paris hotel delemas !!
 

Hello...

I have spent many hours researching hotels for my trip to Paris in February.

I have heard some horror stories of hotels using fake photos on the web as well as dubious reviews.

Just when I find a hotel that sounds good, i will read a review that says "this hotel was the worst hotel we ever stayed with and ruined our trip to paris !!"

Another huge fear is that the view from my hotel will be a factory wall or maybe a dumpster out the back of the hotel !!

I know that reviews are subjective, but it's still disconcerting to read that someone hated the hotel enough to write such a bad review.

Here are a few that have made my short list - I would LOVE to hear from anyone who has stayed there or has heard about first hand experiences:

** L' Apostrophe - Latin Quater **
apostrophe-hotel.com
This place looks nice on the surface but on further reading it appears that the bathroom is in the same room and the bed, so it all the one space. Although we are a couple, some privacy is still nice occasionally ! :) This sound weird to me.

** Résidence & Spa Le Prince Régent - 6th arrondissement **
This looks great on the site, but the basic room looks into the hotel's "courtyard" which could easily be code for "back alley" !!
I also read of a very bad experience where the reviewer said that the complex was not staffed and they were supposed to receive a security code via email that never arrived, so they were stuck on the street for hours trying to make contact with hotel staff. Could you imagine a worse start to your holiday !?

** Holiday Inn Paris Opera - Opera **
The reason this is on my list is because i have stayed here before and while it's nothing special, there's nothing wrong with it. It's the devil I know, I guess. The rooms are not as tiny as everyone mentions when they review a paris hotel. That said, there is nothing memorable about the hotel and the area isn't what I'd call "buzzing"....

** Hotel du College de France - Latin quater **
This one really has me puzzled ! It's rated in the top 100 out of 1875 hotels on trip advisor, yet being a 2 star hotel, how nice can it really be? The most recent reviews are all awful, yet someone else on this forum recommended it highly. My gut feel on this hotel is that it's 2 star for a reason and thats probably because it's very run down etc.


What I am looking for is a genuine paris neighborhood feel....so not out on a freeway somewhere....lots of cafes....and very close to a metro. Would really like some sort of view of the surrounding neighborhood from the hotel room - doesnt have to be the Eiffel tower, but just a nice outlook. Was looking at just arrondissements 5 & 6 but will consider anywhere that fits my description.

My budget is around E200 per night. Any first hand experience/recommendations welcome!!!

Thanks for reading! Anyone who has been through this process would know exactly what I am going through !

Tony

I recommend the Hotel College de France.

It is not the Crillon, but neither is the price.

It is near everything--a short walk to Marbert-Mutualite Metro stop. You can also walk to Notre Dame and Luxembourg Gardens. Pre Verre is across the street.

The staff is really friendly and helpful.

It is a little worn, but it is CLEAN.

If it is good enough for me, it is good enough for you.

Thin

<<My gut feel on this hotel is that it's 2 star for a reason and thats probably because it's very run down etc.>>

French hotel star ratings are nothing like U.S. hotel star ratings. Read this and you will understand why being a 2-star hotel does NOT mean it is likely to be "run down.":

http://gofrance.about.com/od/lodging/a/hotelratings.htm

I think you are confusing popularity with high level star ratings. I don't know what all tripadvisor bases it's list on, but I think part of it is popularity among its users (and I have no idea how they measure that, if you'd have to book thru them or not). So there isn't any reason at all a 2* hotel can't be in the top 100 out of 2000 hotels. In fact, I would be very shocked if some 2* hotels weren't!!!

Maybe you don't know what those ratings mean, read up on it and see if they explain.

okay, you have picked some strange hotels, I think. I have been to Paris a lot and read about it all the time and have never heard of l'Apostrophe. I've heard of other hotels with that issue that a bathroom is open to the bedroom, it's not my favorite, but it's not unheard of. Sometimes it's meant to be modern -- so don't pick it if you don't like it, hardly any hotel in Paris is like that. I'd mark off the second one, also, if I read a comment like that. Too many other hotels to choose from without picking ones with those kind of comments.

