What was the Best & Worst Paris Hotel you have ever stayed in
Jul 25th, 2002, 06:21 PM
#21
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For Melisssa: HOtel du Lys, on rue Serpente, in the 6th, is (was in May, at least) 105 euro for a double with pvt. bath, little balcony, including breakfast, which consisted of a wonderful croissant, baguette, juice, coffee, tea, or chocolate. Charming, friendly place, well located; only drawback is no elevator, if that's an issue for you. I describe this place as high on charme, low on luxe!
Jul 27th, 2002, 03:21 PM
#22
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O.K. here are some of the reawsons why hotel de seine was terrible hotel:<BR><BR>1. When I made reservation for late may/early june in January I stated we are looking for a hotel with air conditioining. If no a/c we don;t want to stay here. This was for medical reasons as my mother who is in her 60's has severe asthma and numerous other medical problems. We were assured they indeed had a/c. Upon arrival no a/c , we were handed a fan . this was during French Open no rooms available anywhere. Also due to location off rue buci impossible to sleep with windows open due to street noise, added to by people watching world cup games.<BR>Also sound of my mother gasping for air made sleep difficult.<BR><BR>2. Room was filthy, moldy ceiling in bathroom, filthy rug and bedspread.<BR><BR>3. Hotel staff paid no attention to the " do not disturb " sign as my mother could not sleep at night she was forced to rest during day. Staff would come into to room and tell her to leave as they had to tidy room on a certtain schedule.<BR><BR>4. Night clerk slept after 10.30pm and we were often forced to bang on front doors for up to 30 minutes to gain acess.Also as clerk slept at night they did not answer incomming calls , making family worried as they could not reach us.<BR><BR>5. No one helped with bagage, this is supposedly 3 star hotel<BR><BR>6. Articles of cloting stolen from room<BR><BR>7. Personal faxes to hotel guest were left on check in counter for all to read. Just for info Ismail Merchant had sent a fax to someone to tell them to leave and not check in to hotel , he had made a mistake and they were to go around corner to Le Villa. ( if only he had sent me that fax)<BR><BR>7. When rooms above us flushed toilet it would back up into our toilet, as when they showered it would back up in our tub, making taking a bath impossible.<BR><BR>8. the only thing it has going for it is location , and i would rather stay at the Danube and walk a few blocks more to stay in a perfectly lovely hotel.<BR> The only reason i passed on the danube this trip was due to it being summer we needed a/c . We ended up cutting our time in paris short, my mother spent most of her time ill and it basically made most of paris trip miserable.
Jul 27th, 2002, 06:24 PM
#24
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Capo - It's good to know that the Petit Trianon hasn't changed in terms of being the worst since I first stayed there in 1978!! As best as I recall, the room wasn't big enough to change one's mind in, and cleanliness wasn't high on management's list of chores!!<BR><BR>As for the best, that's a little tougher one: I almost always stay at Le Regent, but did have a very good stay at L'Hotel several years ago before the renovation.<BR>Best Wishes.
Jul 28th, 2002, 12:00 PM
#26
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Could I please get more specific comments about Hotel Acacias St Germain as I found some nice comments about it on another web site. Did these two readers just have bad experiences (it happens to us all, I have loved hotels others have hated and vice versa). Any reply much appreciated as I am booking soon for the Fall.
Jul 28th, 2002, 07:32 PM
#28
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The Acacias is one of those hotels where I can't point a finger at any one egregious aspect that repelled me totally. It is just that there wasn't anything good to say about any aspect of it. Small rooms, and mine was awkwardly laid out, a grubby entrance hall, no real reception desk, tiny elevator that stopped halfway between the floors, and a manager who was moody to the extent it was probably a clinical problem. The bed was better than a bunk in basic training, and we had a room in the back away from the street. The hotel is not air conditioned, so I think a room overlooking rue de Rennes would be intolerable in the summer when you have to keep the windows open, except when it rains.<BR>Weighing what I paid against what I got for my money, I was surprised that it had a 3 star rating. There are better 2 star hotels around. <BR>I went elsewhere in 2000 and I am going elsewhere in 2002.<BR>
Aug 1st, 2002, 07:46 PM
#29
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Best hotel: Grand Hotel Jeanne D'Arc, in the Marais, near Place de Catherine---large rooms, great staff, fabulous location. Worst hotel: hands down, Hotel de Lille as of 2 weeks ago, on Rue de Lille. But enough about negatives....<BR>The Jeanne D'arc is outstanding.
Aug 1st, 2002, 07:57 PM
#30
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Thanks, Denyse. The Jeanne d'Arc is at the top of my list right now. Is the only way of getting in touch with them via phone? Would you know of an e-mail address or web address? I've searched yesterday for hours here and elsewhere and haven't been able to locate either.<BR><BR>Wish I could contribute something to this thread but I've only been to Europe twice and have been pleased with both the hotels I've stayed at in Paris: Hotel Degres de Notre Dame and Hotel Valadon. I would say the best of either was Hotel Degres de Notre Dame, basically due to the decor of the hotel of the room and the hotel itself and the lovely little view of Notre Dame. : ) <BR>I also stayed in London for one night but don't recall the name of the hotel and it was rather unremarkable.
