Hello, I have rented the Cognac apartment from Paris Perfect for mid-July 2016. I previously rented the Montrachet in October 2009 and was delighted with the apartment and the service from Paris Perfect. I had one concern before reserving the Cognac apartment. It has mobile air conditioning units which must be turned off from 10pm to 8am due to building noise restrictions (many of the Paris Perfect apartments have the same requirement). Has anyone had experience renting from Paris Perfect during hot weather in an apartment that had mobile a/c that has to be turned off at night? I'd like to hear of others experiences.

Thanks!

I don't see the point of renting an apt with AC if you have to turn it off from 10 to 8, that is the main time I want it -- for sleeping. I'd rent somethign cheaper if you have to do that. I've only rented an apt with AC in Paris once and had no such restrictions, but in fact, I didn't use it as it wasn't that hot. That wasn't from Paris Perfect, who doesn't sound that perfect to me.

Totally agree.

Mobile A/C is something useless - I have one in southern
France and am about to discard it.

So either you have A/C or you don't.

Agree that in July in Paris I would only take a place with real AC that you can run 24/7. I have spent too many 90+ days there to accept anything else. (But not a problem for us since w do only hotels with real AC.)

I've never rented an apt in Paris (I've stayed at hotels), but wouldn't find this useful. Typically the hours the A/C could be used would be when I'd be out sightseeing and having meals. Even if I were to return to the apt, it would most likely be a quick stop in. If your routine or hours are different, perhaps you'd get more use during the day.

Nonetheless, if it's a hot summer (and I've been there when it's 100), I'd want to be able to use the A/C when I was relaxing after a long day of exploring.

I rented an apartment last August in Paris and the weather was hot. It was an old building but had central AC. I was asked to turn it off during the day when I wasn't there which was not a problem. There is no way I would have been able to sleep if it hadn't been on during the night.

You never know what the weather will be like in the summer but the fact that I could not use the AC during the night would be a deal breaker for me. I would look for another apartment.

Typically, in the hot Summer months, the temperature does not cool down much at night - if at all - and there won't be any wind, either. So, even if you have several windows which could provide cross-ventilation, you wouldn't be very comfortable if you couldn't use the a/c - especially given the considerable problem of street noise in Paris.

Many apartments only provide a/c in the bedroom(s), whether it's portable units or another system. The problem is the noise (you can actually hear a pin drop in these old buildings, as strange as that may seem), and you have to abide by the rules of the co-propriete, most of which prohibit using any appliances after 10 PM. Otherwise, you and the person you have rented from can expect to hear from your neighbors and possibly the police.

There's a good reason for not running any appliances while you're not in the apartment - stuff happens. A/C units usually have a drip pan that must be emptied frequently depending on how hard the system has to work, dishwashers and washing machines can leak or overload circuit breakers (fire hazard) - all of this involves possible insurance claims, not necessarily the expense of running the units.

You can ask the agency for oscillating fans - or buy a couple yourself for around 25 EU - which frankly will provide about as much (or more) relief as the portable units, and you will be able to use the fans all night long with no problem.

These mobile air conditioning units are cheap crap. They do not work properly and you may even have to leave the window open (!) to let the exhaust air out. That's totally crazy.

I assume that they have these mobile a/c units just in order to say the aparment is "air conditioned".

You can buy these units starting from €139.

Millions of people cope without A/C at night, and manage to hold down a job during the day.
Fans will offer more relief, as will keeping the room dark during the day, using shutters or curtains, to help prevent solar gain. Fans are quieter too. The noise of A/C, especially portable ones would be more disturbing to me than the heat.

>>Millions of people cope without A/C at night<<

This is true. But in Northern Europe, we usually have just a few weeks with high temperatures per year, and during this short period of time we endure the heat.

And in Southern Europe, the buildings are cooler and they keep the shutters closed all day.

I can understand OP. In mid-July, chances are high that you catch hot and humid days and nights and your precious vacation time may be severely affected if you cannot sleep because of the heat.

However, A/C is not common in Parisian apartments, so you probably must go into the luxury segment to find one with a proper A/C (and not the mobile crap).

This thread is going into U.S. Can't cope without A/C whilst Europe doesn't need it ?

Perso I never use AC mostly for noise and ecological impact.

Most of Europe doesn't need AC except around the med.

Only guy I know on Belgium who has AC is my father.

At 636€ a night beginning July 15 (796€ a night the first half of July), I would consider the Cognac apartment a luxury apartment rental. Fans would be a good idea, but honestly, for a vacation I would would want AC at night. Otherwise, it's a beautiful apartment.

Mobile units are ok for small rooms, we had one in our small office (10' x 12', low ceilings) in SW France. Can't imagine one working well in a larger space.

I would prefer and be fine with decent fans.

