My son is going to Paris on business soon & wants to stay over 1 extra day/night. He is looking for a clean, moderately priced & centrally located B & B or hotel. The company has him staying in a hotel for $265 & he is hoping to find something a little less expensive than that since this will be out of his pocketbook. Any suggestions? This trip is coming up within 2 weeks. Thanks.

Diane: I suggest you go directly to the web site of the Official Tourist Office in Paris (in English also). You can then choose hotels by area, arrondissement, price range, metro stops, whatever. <BR>www.paris-touristoffice.com <BR> <BR>Some other sites: <BR>www.parisavenue.com (good site as well) <BR>www.paris.org.com <BR>www.hotelboulevard.com <BR> <BR>People here will start with their good personal experiences, but good bargains within 2 weeks are pretty difficult to find as these hotels usually have just 20 to 50 rooms. So try there. I am sure you will be successful. <BR>PS: If you go though the section "France" in this forum you will find other good sites. But forget about small hotels like the favourite "Muguet", "de Turenne", "Des Grandes Ecoles", and so on. Everybody wants to go these places. They are usually solid booked for months. Good luck!

We stayed at the Famigla in the Latin Quarter in September. The rooms are small but nice. Eric the owner is friendly and helpful.

It really depends where he is staying. My strategy to minimize trouble and cost would be to move to something very close to the original hotel. In fact, unless he is out in the burbs, most likely he will see some small two star hotels near where he is staying when he is there and he can pop in and check on them. That's what I would do. If you were more specific on location I might have some suggestions. At $265, it's possible he's in the 8th or some area without a lot of cheap hotels or far out, but even in the 8th/16th I could name some. It's true the best bargains are probably booked, so my second strategy might be to go to good bargains but not in the most popular tourist areas; eg, hotels in the 12th, 13th-15th arr., etc. They don't have B&Bs in Paris (none to speak of anyway, and they aren't cheap and probably won't take you for one night). Hotelboulevard is a good idea of you want to book ahead as they will get back to you with availability for your requirements (I've read from others, I have not used them).

Thank you so much for these suggestions. He will be staying at the Hotel Sofitel, 15 Rue Boissy d Anglais while on company time. Hope to find something close to that.

Diane: The Sofitel your son stays is at Concorde métro station. What I found out through www.paris-touristoffice.com by clicking that métro Station: <BR> <BR>Nearby are: <BR> <BR>Hotel Alison**, 35 rooms. Single FF 480.- to max. 780.- <BR>www.hotel-alison.com <BR> <BR>"Abotel Résidence la Concorde", 25 rooms. <BR>Single FF 500.- to max. 900.-. <BR>www.cybevasion.fr/hot/france/75.html/ <BR> <BR>This is already quite cheaper than the Sofitel. Max. $ 130.- for FF 900.- I would say. <BR>

Diane: Wanted to check Abotel site. <BR>Could not get through to this website. <BR> <BR>Try just: <BR>www.cybevasion.fr <BR> <BR>Then go to "Paris" and the click "Concorde" or 8th arr., I think as well it would be rather time-consuming to go to a completely different area just for one night.

That is a very expensive area, so you will not find real cheap hotels around there, but there are several good buys that are lots better than that Sofitel (around 700-900F or $100-$125 per day--that is real good for that neighborhood in Paris). These are my suggestions which are within a few blocks of that Sofitel (all are 3-star hotels at 700-900F)): Hotel Mansart (see www.123france.com), Hotel Fortuny (see www.parishotels.com or www.paris-hotel-guide.com) and the Best Western Folkstone Opera (see www.bestwestern.com or www.paris-hotel-guide.com). I have not stayed at any of these but have actually heard good reports on all of them from people who stayed there, and I believe the Fortuny was recently mentioned as a good budget hotel in a Natl Geographic Traveler magazine article mentioned on this forum by others. All of these 3 hotels are closer to the Madeleine metro stop than Concordes (you cannot find anything cheap around Concordes), but that is only a few blocks and he could walk it if he does not have a lot of bags. You can book by 800 number for the Best Western, that is one advantage on that one.

Thank you mommy for finding a room for me. Will you come to Paris with me so you can wipe my hynee too?

Since the Sofitel is part of the Accor group of hotels, you might check with Accor central reservations to see if they have anything available in one of their less expensive chains (Novotel, Mercure and Ibis are 3 that I know of.) <BR> <BR>And Matt, didn't YOUR mother ever tell you "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything?" Your rudeness is gratuitous. Most of us come to this site for useful information...keep quiet if you're not interested in contributing something useful.

try the hotel bretonnerie, in the 4th. not exceedingly close to the sofitel, but about $90/night, clean, courteous staff and lots of restaurants, etc. right outside the door.