Is Caron de Beaumarchais worth 184 Euros more than Hotel Queen Mary?
 

I have narrowed it down to two hotels. Caron de Beaumarchais in the Le Marais district (4th), which will be in walking distance to Notre Dame and Louvre. However, this hotel is 184 Euros more (which is a lot more in American dollars) than Hotel Queen Mary? (which is in the Madeline/Opera area) For the Hotel Queen Mary, I will be in walking distance to Champs-Elysees and perhaps the Louvre??

For people that have stayed at Caron de Beaumarchais, I can only afford the courtyard rooms and not the front facing rooms. Also, I am used to higher end hotels that are upscale and elegant. (something to keep in mind when thinking about the hotel and location.) Small rooms don't bother me if they are furnished nicely and have some nice details.

Thanks to everyone who has been SO HELPFUL!

Keep in mind, the French refer to the airshaft as a courtyard.
I stayed at the Caron in the "courtyard" room.
Elegant it is not but I enjoyed my stay there very much.

Cigalechanta - It looks elegant on the website with pretty chandeliers and all the french details. Do the courtyard rooms not have those details?

Will there be enough room for two adults with luggage? I don't care if the room is big but enough room to put my lugage down, etc.

I have never stayed at the Caron, but many of hotels where I have stayed had elegant lobbies, but the rooms are just "nice".

Scatcat - that is fine. I have learned that I can't have it all on a limited budget of $200 or under a night. Care to share your elegant lobbys of hotels? haha.

It looks as if the Caron has an elegant lobby. Also the Hotel Jolanda in Santa Margherita Ligure has an elegant lobby adorned with antiques and reproductions of antiques. The Ambassador(several years ago) in Prague was nice, but the rooms were equally as elegant.

Scat - hotels of your liking in Paris??

No elegant hotels in Paris for me. The last 4 visits to Paris I stayed at Hotel Bonaparte. I absolutely love the location. I love to shop, so this is perfect for me. No fancy lobby, rooms are nice, AC, internet in the lobby, and I have never had a bad shower there. I don't like to spend a lot on rooms. I spend my Euros on LV.

I think you will enjoy staying at the Caron. It is a beautiful, charming hotel with a great staff and lots of character. I do not like the location of the Queen Mary. The Caron is a much, much better neighborhood and more central. I have never stayed at the Queen Mary, but the websites does not make it look upscale, elegant or charming.

<<For the Hotel Queen Mary, I will be in walking distance to Champs-Elysees and perhaps the Louvre>>

I see no advantage to this. Stay at the Caron.

Jill, Paris has so much beauty to be enjoyed outside your room that you might want to lower your hotel expectations in Paris and find your elegant rooms in those places on your itinerary that don't command such a high room price;;)

You seem to resonate with Christina's style of travel. Possibly she might come up with more suggestions for you in the 4th, 5th or 6th arrond. allowing you to enjoy Paris and still be satisfied with your hotel choice.

A/C rather than chandeliers would be the only requirement essential for your comfort during June/July and there are a number of hotels that would offer you a pleasant stay for less than the C. Beaumarchais. Personally, I prefer the fun and active night life found in the 4th and 5th arrondissements of Paris which is why I stay there and would not stay in the 8th.

I try to avoid Paris during the summer and the one time I was there in August in a hotel with A/C the temps barely got about 70!!!

Good luck in your hotel search, Deborah

My room had two small closets. It was annoying to have the Tv almost on the ceiling. The bathroom had a metal fixture for the door that was in front of the toilet. I cut myself on it. My window looked out to the airshaft=courtyard that had been disquied as a plant room. But saying all that, the owner was very nice, breakfast had good croissants and one of the best tasting yogurt.The staff was very friendly and the location was the bestI could imagine in that area. If you click on my name you'll see my trip report.

I guess it's the front rooms that are larger at that hotel, not the rear, I couldn't remember. I think someone said once the smaller ones were only about 10-11 m2, but I'm not sure on that.

You can walk to the Louvre from the Caron, actually, I bet it's not that much difference in distance. YOu can walk to the Louvre from either of those hotels. You wouldn't want to walk to the Champs-Elysees, though, from there.

The Caron does have an elegant lobby, I've seen it. DK about the rooms, lots of times places that look elegant in photos, look a little shabbier in person, that's all. I stayed at a place in the Marais like that, actually, just a couple months ago (the Villa Beaumarchais). Now that room was a good size, and the bath was huge. the room was faded elegance, I guess. It was comfortable enough.

I don't know which you'd like better, as I don't know much about the rooms of the Queen Mary. I don't think its neighborhood is worse than the other, though, people disagree on that point. I find the location of the QM more convenient for location and public transportation, actually and I like to do things around there -- from concerts at the Madeleine to the ballet at the opera, to shopping, to dining and movies.

The QM looks kind of standard conservative, though, I don't think I'd call that elegant, either. So I think for you, I'd put my bets on the Caron de B. for the style thing. But if you are disappointed that it is just shabby chic, not sure. I had a friend who stayed with her mother at the Caron de B and loved it.

You started out wanting the 1st, 7th or 8th - none of which would be my choice - especially the 8th. Now you have decided the 4th looks good. That is getting warmer. Back on one of you earlier threads it was suggested you look in the 4th, 5th and 6th.

