My boss is traveling to Paris Nov 16 and arrives Nov 17 8AM. He would like to immediately check in to a hotel and sleep (naturally!). Is this possible? Many website that I am looking at make no mention of checking in early. I've emailed a couple and have not received a reply. I do not speak French, nor do I want to spend $$ making a long distance call and hoping the person at the other end speaks English.

Any recommendations or what can you tell me about this type of situation?

sister2,

Your post is quite confusing - especially the title...

Does your boss want to stay at a hotel in the airport area?? If he's staying in town, it will be about 10-10:30 AM by the time he checks in, so I'd say there's a 50/50 chance that a room will be available. However, I would not recommend that he go to sleep at that hour, in order to avoid killer jet lag...

He can increase his chances of getting a room early by staying at a chain whose frequent guest program he's an elite member of, but there's never an absolute guarantee.

Is he flying biz class? If so, some airlines have arrival lounges with showers which he could use to freshen up.

Hope this helps,
Andre

Call Accor International, the huge French hotel chain that operates several hotels at Roissy (DeGaulle Airport area) and ask them. US Contact: Resinter: 800-221-4542. The Novotel is a favorite with businessmen. Free navettes (shutle buses) run to the hotels. There used to also be a Cacoon Day Hotel in Terminal 1's basement, where you get a sleeping room and pay by the hour I believe. Not sure it's still there but was not long ago.

As someone else said he will have the worst case of jet lag for the rest of his trip if he does this. If he insists on it then reserve his hotel room for the night before and make it plain to the hotel he will arrive early in the AM touse the room. If you call a hotel during the daylight hours there is a good possibility that someone will speak English.

I think the advice to call Accor is a good one as they have two hotels at the airport, Novotel and Mercure. If you boss as Sheraton or Hilton points or whatever, they are there also. Bottom line is, you can do anything if you pay for it. Most hotels won't let someone check in that early without paying, although they may tell you that you can if they happen to have a room ready.

I have a feeling this isn't a big business because a couple dollars for a phone call shouldn't be a problem for a business sending someone to France to settle room reservations for the boss. Big businesses often have corportate travel agents who know and handle all this stuff also, so I guess this is just a small personal business and maybe the points programs won't work.

Any 3* above hotel will have someone to check English in the day time in reservations.

I think your boss should do what he wants regarding sleeping. People are different as to what they need and their agendas before/after that time and we don't know. Maybe he has a big business appointment that evening and can't be a zombie. Someone on business has to be sharper than a tourist. What works re jet lag doesn't work the same for everyone, anyway.

I agree that everyone responds to jet lag differently. For myself, it works to take a nap the day I arrive and stay up late that night. After a sleepless night on the plane at an hour that is around 3:00 AM back home, I am totally unable to take the advice many give here and stay up all day.

Your boss must be a professional grouch.
Most Paris hotels that I know about prepare the rooms between 10 am and noon, or even 1 pm. If it was the Astoria hotel in Munich, he would have a good chance, but in Paris you have to be a special guest to get in before 1 PM.

I agree with the others, taking a nap in the morning will only make his time adjustment worse. I am 70 years old and hit the ground running after I land.
The secret is to get out in the sunlight, get in some movement, and get a normal night's sleep the following evening.

If his flight arrives at CDG about 8 aM he will not be at a hotel in central Paris much before 11 AM by the time he clears passport control, claims his luggage, and rides in.

I think his biggest time adjustment will be coming back! I know that is true in my case.

As for finding hotel staff members that speak English, most 3 and 4 star hotels have someone who speaks English during the business day from Monday through Friday. The weekend staff is more problematical.
In one hotel I used, the Saturday desk man was a doctoral international law student at the Sorbonne who had a JD from UCLA. In another, the Saturday-Sunday guy could understand Taxi and Gare de Lyon and that was about all.

I think you will find that at most hotels, even 2 star ones, that most of the staff speak more than one language. The group often includes English, German, and Spanish.

For example,the Hotel Claude Bernard St. Germain claims its staff can speak 11 different languages.

I have yet to see a Paris hotel that advertised on the web that did not claim English as one of its languages.
Some of them also claim to speak American, which is distinct from English.
Even the no star Garibaldi speaks both English and American!! Italian is also spoken there.

If no one speaks English, I doubt if your boss wants to go there anyhow.

If he is flying business or FC he will easily be able to sleep on the flight (much more of a problem if he is flying coach but he still might get some sleep).

I can't think of any hotel that would allow an 8AM check in unless he booked for the night before. Some airport hotels do have "day rooms" where one can check in and just use them for a few hours - but I don't know personally of any at CDG. (Someone else might know)

But I echo the others - by the time he gets his luggage, clears immigration and gets into Paris it will 11AM or even later. By then his hotel MIGHT have a room available if the previous guest checked out early. If the room is not ready he can leave his bags at the hotel and head out for a light lunch in a cafe and move into his room about 1 or 2 PM. he might want to take a quick nap - but going to sleep for several hours would be the WORST thing he could possibly do. His body clock would not catch up for at least 4 or 5 days if he does that.