monpetit

What is questioned me is that since the manager's reply and her offer to everyone to have the thankfull card of
everittp, we have no news from everittp...

Is she trying to find an answer or is
she ashamed to have given an opinion without thinking that hotel's manager
inform them on this kind of forum...

I am dubtfull about someone who gives a so bad description but who is stayed 10 days+ in the room...
And the hotels are not missing in this part of Paris...

For the Breakfast's price it seems me always too high for a continental
breakfast over 8 € and so a coffee with a croissant in a cafe is a much better solution...
Erik.

Nina66

Several years ago some friends made their first trip to Paris. I don't know the name of their hotel, but I know that it was small, family run, probably in the 5th or 6th, but I'm not sure.

They usually ate large lunches and then ate dinner in their room or on the back patio. (eating dinner in a restaurant is usually the highlight of our day, but to each his own).

One evening as they were heading back to the patio, bags of food in hand, the owner stopped them and told them, 'no, no, you must wait here'.

They thought that he was telling them that they couldn't eat on the patio, but they followed his instructions and waited in the lobby.

A few mintues later the owner reappeared and summonded them to the patio. Lo and behold - he had put a table cloth, silverware, glasses, plates, AND a candle on the previously bare table.

Only in Paris.

Nina

tod

Whichever way you look at it Mdm.Isabelle, the customer is always right and even if you disagree you should not have attacked her in the manner in which you did.
I reckon you need to do some really professional housekeeping and some major sucking-up.

Christina

I thought the owner had a right to respond, also, and some of those things make a lot of sense. I thought the complaint was whining, anyway. It seems a lot of hotels Rick Steves use may have this food policy, and I wonder if the correlation is with his groups and the desire for these people to eat so much in the rooms and make messes. I eat in rooms in my hotels, but nothing unusually messy, nor do I ever leave garbage in the waste can to spoil or make a mess (I can't stand the smell of banana peels myself), nor ever leave crumbs on anything. I don't really eat much but sometimes some cheese (or chocolate, of course), and occasionally a roll with the cheese. I really do not get the no alcohol in the rooms, but again, maybe a lot of Rick Steves people spill things.

That is true about the minibar, I have noticed in some hotels it is warm around the minibar and figured it was some appliance thing I didn't understand.

And that is a typical hotel breakfast price, nothing that unusual, but you aren't forced to eat it. I never do.

Ann1

Monpetit....She posted that message a month ago!!! Maybe she isn't reading Fodors now! Don't question someone's reasoning until you see the date it was posted.

Tod is 100% correct.

Nina66

We've never stayed in any Rick Steves recommended hotels, but years ago ate in several of his restaurants in Paris.

Bad choices ... mediocre food, and poor service. Obviously the recommended hotels and restaurants know that through Steves, they will have their rooms and tables filled and don't have to go to any extra pains to update or improve service.

A girlfriend is going to Paris for the first time in over 30 years and has just 'discovered' Rick Steves. She lives in another city and emailed me the other day about how wonderful his books are and how she has given them to several friends as gifts. She asked if I am familiar with him .. (Linda if you are reading this, I'm sorry, but the truth is the truth).

I tried as gently as possible to clue her in. Fortunately she will be staying with local friends and will probably eat at restaurants of their choice.

Nadiafrance, I'm glad that you enjoyed the tour. My friend who looks like she exists on lettuce leaves, rail thin and I don't think I've ever seen her eat a meal, said that on his Ireland tour, they almost starved to death. Finally the tour guide took pity on the group and told them to order whatever they wanted and he would take care of it with Rick Steves & Company...

Nina

Ann1

Some of Rick Steves picks are ok, some aren't. The thing that bothers me is that some hotels we've gone to out of his book tell us that he says who he is when he comes to see the establishment. Of course they're going to show him the best areas. That shouldn't be. He should send unidentifiable people, pay for the night and give a real recommendation. We recently stayed in a B & B in Bruges he gave a good review to. They didn't have soap in the rooms. We had to go out and buy it. When we were finished with our towels we put them all in a heap on the bathroom floor(a sign we wanted new towels) we found them hanging when we returned. We took them to the owner and insisted on clean ones. Other guests there had the same complaint. Another time he gave a horrible review to a hotel that I had already made reservations at and when we arrived the hotel was beyond fabulous.

