I have never stayed in a Paris Perfect apartment, primarily because they seem VERY expensive for what they are, but admittedly nice looking places. I have been happy with other apartments I've rented at considerably lower prices.

But when one lists such basic problems as:
"no A/C, tiny bathrooms, advised to take shoes off due to the creaky floors and no sound proofing."
Then it seems pretty hard to justify a nightly price even by the week of well over $200.

Good morning,
I would like to clarify that creaky floor no shoes statement..
We get a little information packet from the owners, about the apt, the keys, the elevator, the eccentricities of Paris apt living. In that, they mention some "rules" of city living, not just Paris- these apply to any people living in such close quarters as a city apartment house.
They ask that you not let your children play in the hall or stairwell. (Of course!) and that all of these old apts have wooden floors and that Parisians wear slippers around their flat so as not to clump around over the heads of their neighbors. They do say that if you live in a city, you already know these things, but having had complaints in the past, they now advise people who might not have ever lived in an apt as to how to best be a good neighbor.
I saw nothing wrong with any of it. But then, I have lived in New York City.
LVSue, if you care to email me, I can send our own photos of the [email protected]

Actually, Scarlett, I should have removed the creaky floors comment from the part I pasted into my response. The "basic problems" I was referring to for such an expensive apartment as the Beaujolais one were the lack of air conditioning and tiny bathrooms.

I agree, that the creaky floors and removing shoes is something that is simply courtesy or understood in any older building and city dwellers basic etiquette.

On the bonjourparis.com web site someone has been reviewing various ParisPerfect apartments, including several new ones. You might have a look there.

I also rented from Michael on the VRBO site #9718. It was a fabulous experience in every way. The apartment was delightful, twin beds in the bedroom, large spacious living room, new kitchen and newly done bathroom. The sheets and towel were all monogramed, need I say more! Michael was great to work with. I had many, and I mean many questions before I would commit and each time I e-mailed him a question he answered almost instantly. Loved the area, just behind the Orsay museum, and the local bus is across the street on rue de Bac. I would rent this apartment again in a heartbeat. Have fun deciding on where to stay, and have a great trip.IMHO once you get either airfare or accomodations nailed down you just seem to breath a little easier.

oops! I wrote breath but meant breathe.
Spelling police, please forgive me. This is what I call stressful, you review your reply, hit the post button and only then do you realize your boo-boo. It must be 5 o'clock somewhere!!!

I checked on that one also and it is booked for our dates. I found another apartment that is available through VacationInParis. It is the Sorbonne One Bedroom ID#28 on 7 rue Berthollet. Any comments on this and the location. I agree the Paris Perfect apt is rather expensive for the size. My head is spinning looking at all of these. Thanks for everyones input so far.

bizzyb, here's another endorsement of Paris Perfect. We stayed in their Romanée apartment in February and found it to be great value for the money and the owners were a delight to work with. We'd definitely rent from them again although probably not in the summer because of the lack of A/C. Good luck w/your search.

elsiejune and readysetgo, thanks for the review of Chez Michel a Paris. I've emailed w/Michael and he seems very nice as does his apartment from the website but it's good to hear first-hand reviews. This is definitely on my list for future visits.

When we were in the apt, it was quite chilly out and warm and toasty inside. But we kept saying, how warm and uncomfortable it would be in the summer. Of course, that provided my son with the opportunity to say we are spoiled by a/c in America
This from a kid who lives in a traditional Japanese house with no heat or a/c so I had no answer

Scarlett, tell your son that since the summer of 2003 heat wave, French seem to think AC isn't such a bad idea after all. Sales of central AC systems in France have skyrocketed and also those of room air conditioners. And sales would be even higher, but the Chinese companies that make most of the air conditioners sold in France are working at maximum capacity.

My head is also spinning. I think I have narrowed it down to a choice of 3. (but after reading this thread...who knows!) Our travel agent has booked:
* Citadines Paris Opera Grands Boulevards
But after reading great reports on Paris Sleeps I am looking at either:
* Notre Dame des Champs (Pais Sleeps)
* St Germain (Paris Sleeps)
Gail has been very helpful and has offered us some great discounts for cheque/cash and more discounts for January. I would love some feed back on any or all of these. This site has made planning our trip so much fun, I feel like I know Paris already and its our first trip. I have a list of restaurants (thanks Nikki) and places to go and hints. Thanks one and all.
*

We have reserved a Paris Perfect apt for August - one week only. Then we are moving to a less expensive one. So far, everything is going fine except that I thought that we were dealing in dollars but when we paid the deposit we had to pay aoubt $37 to convert our Visa card charge to euros. The remainder of the charge will be even more to convert and the total price listed was already strething our budget.

We will be staying in a Paris Perfect apartment in beginning of May. It is a studio and therefore somewhat less pricey but it looks lovely and should be very adequate for the 2 of us. It works out to be quite a bit less money than our prevoiusly chosen hotel (a 3 star) has been. Will give lots of feedback once home. I think it is a new apartment as it doesn't appear with the grouping of the others for viewing.
~o)

Daph: We have rented from ParisPerfect for July, and had the same kind of charge. I contacted Madelyn and she was really helpful. She explained that the charge was from MY bank, and had nothing to do with them. I called the bank, and Madelyn was right! I have since learned that most credit cards have a 1-4% fee for international charges. So, I'm factoring that into my budget for our trip. I'm trying to think of it as having to pay taxes on my purchases. You might check to see what the fee is on any other credit cards you have, and use the one that charges the smallest percent. And, remember that every time you use your credit card in Paris, your bank will still be charging those fees, the way I understand it.

We're staying in a ParisPerfect apartment in May. So far, we have credit cards (Capital One, MBNA) with no extra currency conversion fee.

Even so, we paid both the deposit and the balance with a check.

I just paid Paris Perfect with a bank check in US dollars, therefore, no extra charge. Unless you want to count postage for envelope.

Thanks for the information about how to pay for the Paris Perfect apt. We only have one credit card and the charge was about $37 on the $700 deposit. I don't think that we are charged that high a percentage when we use that card in Paris-I'll call the bank and find out. I didn't realize that P.P. would take a U.S. check in dollars. If that is the case, that's what we'll send them next month.

You might also be able to pay in Euro travellers' checks.

We'll be staying in Cabernet for a week in May, and the charge just came through on our Capital One card. There was only a one-half percent difference between the advertised PP rate and the amount recorded on our credit card. Make sure you know the rate attached to your card, as there will always been an increase. To avoid this altogether, you have the option of paying by check (in dollars mailed to a US bank). Make sure you pay the deposit by check, if you plan to pay the balance of the rental by check, as well. It seems PP cannot process a balance payment by check if you have already paid the deposit by credit card.

Included in our initial instructions were various methods of paying the deposit, one being via check.

Best, we booked the apartment early last year, at last year's rates, before the dollar went even lower (of course, it could have gone the other way...).

So far, Capital One has not assessed the pesky and ridiculous "foreign currency" transaction fees. But, if the issuer of your specific card charged anything "extra" for the deposit, that would also go for transactions "in Paris".