally owned in Europe, I believe, at least in Paris. I don't know about Comfort Inn, but I think all of those "chains" are the same deal in Europe, the chain does not own or build the hotel, although quality and standards may vary. Golden Tulip is another one, but Eur-based; that is also a consortium of indep. hotels; I stayed in a lovely one in Prague that was Austrian-owned. I don't know what the deal is with BW's in the US as they are often not very nice here and even motels; I think they are indep. owned in US, also, but they obviously have different marketing plans and strategies for their European vs US hotels. <BR> Judy, Hotel le Regent is on this web site: www.parishotels.com

<BR>I stayed in the BW Left Bank last year & it sounds like I got the same room as Patrick; nice room with extra bed & view of tiny courtyard. It's a bit overpriced for what you get, plus the breakfast wasn't all that great. My opinion of BWs in Europe is that the ones in the smaller towns & countryside are much better than those in the large cities.

Funny, I don't remember getting upset about people asking about McDonald's. Would "shocked" care to refresh my memory? In fact (although I'm usually to embarrassed to mention it) one day while stranded in the Florence train station while waiting for a delayed train the smell got to me and I had some McDonald fries which tasted better than the dozens of sides of Frites I'd been eating for the last month at great restaurants all over France including Paris. And the comments about Best Western are right on. Some are really very nice. A hotel belonging to Best Western is really no different than one which also advertises on any of the hundreds of hotel booking web sites people mention all the time. They are independently owned, often have a lot of character, and frequently outshine many of the other privately owned hotels which people rave about on here all the time. The web site for Le Regent has been given above. They do have a direct email address of [email protected]

Ok, I had a sleepless night trying to remember when I had been upset about people asking for McDonald's info. Does that refer to my recent post that I hoped Elvira wouldn't know the location of McD's because it would shatter my illusions of her? That's not about my getting upset, but rather a matter of "Elvira illusion shattering". Too late, however, as I have since been told that Elvira does indeed know about McD's in Paris -- and I had always pictured here in some obscure little boit or bistro seen through the mist of smoke rising from her long cigarette holder as she chatted her way merrily in French and sipped her wine. Alas the image of her leaning over formica and munching on a Big Mac is now horribly etched in my mind.

When are you going? We will be staying in Hotel Dauphine at the end of May and would be interested in hearing your impressions.

Patrick- <BR>Thanks for your insights about Hotel Le Regent. It's so overwhelming trying to decide between the x amount of hotelsin the left bank, but have narrowed it down to the Le Regent. Would you recommend the deluxe room over the standard room? Thanks.

Yes. I peeked into a couple of the standard rooms which were a lot smaller and certainly not as "classy" in decor as the deluxe. Our bath was also quite nice and well equipped with a substantial vanity for keeping things on and a large tub with wall shower and full shower curtain (or doors? now I can't remember) but one of the few bathrooms that didn't flood every time I took a shower. The deluxe rooms are also to the front and very bright and light, yet double glazed windows provide good soundproofing.

Judy, we just returned from Paris and we opted to stay at LE Regent. We had a standard room. The size of the room didn't bother me because I guess I always expect rooms in Paris to on the small side. The difference between the standard and deluxe room was about 400FF per night. Our room was on the first floor in the back. I thought the room and bath were lovely, it has individual air conditioning, a shower(with a door) and a double bed. I liked this hotel very much because the people were gracious and the location great. I have to say, though, that my husband said he thought it would be worth the extra money for the larger room. He is still remarking about the size of the bathroom! It was very small!

Great. Just when I had finished a month of research on all aspects of our trip to Europe and had booked the last hotel, I saw this thread. <BR>I had narrowed our search in Paris to the Hotel best western left Bank St Germaine. The very agreeable agent at Best Western told me it was the most requested hotel they had. Just checked out the websites for the other hotels mentioned here and think we will probably stick with Left Bank as they offer quads. We are 2 families of 4 each Better websites for viewing pictures of these hotels are the Best Western website and www.smallandeleganthotels.com/Paris. (Don't you wish Fodor's offered the option of just clicking on a a website address in a thread and your browser would automatically go there?)Anyway, as we wprobably won't be in the rooms much the darkness of the rooms won't be such an issue. I hope. <BR>

Patrick and Sherry- <BR>Thanks for your info about the Hotel Le Regent!

Lisa: FYI. While it's not a one step operation you can open a destination quite easily as follows. <BR> <BR>1.Highlight the URL <BR>2.Upper left, click on edit <BR>3.click on copy. <BR>4.click on file. <BR>5.click on paste. <BR>It sure beats typing the long URL's. Once you get the hang of it it works well....Paul J