Hotels in Paris
 

We will be in Paris 9/16-9/23. We want to stay in Arr 1 but can't decide between the Hotel Des Tuileries or the Pavillon Lourve Rivoli. We're looking to be close to the Metro, restaurants, cafes, etc. My husband loves parks and gardens. What do you folks recommend? Why?
Thanks for your input - I really need all the help I can get.
Karen

Have you checked availability? It's a bit late to be booking a hotel in Paris for this september.

I'm told that there's room at the inn.

Hi

Have you checked out the reviews for the hotels on tripadvisor.com? If you need some general info you can check out my trip report from Paris on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com/Paris_France.htm . My wife and I went there in April :d Get in touch if you have any questions.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

You can easily walk to the Tuileries from either hotel. Both hotels don't rate that well at Trip Advisor with the Hotel des Tuileries rating #933 vs. the Pavillon Louvre rating #520.

Personally I would stay in the 5th near the vicinity of rue St. Jacques and Blvd. St. Michel that's next to the Luxembourg Gardens which I find more attractive than the Tuileries.

I suppose you don't have much choice given your dates as September is high season and most hotels are booked in advance. Check www.laterooms.com for other choices.

Based on location, I would probably go with the tuileries on rue St Hyacinthe. Really they aren't that far apart so it isn't a big thing, it's just that is a big closer to place Vendome, the Madeleine/Opera and place du Marche St-Honore. There is some good shopping around those locatons -- gourmet food shops and other things. And it's a little farther away from the Louvre entrance and that part of the arrondisement which seems more hectic to me. It's just closer to some restaurants and places I know and like, but maybe the other is just as good.

YOu have to judge the hotels by what you like and price, but I also would give a slight nod to the Tuileries just because it's a member of Logis de France and Chateaux of France, and I've had good experiences with both.

I would ignore the numerical ratings on tripadvisor.com. Those are really an indication of how many reviews have been received, not the hotels' popularity o worthiness.

I highly recommend ( as have other Fodorites) the reasonably priced Hotel Mansart. You can walk to the Tuilleries and it is right around the corner from the Place Vendome and the Ritz. Check their website for web only deals.

Here's a very detailed review I wrote if you're interested:

http://www.parisescapes.com/paris_sl...l_mansart.html

Have a great trip - C

Check out Le Relais Saint Honore. They are a block away from Les Tuileries. My mother stayed there while visiting me in Paris two years ago. The rooms are absolutely beautiful. And the staff was very helpful with everything.

http://sainthonore.free.fr/

Underhill, are you sure about your Trip Advisor theory? For example, under "Paris Hotels" the Bassano was rated as #1 for months until a few weeks ago where the Hotel Residence Foch has replaced the Bassano which has dropped to #3.

When someone submits a review they rate the hotel in different categories based on Trip Advisor's criteria. The ratings the reviewer assigns decide the hotel's standings overall. People who vote the reviews as being either helpful or unhelpful do not affect the standings.

The Mansart is excellent--if you can get a reservation. We usually have to begin trying a year in advance for September there.

The TA ratings are based on reader comments, and some of those need to be taken with a grain of salt. I'd rather trust actual reviews plus, where possible, mini-reviews in current guidebooks.

I don't know what the Tripadvisor thing is, and that's the problem. But I don't think it is meaningful in any way for anything in a large city like Paris, even if you knew what it was. What does it mean to say a hotel is no. 933 in popularity out of 1500 listed? nothing, because whatever formula they have for comparing hotels (they say it includes a lot of stuff, even guidebooks, reviews, etc.), you need to compare a hotel to others within the same category and geographic area, narrowly. So, if you are looking for a 3* hotel in the Louvre area, it doesn't do you any good whatsoever to rank a hotel within all hotels of Paris in some preference order.

So I don't know what the number means, but don't think it's of any use except in small towns where there aren't many hotels or they are all fairly similar you are comparing.

The reviews on the Tuileries on Tripadvisor aren't terrible and range from 1 to 4-5 (out of 5), with an averge of 3 which is midrange. So, okay, let's say this is an avg. hotel, there is nothing wrong with that. Even a ranking of 933 out of 1577, whatver that means, doesn't mean terrible, it's around the midrange.

That is the problem with comparing hotels to each other in some order. As a statistician, I know that some people thing average is terrible, but it's not -- it's like Garrison Keillor's joke about how all the children in Lake Woebegon are above average.

If you like gardens, make for the Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, though its' probably better in spring/early summer. Yuo might also catch some "wild life" of a different sort [the Bois is a well-known cruising area for "ladies" of the night!]

What's the difference between readers' comments vs. actual reviews and reviews in guidebooks? They are all subjective.

For Trip Advisor, I always sort and read the worst reviews first. Some are legitimate (e.g., dirty rooms) others give hotels poor ranks for trivial reasons. For example, I ate at the hotel restaurant, I ordered a steak medium-rare, I received a medium steak, the hotel apolgized and comped my table's $150 bill, but this should have never happened so I give the hotel a "1". I kid you not :)- I actually read a review like this.

If all of the worst reviews are trivial, I'll still stay at that hotel even if the overall rank is "average". Have others had this experience? - C

I agree with ParisEscapes about TripAdvisor. I look for reviews that have mostly 5 stars, and I've never been disappointed in the hotels I've picked from TA that way; in fact, they've all been great. TA is a good addition to the info that you can get from these threads.

Some time back a poster raved about the Hotel Brighton on Rue de Rivoli - superb views over the Tuileries and beyond. I think it's nearer to a metro stop than your two hotel picks karen0721.

We just spent six days at the Renaissance Place Vendome and enjoyed our location very much. It was pricey, but it was a business trip too. Right around the corner from the metro, the garden, the museums, excellent service.