Has anyone stayed at the Hilton Arc de Triomphe in Paris yet? I believe it has just opened, so I can't find any reviews on it yet. I've got award reservations for the hotel in November, and I'd like to know how it is so I can change the reservations to a different Hilton if I need to!

I would suggest waiting another month or so before asking for reviews. The place just opened on 5/10, so it may take some time for a Fodorite to actually stay there, but stranger things have happened.

Maybe a Parisian Fodorite could stop by the hotel and give us an quick report!

I'm also interested in this property.

staying there on points as well in september so am replying to send it to the top.

Found few reviews here:

<b>http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=324938&amp;page=2</b>

ouch.

Hopefully the reviews will improve as they iron out the initial problems.

Wow - thanks for posting the flyertalk link. We may have to reconsider our reservation. Even without the water problem, the response to the problem and the location make me concerned. Maybe we'll switch to the Paris Eiffel.

Check tripadvisor.com for several reviews of this new hotel. They are quite favorable! We will be staying there June 28-July 3 and hope the water problems will be soled! Will report back when we return. SK

Hi vatravel - I've stayed at that end of the road and found the location to be inconvenient for the usual sights. But if you're not doing those, there are great restaurants and shops (obviously) and it's also (obviously) a very nice neighborhood.

Also, I'm wondering how many points do you have to be able to stay there? I'm a Hilton Club member and have yet to acquire enough points to stay anywhere although I was able to wrangle half price on a weekend in Manhattan in August. Have you found the Hilton membership to be useful? Thanks for any tips.

<b>Shanna</b>,

Just recently I unloaded tons of points. I did the 6 nights Safari package in Kenya (great experience), 6 nights at the Hong Kong Conrad (Beautiful property), 2 nights at the Singapore Conrad (beautiful property, but lacking in service), and 4 nights at the Johannesburg-Sandton Hilton (very nice hotel). It was a great vacation. And all stays completely free. So, in my case HHoors was good to me, although, I'm thinking of changing the program. There are more and more reports that Golds don't get lounge access at many places. I was denied access at the Singapore Conrad. I was also not upgraded there to the Executive level when rooms were available for both nights. Many more reports of that as well. The point stretcher program is a joke. HHonors loves to talk about it and how great it is (IT WAS IMHO) but they seem to have a hard time living up to their part of the program. We had to wait almost 1/2 year this year for dates/places to be announced and when they finally came out with the list for the remainder of the year it was very short with fewer dates. Many of the properties point level was raised, while point earning possibilities were curtailed.

So , IMHO, the program just went to a great devaluation of the reward system and the mid-tier elites were/are being relagated to almost the low level elite status.

In my case, I've decided to move on to a prgram where it's still possible to earn and spend points at a reasonable level and the perks are still available to the elies as promised by the program.


BTW, there is an easy way to find out each hotel's redemption level. Go to <b>www.hilton.com</b>, insert the city and state/country in the hotel search windows, no dates required for this. When the next page shows a list of available Hilton properties, click on the one you're interested in. Once you get the hotel's front page, on the left side, in the blue window, you will see Hilton HHonors link, click and it will take you to the page where you'll see the level of the hotel, the points needed for redemption and other special offers as well as blackout dates. In the case of Paris Hilton Arc de Trionphe, it's level 6, 40K points per night.

If you want some great advice on the program and all the little tricks and possibilities that are possible, go to <b>www.flyertalk.com</b> and find the Hilton forum. Many frequent stayers post there and believe me, they know parts of the program that many of the HHonors phone reps don't. You could also post and ask qustions, and many will be very happy to help you out.

I had a reservation at the Arc Hilton from 6/16-6/22 and changed it to the Hilton Paris Eiffel Tower. This is an award stay for two rooms, Diamond status. Although I had looked forward to staying in the new property, it just wasn't ready to open yet. Reports of the lack of hot water, no mini bar, ice machines not installed, the gym and spa are not operating. Maybe it will be ready in about 6 months.

AA - many thanks for the useful information. I'm a pathetic point-gatherer and tend to travel without attending to the programs, letting them languish and die. The Hilton will probably be the same but I'll have a look for a possible October trip to Italy. Thanks again.

Sorry about not responding for so long. I really like the Hilton program for one main reason - it allows married couples to have what they call a &quot;mutual fund&quot; so stays from both my husband and I accumulate on one account. I haven't found any other program that allows us to do this (legitiately, at least, without one of us just using the other's number!). As a result, we've been able to be at Diamond status for a few years now. We also have the hilton credit cards (amex &amp; visa), and we get a lot of points that way. We used to use a frequent flyer credit card, but realized that we usually can get a good deal on a flight somewhere, but staying at a nice hotel was a much larger expense.

Bravo to AAFrequentFlyer on using the points for all those great trips! One thing I often wonder about is whether our elite status will get us anything during the free stays. We received AMAZING service, upgrades, exec. lounge privileges, treats everyday in the room, etc. at the Rome Cavalieri Hilton during our 6 night stay there last year. It was great. The London Hilton (on Hyde Park) also gave us exec lounge access last year, but the room wasn't an upgrade (I don't think it was, at least). We stayed for 6 nights at the Hilton Waikaloa Village a couple of years ago and we didn't receive any upgrades or special privileges at all, but the resort was so fabulous we didn't really mind.

Is anyone back from there recently with opinions, reviews? I have stayed at the Hilton Paris many times, and even though it had not been refurbished, the rooms were large, overlooking the tower/seine, location great. Food very good.

How is the location of this new property? We don't use the metro, usually walk everywhere, and quite a lot of walking! Are the rooms nice? Can you get a Arc or Tower or Champs view, etc? Thanks for the info, thinking of going in October.

By the way, how is the weather in October (First week, etc.)?

Thanks

Haven't stayed at this property but did use a Marriot certificate at the Marriott right on the Champs and would highly recommend it. It is right next to Sephora and across the street from Louis Vuitton.

As you may know, the weather in Paris is fickle. So early October may be cold, a bit rainy, and then again it might be warm. It's very changeable.

I assume you've seen my comments:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34504636