Short Notice Pairs Trip! Hotel Question
 

I booked a last minute trip to Paris for Memorial Day weekend and now have to decide on a hotel. I normally do the 2 or 3 star level, but lots of the one's I know about are sold out, plus with my work schedule I just don't have time to be calling around.

I have two potentials right now: Hôtel Londres Eiffel in the Rue Cler area and the Holiday Inn St. Germain. I have stayed in Rue Cler before and was looking for something in the St. Germain area this time. Both hotels are about 100 Euros so... I welcome any suggestions or feedback.

If you have time, check out www.laterooms.com. I used them for a hotel in London a few years ago and was pleased with their service.

1) Most recent feedback within the forum:
Author: claire
Date: 04/25/2002, 12:24 am
Message: I stayed twice at the Holiday Inn St-Germain. Perks: great TV and movies, spacious rooms. Decent location, near St-Germain and Monparnasse. Negatives: Zero charm. Not that cheap. Oh whole, I'd go for a charming French hotel in stead of your standard American chain. It really adds to the experience. And don't believe the horror stories of rooms w/o toilets or water pressure. (notice, she returned to the Holiday Inn)

2) a number of mostly positive reviews here...
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...de_France.html

Since you want to try St Germain area, you'd probably be OK with the Holiday Inn...

I don't know anything about the Londres, but given you want a change, I'd book the HI St Germain for the location. The hotel is nothing special stylewise, but is certainly adequate and comfortable enough and is closer to where you want to be. I'll admit I don't find that location on rue de Rennes to be very nice myself, I don't like that street and it's not right in the cutesy part of St-Germain, but is closer for walking. In short, I would really prefer a different location if I wanted the St-Germain experience myself.

That is a very good rate though for this time of year. I can understand you don't want to waste time, you could try digital.france.com/Hotels as they give vacancies and have a couple better choices in St-Germain (like St Paul and CLos Medicis), although more like $125-140. $100 is really cheap for that HI. They list the 2* Clement as available in St-Germain, though. I'm sure you still need them to verify vacancies, but it's an idea. They do respond very promptly (overnight), as I've tried them.

www.parishotels.com also has a vacancy by date and price range facility. They also seem to have some good choices that weekend in your price range.

Londres Eiffel is a nice hotel from what I've read. I think it'll be better than the Holiday Inn although it's near rue Cler and not St. Germain.

Check out Hotel Sully Saint Germaine. It's in the 5th, but very close to St. Germaine. We thought is was very charming and a great location. It's a little hard to find their website, but it's the hotel with a medieval theme.

Here is a popular site with a lot of offerings:

http://www.180096hotel.com/index.html

Some are better values than others and there are many different locations -- some of which I wouldn't be very interested in and others that are great. I've used them before for various cities and never had any problems so it might be worth a look for you.

Thanks everyone.

Actually the HI has an internet special which is making it pretty affordable. While I realize that it may be lacking in charm, a lot of "charm" hotels don't do online booking and I am just short on time to spend on calling France right now! I am still looking so who knows.

Did you try Betsy's suggestion of www.laterooms.com? Sounds like they may have availabilities for at least several hotels.

Looks like laterooms.com has availability for Memorial Day weekend (arrivng Fri. 5/23) at both Villa Luxembourg and Aramis St. Germain. Villa Lux. is a 4* hotel and the offer is for a double at 109 euro which is pretty good. You can try your exact dates and check.

Thanks. I will give Laterooms a try!

Thanks to all your helpful suggestions I now have two new choices to consider. One is the Villa Luxembourg and the other is the Millenium Opera. The Opera is more expensive, but the rate on Hotel Reservation Network is very good. I am a little worried about the "urban" feel of the area however. I am sure I will make a decision before I board the plane! (Although I was tempted by one guidebook that said the ADP in CDG had great rates at great hotels for walk-ups.)

If you are choosing between the Villa Luxembourg and the Millenium Opera, in my opinion, I would go with the Villa Luxembourg. You mentioned that you wish to stay in St. Germain, well, the Villa Lux. is close to St. Germain. It's closer to the Luxembourg Gardens but St. Germain can be reached easily by walking from the hotel.

The Millenium Opera is located near the main dept. stores such as Galeries Lafayette and Au Printemps. It's near to the Opera hence its name. There is really nothing charming about this area in my opinion.

I really believe you'll appreciate staying within the St. Germain/Luxembourg Gardens area. And I have not seen a good offer as such is offered by the Villa Lux. at laterooms.com.

Actually I am waiting to verify the room at Villa Luxembourg. While it looks like on-line booking, there appears to be delay in responding. We will see if it is really available for the rate posted.

Thanks for all your help. I have gone with the Villa Lux. They offered me the double at 109 Euros. I do think I will be skipping their offer of breakfast at 20 Euros however!

Thanks for everyone's help. I am sure this will work great.

Good to know that you were able to get that great low rate of 109 euro. Yes, their breakfast costs too much but I know there were a couple of others who skipped the hotel breakfast and went out to cafes close to the hotel instead. There will be no problem in doing that. You're going to enjoy your stay in that neighborhood-one of the best areas!

Hi Carol:
I was in Paris last year for Memorail Day Weekend and it was very busy and HOT. The French Open and the World Cup were going on while we were in Paris and It was packed. I would have suggested a hotel with A/C because it can be hot but also because of all the street noise . The Ac kind of buffers that all out.
We had a great time as always in PAris always stay off the rue de buci. Then on 6/1 we were off to Cannes for 2 weeks which was great post film fest and fantastic. Enjoy and try to get to Giverny as Flowers were gorgeous.

While I "think" this hotel has A/C, it has been my experience that Paris hotels don't turn on the A/C until June 1! I am not too worried. I travel with ear plugs (from traveling with my snoring MOM!) that do a very good job.

Actually this year it looks kind of cool. I have started watching the weather and judging by the wide variety of hotels I found available it does not look TOO crowded. Also, this is my 5th trip to Paris so if something is too crowded I probably won't be broken hearted. I am just there for 5 nights.

Hi CarolLA

I have just got back (2 hours ago) from Paris and stayed in the Villa Luxembourg, my son and I took a single room each for the weekend and paid 95 euro each using Laterooms. The hotel was comfortable, small rooms of course. I don't know what the doubles were like as my husband was working this weekend. The single rooms had a double bed in them which we were pleasantly surprised by. Good water pressure in the bathroom (very odd position of a mirror on the front of the washbasin stand). The hotel staff were very friendly and helpful. We didn't have the breakfast either! The location is good, near a number of metro stops so easy to get around with some decent cafes in the area. Easy walking to the Latin Quarter and St Germain. It is airconditioned but I didn't need to turn it on this trip. I can't imagine you would be disappointed with the hotel, at the rates we are paying I think it fulfills all of our needs. I would not want to pay full price for it though. The rooms Patrick and I had were supposed to go for 224 euro each, which I think would be too much for a no charm albeit comfortable and conveniently located hotel. Have fun in Paris, we did!

Thanks for the update Lynn. I figured I could forage for food for breakfast. (I think my expectations for 20 Euros would be fairly high!)