Courtyards are very common in the kinds of buildings in Paris, and they are not back alleys or they wouldn't call them the courtyard. But they are nothing special and not the courtyard of a palace, so don't expect some grand green public park space -- it's just an interior space some of those old buildings have which means a lot more rooms can have windows, actually, than just the ones overlooking the street from an (often) narrow front. It generally can be quieter than rooms overlooking a busy street, but the view is nothing to enjoy. Occasionally it can be noisier than the street, I've encountered that in one hotel, due to the echoing and other things.

Hotel Le Regent, at 61, rue Daughine, is a 3* hotel that we've stayed in several times. I don't know what the tripadvisor reviews are like, but we've been very satisfied with it (rooms are clean, bathrooms luxurious, and the rooms are the usual Paris small size), and assuming you need a double room, the rates are in your price range.

This hotel has an internal courtyard, such as the type that Christina describes. It's nothing great to look at, but you aren't looking directly into someone else's room, and those rooms are quieter. But I think their deluxe doubles all have windows on the street.

Lexma90, Hotel Le Regent looks pretty good actually...i can afford their super deluxe room which is seem a reasonable size and has a view of the street. I will make some inquiries.

Christina, yes i did make some odd choices...its the result of going around in circles late into the night! Thats why I am hoping for better suggestions !

Anyone else ?

You may have some misconceptions:

• A majority of folks would probably pick a room overlooking a courtyard rather than over the street. Reason?? -- <u>noise</u>.

Unless a room has a drop dead view of the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame and the river or something like that - a courtyard room would often be preferable to a really noisy streetside room.

• Star ratings have pretty much <u>nothing</u> to do w/ quality or cleanliness. It might be hard to understand if you are used to Stateside rating systems. The number of stars relates to specific amenities. A 2 or 3 star place could actually be cleaner or in a better location than a 4 star property. But the 4 star has more 'stuff'.

• TA is tricky. I never pick or reject a hotel based on a few reviews. Just because it has one (or a few) bad reviews, you have to read between the lines. Was the reviewer just as confused about the start ratings as you are? Or were they expecting the Ritz at Holiday Inn rates. Or did they get the worst/noisiest room in the place when other rooms are better/quieter?

I've been in Paris three times, and each time I've stayed at the Hotel Capitol, number 9 Rue Viale. It's very close to the Dupliex station on the Metro. This makes it convenient to get around Paris easily. The neighborhood is very quiet, but there are many good restaurants there. The hotel is very clean and well managed. The price was not too outlandish. I really liked the hotel, and if I ever get back to Paris, which I'm hopeful of doing, I'll go back to that hotel. It's within walking distance to the Eiffel Tower. One evening, after going to the Eiffel Tower, I forget what I did afterwards, but I ended up walking from the Tower area at about one o'clock past midnight. I had a pleasant walk, and had absolutely no fear or problem, attesting to the safe neighborhood. Another point--on the way to the Tower, if you walk beneath the elevated Metro line, when you reach the Bir Hakem station (a short walk), right at the foot of the station, is an Italian restaurant named Iolanda's. It's the best Italian restaurant I've ever been to, and I'm originally from New York and my wife grew up in Naples. That speaks a lot for this place. The owner, we found out, grew up in my wife's former neighborhood in Naples. We ate there quite often when we visited Paris.

I would recommend the Hotel Saint Jacques, also a 3* hotel. http://www.paris-hotel-stjacques.com/index.html

The location is good, and the price is in your range. We enjoyed our stay there.

