Hello,<BR><BR>The ratings on the site look good for this hotel but just wondered if anyone has any other comments to add on it. When hotels are so cheap you wonder what the catch is!<BR><BR>Thanks, Andrea

My husband, son, and I stayed in 2 rooms here in May. I don't have any major complaints. The rooms were clean, but very basic, not much "charm". Location in the Marais was good. Good bread and croissants available for breakfast. If price is important, I'd do it again.

I stayed at the Castex for a couple nights back in 1987, on my first visit to Paris, based on a reader's recommendation in our Frommer's book. <BR><BR>Back then, it was a no-star hotel with, we felt, great old funky Parisian charm and it was a great deal, super-inexpensive. <BR><BR>I paid a visit to it on a subsequent trip ('94?) and it had been remodeled. Gone was the funkiness but also, I felt, the charm. The price had also, of course, increased but it's still fairly inexpensive. I don't find the street it's located on very attractive, but it is in/close to the Marais which is a great area of Paris. <BR><BR>So I'd say the "catch" is probably what Liz said: clean, but basic without a lot of charm.

We stayed there for seven nights last September.<BR>Very clean, with a good mattress, spotless bathroom that is bigger than many we have seen.<BR>Our room was a courtyard room so there was no traffic noise. The downside was we were next to the stairwell and could hear every complaint from every tourist about the lack of an elevator and how hard it is to drag a 36 inch steamer trunk upstairs.<BR>We would stay there again this year if we were going.<BR>They did hold our reservation for us even though we arrived at midnight. I had informed them that we would be late.<BR>A caveat. Be sure to have a map and have identified the location before getting into a taxi at the airport. This may apply to most Paris hotels, I do not know. I had to give directions to the cabbie on how to find it, (in French of course). Rudimentary was enough. 'Go to Place de la Bastille, exit on Saint Antoine, third street on the left.'

ttt for Andrea

Thanks so much for your replies and advice!