Air conditioning has been a major issue in my building for some residents. We have a bank on the first two floors. The agency was totally gutted for renovation two years ago and apparently the electronic equipment room was moved to a different place. These rooms require non stop air conditioning in all seasons and the noise from the equipment was vibrating through to some of the apartments. I don't know how it was finally resolved since I am the resident who lives the farthest from the bank premises, but they were ready to take it to court.

traveller19599, living in the Netherlands I am well aware of the hot humid conditions which are possible, nevertheless, most people get through it and manage to work a normal day, also in an unairconditioned building. OP is on holiday and can ace themselves accordingly. Drawing curtains/closing blinds or shutters if available makes a big difference to internal temperatures.

Airconditoning is expensive, noisy, bad for the enviroment, and for the most part unneccessary in Northern Europe.
The mobile units in that apartment are to encourage Americans to rent it.

Yes, but in the US having AC 24/7 is the standard indoors whenever the weather is warm.

A few people my prefer sweating to death to a little noise - but any decent newer unit (less than 8 or 10 years old) is very quiet. We can't even hear the units from one room to another in the same apartment - even the 14,000 BTU unit we have in the living room/dining room. (And our 14K Friedrich unit bought new last summer - replacing one 12 years old - was less than $500 on Amazon.)

It;s too bad these buildings are so badly soundproofed - but there is no way I would give up AC in the summer - it would ruin my vacation not to be able to sleep (which requires temps of less than 70 for me).

I think you will just have to decide how much you are willing to suffer versus choosing other lodging.

Not all mobile air conditioners are crap. You have to get the right kind. We have two -- one for our living room and one for the master bedroom. They cool nearly as well as the wall-mounted air conditioning unit in my office. In addition, there are kits you can buy that fit around the window opening to minimize the "leakage". (If you look carefully, you will see all around Basel old buildings with round holes cut into the windows -- that's so the air conditioning hose can fit into the hole during the summer months without having the window open. In cooler months, the holes are covered.)

Ours aren't as quiet as my office wall unit, but they aren't all that loud. We used them only about five or six nights last summer, but on the nights when we did use them, we were grateful. My colleagues who didn't have air conditioning on those hot nights either slept very poorly or slept down in their basements (if they lived in houses with basements and even then they said they didn't sleep well). We bought our first mobile AC unit in 2005, two years after the 2003 European heat wave that killed thousands. However, to minimize our use of AC, we had screens installed on our apt windows two years ago so we can have them wide open day and night with no critters -- mosquitoes, flies, wasps etc -- winging in to bother us. (DH is allergic to bee and wasp stings)

Like someone posted above, I also consider PP apartments as luxury apts. For a customer not to be able to use the AC at night when it was felt to be needed would be a deal killer. If AC really matters, then stay in a hotel with AC that can be run at night. OTOH, if staying in a PP apartment is the OP's top priority, then perhaps the holiday could be changed to a cooler time when AC won't be an issue. (We are not hot weather people so never holiday in the summer.)

>>Yes, but in the US having AC 24/7 is the standard indoors whenever the weather is warm. <<

Maybe where you live. Here in San Francisco and the SF Peninsula south to about San Carlos - I don't know a single household that has air conditioning. Zero houses in our San Mateo Park neighborhood have AC - and these are mostly 2M to 4M houses.

Stu Dudley

Your question is subjective. Some people cannot sleep in a July heat wave in Paris if they must keep the windows closed due to city noise outside.

Mobile air conditioning units are seldom effective except in very small rooms. It is possible that if you arrive back from dinner by 9pm, that you can cool down a small bedroom by 10pm. But the room will heat back up again in a heat wave fairly quickly, even at night, if the windows are closed (buildings retain heat; bodies give off heat).

It is really irrelevant to you and your situation that I and my mother can sleep in a closed room without air conditioning in a heat wave, or that friends of mine can sleep through any amount of noise and don't need windows closed in a city. Many Parisians have air conditioning in their apartments because they cannot and would become ill without it. You need to make this decision based on your own needs.

Just as point of fact unrelated to your dilemma: At least one-third of US residences, including apartments in New York City, do not have air conditioning of any description and of the remaining two-thirds that do have air-conditioning, they do not run 24/7 in every room in the house. Someday nytraveler will actually leave that super-cooled nyapartment and encounter the real world. (And I bet it still won't make a dent.)

I left the US in 1998, where I lived in central New Jersey. I didn't have air conditioning, but I coped by closing windows when I was out and turning on powerful fans when I got home. I won't say I didn't spend some restless nights when it was very hot, but all things considered, it worked pretty well most of the time.

Our home in Italy has one air conditioning unit, in the bedroom. Most years we rarely or never turn it on. This past summer was very hot, and we used the air conditioner maybe three times, just at night.

It was very hot when I was in Switzerland this past summer, and air conditioning is rare there. Again, closing the hotel windows when we were out and opening them when we got back, along with a fan, made the nights bearable.

I can't imagine not being able to sleep if the temperature is over 70F/22C. I know some people who heat their houses more than that in the winter.