So you can't rely on one person for recommendations.

monpetit

According to her other replies in the european forum she was there the 23rd., the 26th and the 27th..

Bad luck she is not going to see which responses were to her reply...

I have never made a so bad reply to a
question, but if one day I'll make it,
I would see sometimes if I have got some respons...

So I am always questionned...
Erik.

Margie

Of course owner had a right to respond - no one said she didn't. However, as far as the complaint being whiny, I still say that there is no excuse for dirt and mold (something that everittp complained about but everyone here is focusing on the price of a breakfast that she didn't (seem) to order and therefore didn't pay for. Sometimes an experience is not totally fabulous and wonderful - would you prefer for someone to review a hotel and say "the bathroom was moldy and the dirt was an inch thick behind the door" or "we found the mold so refreshing as we don't have that at home, and the dirt behind the door really added texture to the room" ?

Maybe her delivery wasn't the best, but I would certainly rather hear of a hotel's shortcomings then for someone to gush over something that wasn't worth the 143 euro they were charging.

everittp

To update all of you, the following was posted on the Rick Steves board:
'Best: Hotel de Londres Eiffel
Why: I just wanted to post a note about the hotel and specifically room '&. my son and I just finished our stay in that very room and we had none of the issues noted previously. We found the hotel to be quite clean and comfortable. The staff was exceptionally friendly and helpful. We would recommend the hotel to anyone coming to Paris."

So by September apparently, the problems that concerned me most, (mouldy shower, hole in the bathroom wall, filthy carpets, inch of dust on baseboards) had been remedied. I should hope so!


As has been noted by other readers here, we did not choose to eat their breakfast, so of course we were not charged for it. I can only attribute the owner's note about not charging us for breakfast to a problem with reading English. Since I have even more serious problems reading French, I didn't think it necessary to respond here to that comment. We did, of course, carefully announce to the receptionist, as soon as the tour part of our stay was over, that we would NOT be eating their breakfast. At 13 Euros per person, my daughter and I were much happier doing as Rich Steves suggests and shopping at local markets for 'picnic' foods. We has purchased cutlery sets from Steves' store and used them in the room with bandanas for tablecloths which we then shook out the window. I can only assume that the owner doesn't read or watch Rick Steves travel suggestions, or she wouldn't have been so surprised by our preference to "eat as the locals do.". After the owner fixed the mini bar, we stored our morning ration of a banana each, yoghurt, and granola bar and bottle of fruit juice in the mimi bar, which we then consumed as a leisurely start to our day. We did carry our containers and banana peels out after the owner complained that she feared vermin would be attracted to our room. Before that, we were depositing them wrapped in the plastic bag in the waste basket. However, being on the 4th floor, perhaps the housekeeping did not empty those waste baskets soon enough. I will say that we did not observe any vermin at all.

I've just returned from back-to-back Florence/Venice Rick Steves' tours where I did eat in the rooms. Both hotels were clean, quiet, and very hospitable. As I mentioned in my original post, I was fearing that I would encounter more of the same 'false advertising' but I was pleased with both hotels. So perhaps, Londres Eiffel Hotel had not been reviewed recently or the reviewer had been shown the newly renovated rooms, not the upper ones.

Londres Eiffel at 143 euros a night was the most expensive. It is very conveniently located, so I did not mind the price. However, had we used their breakfast, we'd have paid another 26 Euros a night for what I consider a mediocre breakfast. In Florence, I stayed at Hotel Accademia for 85 Euros per night (single occupancy, Steves' discount) and that included the very adequate breakfast, similar to Londres Eiffel (i.e. yoghurt, juice, fruit, bread, cereal and coffee). 85 Euros was the Rick Steves' discount charged me as a pre-tour price. The bath did have mould on the grout. I quietly asked the owner to look at it and my room was bleached! No question, no attitude, no recriminations. Even though I was paying the discounted price, the room was cleaned to my standard.
In Venice, I stayed at Hotel Belle Arti at 120 Euros including the same breakfast. The room was clean, quiet, central and the staff hospitable. I received the discounted rate for all the 5 extra days that I stayed post tour. In both cases, I openly brought fruit, granola, chocolate etc. for my bedtime picnics and left it out on the desk in the room. No one questioned the practice. The staff was helpful in showing me where I could buy local produce.
Steves is right. Shopping at the local grocery store or outdoor market is a lovely way to sample the real life of the local inhabitants. I confess I appreciate being able to do a week's grocery shopping at a time after daily loading my purchases in my little day pack and hiking all those steps over each tiny canal in Venice. I enjoyed playing patty-cake with the cranky baby while his mother stood in line with her fruit, milk and diapers.

