Hotel Le Madison, Paris
 

We have researched and reseached this hotel to death but still have questions.

We currently hold a 'run of the house' reservation through Utell at 154 euro. We have requested a double bed but think that this request will put us in a courtyard view or less desirable room since the hotel's descriptions of all the blvd. facing rooms (type 1, type 2) seem to say "twin".

Can someone please tell us if the best rooms (facing the blvd.) have twin or double beds?

Thanks.

I guess this a long shot, but have you thought about calling the hotel and asking them? It's doubtful if anyone here has stayed in every single room facing the street to know, but I'm sure the hotel could tell you the correct answer.

Hello Patrick, we plan to call tomorrow but thought someone here could give us some info before we call. The more information we have the better since the people at some hotels only tell you what they want you to know.

By the way, we appreciated your apartment information and contacted the owner, but cre said it was already booked. Maybe we can try it the next trip.

Thanks.

I'm not sure I understand this question. Are you assuming you will get only one twin bed for two people? Certainly you aren't. Unless the two of you are small, a pair of twin beds (which is the "twin" the hotel referred to) is, in my opinion, much superior to a double bed. Granted you might not be sleeping together, but sometimes you can even get the hotel to shove the two twins against each other, giving you the equivalent of a king size bed.

And as for facing the boulevard, I'm not sure why that is so desirable either. Guess we all have our own preferences, but for me I'd rather not be facing the street because you will get noise, regardless of what the brochure tells you. Good luck.

Hello Wayne, we are referring to a room with two twin beds. The hotel descriptions on their website indicate that the Type 1 and Type 2 rooms have two twin beds - they seem to be desirable rooms at this hotel - facing the blvd. The Le Madison is set back from the street so noise may not be a problem. We are trying to structure our request so that we make the most of the rate we have reserved for this hotel. Thanks for your help and advice.

PS: Wayne, we are staying at La Residenza on via Emilia in Rome for two nights at the beginning of our trip. We read your recommendations and that of a few others, did some research and decided to try it.

If you hold a "run of the house" reservation, doesn't that mean you can end up with whatever is available-twin or double bed? So even if you find out what the bedding arrangements for the best rooms are, it doesn't appear that you'd be guaranteed them.

The twin-bedded rooms tend to be larger. The two beds are usually pushed together (or can be), however, so you essentially have one large bed. We usually request twins just for the extra space.

That hotel is set back from the street, but not that much -- that is a major artery, so that isn't going to affect the noise much, if at all. There are still crowds of people walking all around the sidewalks and they can be noisy. I think it might be nice to have a window overlooking the street to see the street activity, but a courtyard view could be quieter. I haven't stayed in that hotel, so don't know if the street rooms are generally nicer/larger all around. Twin rooms do tend to be larger than double-bedded rooms in a lot of hotels, for necessity.

Hello, Marianna. I forgot you were the one I mentioned the Sant. apartment to.
I have yet to ever see a "twin" room in Paris where the two twins weren't already pushed together as one bed. Usually the double bed (as opposed to a "double room" will be a very small bed. I would certainly think that the "best" rooms would be twins and not rooms with just a double bed.

The windows at the Madison are double glazed and that, along with the set-back from the boulevard, keeps noise to a minimum. Anyone walking along the street tends to stick to the sidewalk along the Blvd. St.-Germain, not the little area directly in front of the hotel. First comes the Blvd., then a little oblong "place" with trees, then a narrow road running behind the place, and then the sidewalk in front of the hotel.

The first time we stayed at Le Madison we had a front room on the corner, and it was quite large. The twin beds were separated, not pushed together, and there was a daybed in addition. The rooms on the top floor are evidently even larger, judging from some pictures.

Marianna, we stayed at Le Madison in 2002, and had booked a superior room through Utell. We got a room facing the blvd that had either a double or queen bed, can't remember which. The room rate that we got was quite a bit less than other websites were offering, but didn't include the buffet breakfast in the rate.
Last year we stayed at the Best Western Left Bank St Germain which we liked better.

What made you prefer the Left Bank St.-Germain?

We liked the location better, staff were very friendly. We had a room on the 5th floor and could see Notre Dame from the window.The room was every bit as nice as Le Madison if not better, also had a got a very good rate using the BW website - 120 euros in August including breakfast.

Skylark, can you say why you feel the room at the Left Bank St. Germain was better than the one you had at Le Madison? I saw a few pictures of the Left Bank St. Germain's rooms on parisby.com and they look a bit old-fashioned which I guess fits the hotel well. But Le Madison's rooms look more modern.

I'm not skylark, but having stayed at the Hotel Left Bank, St. Germaine a couple of times I think I could answer that. You actually described it very well yourself, francophile, the rooms are more old-fashioned, (which is probably why I liked them). The rooms at the Left Bank have old exposed wood beams either in the ceiling or on some of the walls. The walls are fully upholstered with colorful and "old fashioned" toile fabrics (that's scenic design in a single color). Most rooms have an antique desk and some very nice old prints as well. The beds are not old, however. We've always seemed to have very comfortable and luxurious beds, made up with very nice linens. The deluxe (or maybe they call them superior) rooms have a third bed, a sort of full day bed built into an alcove, which is a life-saver for holding clothing and even open suitcases if you want as the "closet" is pretty miniscule. The baths are fully covered in marble and have very spacious counter space as well as wall mounted showers in full tubs. We have stayed in three rooms there, and all have been pretty identical. My own drawback was that we nearly always froze in July or August as the air conditioning cannot be controlled individually, and our rooms were freezing. Rather nice at night with the big duvets, but a bit uncomfortable when returning to the room after a hot day of sightseeing.

Patrick, thanks for the description.