Aug 2nd, 2002, 12:34 AM
#33
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The direct email to the hotel is:<BR><BR>[email protected]<BR><BR>The website is:<BR>www.hoteljeannedarc.com<BR><BR>This is, by far, my favorite hotel in Paris, and very difficult to book without advance notice. You cannot beat the price, the service, and the size of the rooms, which are large by Paris standards. I have thoroughly enjoyed this hotel, and cannot wait to return.<BR><BR>Enjoy!
Aug 2nd, 2002, 05:41 AM
#34
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I have stayed at the Hotel L'abbaye in the 6th, near the Luxembourg Gardens, and loved it. Does anyone have any idea how it compares to the Jeanne d'Arc? My husband is finally coming with me to France and England, and I want to make this a very special trip!! <BR> Worst hotel was one on St. Michel 12 years ago ---- but it was my first trip to Paris, and I loved it anyway!<BR>
Aug 2nd, 2002, 07:09 AM
#35
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Hey pj,<BR><BR>Did mucho searching on Google and although I found many great reviews and a few photos of the place, I was still unable to ascertain a web address or and e-mail address. Guess I'm going to have to suck it up and call. Eeeeekk!! : (<BR>
Aug 2nd, 2002, 08:33 AM
#36
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Dave, "the room wasn't big enough to change one's mind in"...*LOL*!!<BR><BR>Yeah, mine (a garret room) was about that size, although it wasn't the small size that got to me as much as the overall dinginess of the room. Threadbare sheets and towels didn't help matters either, nor did the dark, grimy shower room. <BR><BR>It does seem like their "standards" of cleanliness may have remained about the same since you since you first stayed there in 1978 although, in all fairness, I didn't see what any of the other rooms looked like, so they may have been better. <BR><BR>It does have one great thing going for it: a good price in a superb location in the 6th, right near the Rue de Buci street market. And the woman who ran it was very nice.
Aug 2nd, 2002, 09:55 AM
#37
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I have a tie for my worst hotel, I think -- single rooms in the above-mentioned Jardin de Cluny in the 5th and the Hotel Thomas d'Acquin in the 7th. Neither was as awful as some mentioned because I've always done some research and never stayed at rock bottom, but both of these had extremely unpleasant, depressing single rooms (their doubles were probably better from what I've heard) that really affected my stay. I'm not like the folks who say they don't care what kind of hotel they stay in, if I'm in a place I hate and feel uncomfortable in, it affects my entire stay. The Jardin de Cluny was extremely noisy but not for the reasons of a bar someone else said -- I didn't even notice a bar below, but my room opened into an interior air shaft/courtyard (really too small to be called courtyard) which had some room on the ground floor where the hotel staff constantly made noise and shouted and banged stuff around (kitchen or something) and all those sounds echo tremendously in old stone buildings. The room was big enough and not too shabby but extremely dark (because of being on the interior) with little cross-ventilation and, of course, was near an elevator on top of it so was noisy from that.<BR><BR>The room in the St Thomas had all the charm of a Motel 6 combined with an airline bathroom--basic modern furniture that I think was formica and the floor linoleum, a small prefab bathroom in the corner and that totally charming addition of a TV on metal bars sticking from the wall up in the corner, so to watch it you had to completely lie down on the bed and hold your neck at a crick, which was impossible. It was sort of like a hospital room, and with the windows open, I realized I was only a few feet from the neighbors in the next apartment building and they weren't especially noisy, but it was like being in the same room with them, almost. The room was rather small, also (just a little bigger than the bed), but that wouldn't have been so bad except for the rest of it.<BR><BR>As for Jeanne d'Arc, Mary, perhaps you didn't notice it but someone gave the website above with email. It seems to me that most Parisian hotels don't have their own web site, especially budget ones, as I guess they don't want to spend that kind of money on web design and management. They are on a few other sites, but that is probably their main presence as a hotel--that URL leads you to www.parishotels.com (so are many other nice hotels on there). You can book on there which isn't direct, I know, but I have never heard anyone say anything bad about that particular web site. If they say they don't have vacancies, you should go directly to the hotel, though.<BR><BR>As for the email, if that is a direct email given by Denyse, I suspect the ending is wanadoo.fr (not wannadoo.fr) because that is a big French ISP. You could always FAX them if you don't want to call them. I don't think it is comparable to the Hotel de l'Abbaye in St-Germain which is a 3-star and the Jeanne d'Arc is a budget 2-star.
Aug 2nd, 2002, 07:58 PM
#39
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We stayed in Hotel Lutetia in 2000 and it was a wonderful hotel. The concierge was wonderful. All I had to do was say my room number and he instantly knew my name. It was very impressive. The lounge was very relaxing and had nice music each evening. I would highly recommend it, however, it was not a "cheap stay".