You started out w/ 2 choices - added a couple, dropped them but stuck w/ the Queen Mary (TA has mainly decent reviews but a consistent theme of tiny rooms, and poor a/c - the photos don't seem to meet any of your requirements) and added the Caron de Beaumarchais, which is in an entirely different price range. Apples and Oranges. Don't know about others, but that doesn't seem an easy way to pick a hotel.

It might help to ask which neighborhoods are best and the best budget hotels in those neighborhoods.

Jill
Years ago my two sisters and I did a spur of the moment trip to Paris. We stayed in a hotel right across the street from Gare du Nord. The hotel was not so nice, but the staff were so helpful and the room was clean and good AC for sleeping.

We still had a fabulous time in Paris! We only came back to the room to shower and sleep. So my bet is: you will love Paris regardless of the hotel you choose. And no, we never stayed there again. lol

We stayed in the 6th last summer at the Hotel du Fleurie. It's a 3 star. We paid 170 Euro for a double. It has AC and an elevator. We loved the location. Lots of restaurants and shops, and little streets to wander after full days of sightseeing around Paris. Hotel du Fleurie is not "elegant", although my definition of elegant would not include a Westin, so it's all relative.

Janis - Yes, throughout all of the threads and learning about different areas of Paris. I definitely have changed my mind about where I want to stay now. So glad for Fodors and all the wonderful advice. Thank you. I don't want to stay in the 7th anymore. I also don't think I want the 5th (Latin Quarter.) So, I think I have changed my mind to 4th, 5th, or 8th now.

To everyone that has been so kind, I thought I would share my Europe itininiary with you all:

-Paris, Cannes, Venice, Lake Como (Bellagio) and Lucerne

I am so excited! We are going for three weeks!!

<i>I stayed at a place in the Marais like that, actually, just a couple months ago (the Villa Beaumarchais). Now that room was a good size, and the bath was huge. the room was faded elegance, I guess. It was comfortable enough. </i>

Christina, I rented an apartment quite close by Villa Beaumarchais on my last visit and I wanted to walk right in and have a look around because for me that is an ideal location, very close to what I like, but in such a quiet little nook. Anything else remarkable/good/bad about it? I prefer to rent apartments but appreciate hotels if I'm only staying a few days. Faded elegance or whatever is fine with me.

Jill, I'd probably choose the Caron de Beaumarchais out of the two you've listed. Not having stayed at either, much less both, I can't say whether it's worth it. Have you looked at the Paris Left Bank Hotels and Paris Right Bank Hotels threads on this board?

I can understand you wanting to get the best hotel available in your price range, but I think you'll find when you get to Paris that the hotel is not nearly as important as you currently believe it is.

One thing to remember about looking at pictures on a hotel's website is that you will seldom get the room you're viewing. I've learned after years of travel experience that pictures are taken whenever the room(s) have been most recently rennovated and they use a camera angle that often makes a very small room look quite a decent size. Location should be your primary concern.

I do hope you'll be happy with whatever hotel you choose, but I also know for certain that you will love Paris...great room or not.

<<You seem to resonate with Christina's style of travel.>>

That's a funny remark as I don't spend a lot on hotels and never stay in elegant or expensive ones, and don't dine in expensive restaurants or like to shop. And I don't stay in all the prime tourist areas in Paris that a lot of people prefer. So I don't think I'm a good role model for the OP. In fact, I know my taste is not the norm for typical tourists, and I try to make that clear when I say I don't like the Marais, St Germain, etc. I know a lot of websites and hotel reviews so can comment on a lot of them, and know Paris very well, but my personal travel style is not the OPs at all. It is also ironic that I do like to stay in the Latin Qtr which others have convinced the OP to reject, but I don't stay in the part most tourists are familiar with or what most people mean when they say that (which is just a small area near the Seine). You don't get a lot of elegant hotels in the Latin Qtr, however, but hotels are a bit cheaper there so you can maybe get more for your money. I think the HOtel Pantheon and a few others are just as nice as the ones in question here.

Ultimately, I think any of these fairly central areas are fine for a tourist, one should pick a hotel that appeals the most and is conveniently located.

Leely -- the Villa Beaumarchais had pluses and minuses. It was the best for my purposes in that neighborhood. I wrote a review on Tripadvisor, you can read it -- I don't know if my name is on there, but it was shortly after my stay last Sept/Oct and I commented on the stained carpet.

The bed was comfortable, the room spacious, the staff nice, and things worked fine. It was a good location for me for my purposes at that time, and one thing that is important to me -- it was extremely quiet. Not only is it off the main streets, the the rooms themselves look onto a quiet interior area, not the street. Drawbacks are as mentioned in my review -- room and carpet a bit shabby, weird placement of the furniture in the corner room I had (but other rooms don't have that issue).

One big advantage is that it is very easy to get this hotel at about half rack rate. The rack rate is obscene and a joke (I think around 350 euro for a corner double room like I had). I got it half off in peak season, which is easy to do on discount websites. I used www.booking.com and everything went fine. I think those VIlla hotels, which are a chain, price their rooms much higher than they expect to get, I have no idea why, as I noticed all their hotels in Paris are discounted on booking.com and places like that. Now 180 euro a night for a double in a 4* hotel in the Marais is about typical, but paying 360 euro would be absurd. I might add that I considered some others that were as or more expensive in the Marais, and they didn't have as good a location or were only 2* hotels or something. Hotels in the Marais have really gone up in price in the last few years.

I have no idea what to suggest to the OP because what she wants is not possible on her budget, that's the problem. You cannot get upscale, elegant hotels in prime tourist areas for 140 euro a night, which is about her budget.