I did reply in writing to thank the owner of Londres Eiffel for fixing the shower and the mini bar. Normally, I'd have just thanked her verbally, but she was not at the front desk and I did want to acknowledge that she had fixed the shower and fridge. By the way, the bar was definitely NOT working. It was warmer inside the 'fridge' than in the room. We had been leaving our fruit and yoghurt on the windowsill outside until the fridge was fixed. I disconnected it and reported it as I really feared it to be a danger. After they exchanged it for another, I removed all the drinks, and used it to store my food; an action I don't normally do, but given her fears about food smell attracting vermin, I though that prudent. In fact, several other couples on the tour reported doing exactly the same thing. Of course we replaced all the contents exactly as we found them before we vacated the rooms. And I'll bet lots of you do the same thing!

I hope this now answers all the questions raised by my July 30th post, by the hotel owner's response, and by those of you who responded. I was very surprised to see her response posted here, (and emailed to me directly as well). Obviously, I expected her to read the evaluations on the Rick Steves board. However, Fodors must be another site she monitors. Perhaps more of those whose income depends on tourists read Fodors (and other boards) than I expected. This encourages me (and I hope all of you) to also use these travel boards to rave or rant. Paying high prices out of savings and limited retirement pensions means we have to at least try to make our dollars purchase reasonable services.

Happy trails to all of you.

DrTom

Just wanted to add my 2 cents, or Euros in this case.

I have stayed in the Hotel Londres Eiffel three times in the last 16 months, each time for 1 week (June 04, Sept 04, and Oct 05). I too originally stayed there as part of a Rick Steves' tour (June 04).

This is a great hotel and is being represented unfairly in this thread. In fact, I have stayed in a different room each time - including the "dreaded" room 41 in 2004, and never had a problem with dust, mold or non-functioning plumbing.

The rooms are clean and well maintained. The breakfast is optional. It features coffee, croissonts, baguettes, fruit, yogurt, etc. If you desire a full breakfast with eggs, etc, there are cafes nearby that offer that. Guests are not obligated to have breakfast in the hotel.

In the positive sense, the hotel is quaint and clean; the hotel staff are friendly, and the location is unbeatable (literally 5 min walk from the Eiffel Tower), which means you can walk there and see it close up at night.

As far as not eating in the rooms, that was not an issue for me. Usually ate at cafes nearby.

Anyhow, sorry about the length of the reply, but I've stayed at this hotel a total of 21 days in the last year and a half and have NEVER had a problem & am in the habit of recommending it to friends. I was very surprised to see it represented so poorly here.
--TB; Phx AZ, USA

Christina

Now I know to avoid Rick Steve's hotels if those people like to throw their crumbs and garbage out the windows, and put garbage (ie, banana peels) in a wastebasket, which is meant for trash, not garbage. I guess it's too bad the hotel owner doesn't realize what Rick Steves' followers like to do and that Rick has told them to shake their stuff out the windows, so of course they must because they do everything he says.

JMMushkin

I just happened across this thread while I was looking for the hotel’s website in order to send an e-mail there hoping to have it delivered to my wife (staying there with friends). Wow! I hope it’s true that the place has cleaned up its act in the last few months!

My wife reports that the place is very nice, and it’s important to note she would scream if she saw mold or the kind of dust described earlier.

Regarding the whole Rick Steves phenomenon … it’s sad but the places he recommends almost invariably get spoiled by hordes of novice travelers. It’s too bad, really, because certain picks of his (e.g. the Hotel Champ de Mars) are really great deals. I found that place on my own back in 1998 right after Stephane and Francoise took it over (a French friend called and got the scoop right from Francoise), only to find to my horror that everyone with Steves’ book soon knew about it! Oh well, now I can’t get in unless I book months in advance, and the crowds are slowly overwhelming the owners’ ability to keep up with the maintenance. On to new (and hopefully not so well known) gems …

georgiegirl

I browsed through old posts looking for reports on this hotel. It has good reviews in TA (#50). I wonder whether any fordorites have stayed there since 2005. I am very ahead of my planning for next year.