Waldo, I'm glad to hear that you had a good experience at that hotel and that you had no fear walking around the neighborhood and that Iolanda's is a great restaurant, but having made 100+ plus trips to Paris and as someone who knows the city quite well, you'd never catch me around the Bir Hakeim metro stop at that time of night. The other side of the Champs de Mars, no problem, but I have several times witnessed "incidents" IN the Bir Hakeim station and on the street below it. There are only a small handful of places in Paris I'm even slightly wary of, and that's one of them. And no, I'm not talking shootings or rapes, but one was a stabbing incident, or so I was told by a policeman, and the others were a fight up on the metro platform that almost sent a young man tumbling down onto the tracks and a pickpocketing that set off a major chase out of the station and down the streets.

My dilemma (or dilemna) is that people who can't spell won't use a dictionary.
Sorry, but this drives me mad.
Having said that, evaluate the weight of reviews on these sites. If a hotel has tons of positives and a couple of horrid ones, you can probably dismiss the horrid ones. Also, don't trust reviews that promise paradise. Nothing is perfect. Pay attention to the detailed and even-handed reviews by people who lay out the high points and mmeention the negatives.
You're budget is actually pretty good. I'd pass up the Apostrophe mainly because it's in the Montparnasse area, not central to most thngs, like museums nad shops and parks, that I want to frequent.
Posters are right. If the "star" is the French gov't rating system, which ranks on amenities (an elevator? TVs?) that is quite different from, say, a Michelin "red house" rating, which goes by, among other things, poshness.
Having said that my personal preference to avoid 2-stars, just a bit too basic at this stage in my life. In earlier years, I loved the Esmeralda in the Latin Quarter for its very bohemian, faded-but-authetic Parisian atmosphere and great location (views of Notra Dame from some rooms). Now it's too funky for me.

typo. Notre Dame.

LAleslie you exactly the type of nit-picking complaining old whinge who would go around leaving bad reviews because the porter mis pronounced your name or you didnt like the taste of the mints that were left on the pillow.

Sorry...meant "you are"....would hate to offend you even further !

Now, if we can get back to reviewing hotels rather than my bad grammar ?? :)

Hi Tony,
I stayed at the Hotel de la Sorbonne in May. It is located in the Latin Quarter across from the rear of the Sorbonne and quite near the Pantheon and Luxembourg Gardens. It is within walking distance to many of the sights and has many cafe's and shops nearby. The hotel is newly redecorated and very clean. The staff were very helpful and the rates are reasonable. I am not sure of the web adress, but if you google it, you'll find it. Enjoy your trip, I love Paris and cannot wait to go back.

Hi elcon, thats a great tip, will check that out now :)

Elcon, Looking at Google street view, there doesn't seem to be a lot of cafes etc in the immediate vicinity of the Sorbonne hotel - would that be correct, or is this misleading ?

Well, as a writer and editor and publisher, I DO
care, a LOT, about how things are spelled, and delemas is the weirdest spelling I've ever seen of dilemmas or dilemnas (the alternative spelling), and it isn't a grammatical issue but a spelling one...but that said my choice of hotels in Paris comes down to primarily the Hotel de France in the 7eme, which is a 2-star, or the Hotel Duquesne, also in the 7eme, which is a 3-star.

It also helps to be able to spell the places you're planning on visiting. You're not guilty of this, but about a thousand folks a year come on this board wanting to visit Sienna or Montepulchiano or Istambul. How hard is it in this day and age where we have the internet resources to get accurate info to get the correct spelling of where you're headed?

Hotel St. Vincent in the 6th.

tony8028: "<i>LAleslie you exactly the type of nit-picking complaining old whinge who would go around leaving bad reviews because the porter mis pronounced your name or you didnt like the taste of the mints that were left on the pillow.

Sorry...meant "you are"....would hate to offend you even further !

Now, if we can get back to reviewing hotels rather than my bad grammar ??</i>"

About 90% of LAleslie's post did address your OP/questions/issues, yet you chose to focus on that one sentence. Perhaps it is you who are 'nit-picking'.

I personally wouldn't pick any of your short list, except maybe the 2 star you are leery of. But it seems your main objection is based on misunderstanding the star rating system.