“Avoid any room facing the inner light well. Not Convenient, Horrible staff experiences.”
The hotel has lots of issues that I would like to share with other guests.
We stayed in Room 507, over New Year's eve against our wish. I strongly suggest avoiding 501, 506, 507 altogether facing the inner light well if you have to stay in this hotel.
1. Inconsistent options, room availability on Tripadvisor search vs. hotel webpage:
There are more rooms available and with or without breakfast options in their website, but, when you search through Tripadvisor.com, it will only show the twin room at a different price and no breakfast inc. options. Unfortunately, their hotel homepage was down for reservation at the last page, where you put the payment method.
That is when I called and spoke with Olga in early December 2011. Although booked through booking.com for a twin room, at a higher rate, we could get the breakfast included, and she heard me about the bad reviews, and suggested to take the double room on a higher level, instead of the supposedly last twin room. It will have a good view, although located in the back of the main road. She also added that it would avoid the inner well-facing problem.
The adjusted booking detail now was changed to the double bed room but, Olga still didn't add breakfast. I had to call around for 2-3 hours more to correct it myself. It was frustrating to talk with the hotel staff on this change. The night guy simply wouldn't help to write down my note for Olga.
2. the hotel in a derelict location, A wrong room given; breakfast very basic with a good service:
2-3 weeks before arrival, during the booking period, I had specifically requested a room that is, not a red-colored, but well-appointed, street-facing room on a higher floor. Instead, we were given a very poorly laid out red-colored room facing a tiny light well, facing the other two guest rooms 3-6 ft away(1-2m), which we can hear them talk, or see every move through the see-through curtains.
And, the tiny room was further chopped with a separate toilet, with a separate shower/sink room. And, the lighting well was brightly-lit, mimicking the daylight, at night, and we could not keep the curtain open for ventilation concerned about the privacy and a theft issue.
The hotel location itself is also not that great. in Lantier street, there is this old homeless guy throwing bottles to the pedestrian one night, and pissed on himself in public. And also the whole back streets were covered with trash and graffitti, these are signs of derelict and unsafe conditions. The nearby shops on main street(Rue du Rivoli) have only GAP, ETAM, H&M at best, and there is no coffee shop that stays open late or a corner shop that stays open all night in its immediate and visible proximity.
The breakfast was of little variety. Croissants and coffee, grapefruit and orange juices were great, but the rest is just the basic ham, boiled eggs, muesli, yogurts, dried fruits, milk. Unless it is included, I would not suggest getting your breakfast here. But it definitely saved our time in the morning. And, if you show up after 9am, you might have to wait for another 15-20 min until the tables open up. These 2-3 kitchen staff are older and the most polite and efficient workers among others. Their smiles were the key elements that saved the breakfast experience not too shabby, in my opinion.
3. The safety box was not working: after reported, still not fixed:
Although we heard enough of the notorious Paris Pickpocketting issues, we still had to carry our own passports and all the money with us.
We couldn't report this safety box problem the second day as they were busy with other guests, and we would only return after midnight later.
4. staff blaming the manager, other staff, unhelpful and unprofessional:
During booking in Mid December, I had to call the hotel for booking issues, mentioned above, a couple of times more, but the night staff(the tall Indian Guy) would not write down a simple memo for Olga, shouting that he doesn't speak English. He did. We further experienced, Olga blamed her hotel manager for not putting the accurate room availability on on-line booking sites when I spoke with her back in early December. I DID NOT HAVE TO HEAR HOW HORRIBLE THEY WERE TO EACH OTHER.
5. NO English TV Channel or its accurate guide available:
There was a room guide binder in a drawer, but it didn't show CNN(the only English channel out of 10) at #8 as printed, and there was no English Channel available. So, TV was useless.
6. Poor Room lighting, poor closet space:
They put two twin-set halogen landscape Search lights that are sharp to the eyes. The closet space was cramped and was not big enough for two adults with only two carry-on bags.
7. Hot, stuffy room temperature in the morning:
Without any heating on, at around 9-10am, the room temperature felt like way above 80'F(25C). We had to get out of the room fast before sweating too much.
8. While Olga blamed others, another staff reacted with aggression:
When I got a chance to see Olga, on the third day, which was the second morning, after the previous morning being impossible to approach her as she was busy with others, she instantly blamed the other front desk staff, Nichola, who gave us room 507, and, blamed us, and, I got put off from her over-defensive reactions without a clear and simple apology.
In the mean time, this black maintenance staff with braided hair showed up, staring at me, ticking her wrist watch to suggest that I was taking too much time. Olga explained that after 11 am, this woman was to take the front desk shift, which I did not have to know, and still it was very inappropriate to tell me all the details (unprofessional). That was one horrible gesture that I had never experienced in visiting any hotel in the world.
With frustration, I simply told Olga to fix the safety box. We left the room key, and I told her we would return at night and she had plenty of time to fix the issue and bring my complaints to the manager.
9. Nothing was done, room wasn't cleaned after reporting the issues!
When we returned late that night, the room door has this "Do Not Disturb" sign out there, which we didn't put. Surprised, we even had to knock the door to see if the room was given to someone else and we were moved to another room. Then we found out that it was still our room but, nobody attended the room for cleaning, or for fixing the safety box. It was already 1: 30am, and there was only this night staff at the desk who previously yelled at me over the phone and would not help, and we decided to address it early in the next morning to the manager.
I was too upset to sleep for half the night, waken up by the noise and coffee smell from the kitchen through this light well, I could not get back to sleep after 5am, getting so angry with the way they had conflicted with us and how our stay seemed to be ruined.
10. More aggression at the front desk, during the last morning;
I stood at the lobby, from 7:50am till 8:20, waiting for Raquel, the manager, to show up. While I was talking to Nichola, the same black woman interrupted us and started to show her hostility, pushing Nichola away, as if he was a bullied child. Nichola was attentively listening to my list of experiences and I got upset to see what just happened. When I pointed out to her that the interruption was a very bad manner, she almost started the fight with me.
11. Raquel, the manager, defensively reacted, then apologized:
Then, Raquel arrived, and, I insisted we should talk in a quiet area, but she seated us next to the breakfast area, where other guests could hear us. And, I addressed all the issues above. Raquel initially tried to react defensively, explaining that this was only a 3-star hotel and I should not expect 5-star hotel services. She was already missing the point after all. Just like Olga blaming others, Raquel tried to find good excuses.
And, I stopped her and clearly mentioned that we should be the last ones complaining about the issues they could easily fix, some of which on a dime. Then, she seemed to listen.
And, I clearly told her that I did not have 5-star hotel expectation, already learning that there are known issues from other reviewers on here, but, although I had tried to avoid the negatives from the booking time. it seemed the inconvenience of the room and dealing with poor or aggressive reactions from the staff will never be corrected and any tourist would not tolerate the issues we had.
Showing aggression to the guests, Not fixing the safety Box, No English TV channel list, Forgetting Room Cleaning, Blaming the manager and the colleagues...
I am trying to think if the experience would be different if we took a better room facing the street.
No, I think they are not good for international travelers, yet. All this self-entitled attitude among them and poor upkeep of the room features, not hiring a broad-minded staff would only impale the guest experiences. And, to be honest, these are easy to fix when I think of other hotels we stayed in Paris or in any other parts of Europe.
I just want to forget about this bad experience from my memories after posting this review on TA right away.
Room Tip: Look for other areas. The area is in the dark back alley. Les Halles Metro is not any better, due to...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
