Single or double room in Paris?
 

I will be travelling with my girlfriend to Paris in a few weeks, and I was wondering if it's necessary to book a double room. We will not be spending too much time in the hotel so we don't need a lot of room, just a bed big enough for 2. I'm not quite familiar with the European definition of a single or double.

I noticed some hotel sites won't give you an option to book a single room if you select 2 adults. Would the hotel care if I selected 1 adult so I can book a single room but have 2 people staying in it? We're trying to save what we can on the hotel so we can splurge more on food.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

There are typically fire regulations that prohibit giving out a single room to two people. Also keep in mind that a typical European single room is really small, with a narrow bed, which might be wide enough for two 5-year-olds, but that's about it.

If there are two of you, you need a double room.

While some single rooms have a small double bed, a number of them have only one twin bed. Unless the two of you are small and very good friends, you should book a double.

To save money, why don't you book your hotel through Priceline?

Hi C,

>Would the hotel care if I selected 1 adult so I can book a single room but have 2 people staying in it? <

Would you care if you offered to buy someone dinner and she brought a friend?

((I))

You are actually booking the number of people in the room, not the number of beds. So for two people, it will always be a 'double'. That double can be one bed or 2 single beds.

If budget is your concern, please tell what you are willing to spend and you will then get plenty of suggested hotels to consider.

An average price range for a 2* double would be 85-100€. Breakfast is nearly always extra, to give you the choice of taking it at the hotel or elsewhere.

The vocabulary used to describe beds seems to have become complicated. In Britain, it was traditionally simple: a single bed was for one person (usually 2 ft 6 ins or 3 ft wide) and a double was for two people (usually 4 ft 6 ins).
In my experience of travelling all over France in 35 years, hotels rarely have single rooms. A hotel will only offer a room as a single if there is not enough space in the room for a double bed. If you travel alone in France, nine times out of ten, hotels will offer a room with a double bed. On the rare occasions when French hotels have a single room, it really is a room with a bed so narrow that it cannot be used by two people.

It doesn't matter what size the bed is - a room to be used by 2 people cannot be booked as a 'single'.

> It doesn't matter what size the bed is ...

Exactly, in other words, you cannot take a single (meaning "for one person")room for 2 persons. So no saving possible there.

If the hotel owner thought that the room was suitable for two people, it would be advertised as a double. If the room is advertised as a single, that means the bed really is suitable for only one person.
If you want a bed for two people, you need to ask for a double room. In France, double beds are much more common than twin beds. If a room is big enough for two beds, the hotel owner is likely to put in a double and a single bed and sell it as a family room.

Thank you everyone for your replies. Looks like I'll get a double then. I guess I'm just used to the states where the rooms you get for one person can accomodate 2.

Yes, chubby (love that screenname!) things are not like that in Europe-when there are 2 people, you have to take either a double, or a twin (twin bedded room).

In very many cases in Paris, there is no difference in the price for a single or a double room. In the rare cases where there IS a difference, it is because the room is appallingly small and the bed is really a single bed.

"In very many cases in Paris, there is no difference in the price for a single or a double room."

My only response to that comment would be, in 20 plus years of going to Paris, including studying there, I've never known that to be the case.

Just take a look at the price board at the entrance of every hotel then. That's what I do -- since I don't stay in hotels in Paris, my city of residence.

The prices I book online are rarely the same as on the price board.

Different category of establishment. Some hotels can vary their prices up to 75% and still make money (Inter-Continental Paris offers my company a 75% discount certain months of the year). I was talking about hotels that set their rates reasonably.

Another thing to keep in is room size: single rooms can be extremely small, while in most doubles you can at least walk around the bed.

A single room is typically a very small room that has one twin bed - like the kind you slept in as a child. (You may not be familiar since US hotels - with VERYrare exception - don't have single rooms.)

The only way you could share one is to sneak the other person into the rooom and have them sleep in the tub or on the floor. You would also have bedding and towels and breakfast for only one person.

For 2 people you MUST have a double room - which might have one double bed or two twin beds.

I always reserve a room via email by requesting a room for two persons with two beds. I also state that if they don't have an elevator I would like it no higher that the second floor (american) third floor (european). This makes it perfectly clear what I want. The previous posters are correct that most single rooms in Europe are very small. By making everything crystal clear I avoid any possible confusion. Have fun and enjoy Paris. It is a wonderful city. Be sure to take some time to just enjoy it.

Huh? In American you can book a single room (paying for one person) and take another person with you? How does that work? Are you allowed to take your friend into the cinema with you if they sit on your lap as well?

Sneaking extra people into a hotel room is viewed as fraud/theft in Europe.