The hotel has some good points and some negatives.

Let sstart with the good points. The hotel is located in a great locale south of the city. The metro line 4 (purple) D'Orleans station is across the street and it takes 15-20 min to get to the central city where the tourist sites are located.The are many restaurants, shops and bakeries close to the hotel, most if you head north towards Paris. The hotel is very clean and has a good beakfast in th emorning that serves omelets, coffee, pasteries, juices, fruit and cereals. The breakfast was comped us as the elevator did not work during our stay. The Paris electric plugs are round with with two male plugs and one female plug. Our step down converter did not fit the round plug but the hotel saved our photography sessions by loaning us an adapter plug so we could use our US plug. The plugs use 22 volts but most appliance converted work from 110 to 220 V.

The negative - The rooms, bath, beds, and shower are very small! Th eroom was very hot as they use hotwater to heat the rooms. There was no thernstat to control the temp so we opened a window to let the December air in. It made sleeping much easier the last three nights. There is no coffe or tea in the room. The elevator did not work the four days we stayed at the hotel. This required a lot of walking as our room was on the sixth floor. We also had to lug our luggage down the day we left. Luckily the day we arrived they had a strong young man carrying the bags to the rooms.The hotel says they are trilingual but we found that some clerks at the front desk were of much help and some knew little or no English. I don't think this qualifies as being trilingual! If this hotel was in the states it would be a 2* at best. For Paris, this might be a better hotel. Don't know as this was my first stay in the city.

We stayed in Ideal Hotel Design for 2 nights during our honeymoon this December (2011).

Location & Surrounding Safety:
This hotel is very close (about 2 minutes walk, need to cross street though) to the nearest Metro station, which is Porte d'Orléans. It is fairly south and does take at least 10-15 minutes Metro time to get to most attractions (i.e. The Louvre or Champs-Élysées, etc.) This hotel is located in District #14, which is considered an above-average neighborhood in Paris. The area is nice and peaceful, except for police car and ambulance sirens, which seem to be very common in Paris.

Room & Bathroom:
The room has good view of that part of the city. It is nice-sized for an European 3-star hotel. Equipped with one sofa, one queen-size bed, a desk/chair, and some cabinets. The bathroom is a little small but acceptable. Hair dryer is available, but that's about it. You need to prepare you own shampoo, lotion, etc. No tissue paper, and toilet papers are not enough.

Elevator:
This is our biggest complaint and the reason I gave it 3 stars instead of 4! The elevator was out of order for the entire duration of our stay, and we suspect it has been broken forever. When we asked the front desk when would the elevator be fixed, the lady simply answered "No! It's a complicated problem." Well, we don't know how complicated it could possibly be, but we ended up having to carry our luggage (2 big, 2 small plus personal items) all the way up to the 5th floor. [The lobby is located on the 0 floor, so we actually needed to walk up 6 levels.] The problem with the elevator also made us dread going back to the hotel. Imagine having walk all day for Paris sightseeing and the first thing waiting for you at the hotel is walking 6 levels up to get to your room.

Noise Level:
The window has good sound-proof that blocked out most of the noise on the street. But beware: if you leave the window opened, the street could get very noisy and annoying with sound of siren and honk, which seem to be very common in Paris. The walls are pretty thin, which is expected for European hotels; it's easy to hear people chatting on the hallway. Luckily not many people did that when we stayed there.

Wireless Internet Connection:
They do offer FREE WiFi throughout the hotel. The connection speed is okay.

English Ability:
We had dealing with 2 different French ladies while we stayed there. They both had limited English with strong French accent. But at least communicable.

Food (Breakfast):
We didn't try the breakfast.

We were slightly concerned about this hotel as there are a few bad reviews here, but we were pleasantly surprised. Paris is an expensive city, and we thought that considering what we paid, this hotel was a good combination of value, location and comfort. Our room was quite small (though not terribly so, especially as it's what you expect in a European inner city), very clean, quiet and generally perfectly comfortable. Metro station which goes to lots of handy locations in the centre is literally a few pacs from the doorstep, and it's in a nice area with some good places to eat. Also, nice staff, who were friendly and really accommodating when we requested a late check-out. OK, so the "design" touches are a little naff, but it's not the end of the world and certainly shouldn't be a reason not to stay.
I would definitely recommend!

Judging from the reviews of this place, it does appear that this hotel has some fairly OK rooms and some rooms in dire need of refurbishment. We booked a night in this hotel just because we needed to pass through Paris and wanted a place that was close to Gare Montparnasse and also on the direct metro line (no 4) to the Gare du Nord. This hotel fit the bill perfectly - it is only across the road from the Pont d'Orleans metro stop, which is about 20 minutes from Gare du Nord. We arrived late in the evening and the receptionist was absent - this appears to be a not-infrequent occurrence and we ended up waiting about 10-15 mins for him to appear, without an explanation or apology. The room we got was a decent size for Paris, and equipped with a TV and free wifi. The bed was actually decent and the linen was clean. The carpets were a bit tatty and worn, and the bathroom also looked like it could do with some refurbishment. We had a window overlooking a roof, not the main street, and at least it was quiet. It is worth bearing in mind this IS a budget hotel and you don't get a bad deal for your money's worth. We have paid more and ended up with far worse hotels in Paris. At night, the soundproofing wasn't very good and we could hear other guests talking and banging about in the corridors, but the noise wasn't excessive. All in all, you get what you pay for. For a budget hotel, this isn't a bad place but of course I'm not sure I would spend a week in this hotel - for a night or two, it was perfectly serviceable... given that we were lucky and were given an OK room.