I have several colleagues who are residents at this place so I thought I give it a shot (in December 2011) for 3 nights.
LOCATION
The Kube is located in a small side-street near St Denis (a not very promising Parisienne neighbourhood) behind wrought iron doors - our taxi could barley find the place. If my colleagues were not there I would have never guessed they tucked away a hotel in that sidestreet. The area is spookier than the difficult neighbourhoods in Berlin (Neukolln, Wedding), so you get the idea. Not the place you would stroll down the avenue alone at night. Unlike a street in downtown Paris, where there are restaurants on every corner (and tabac, and shops and all) there is nothing to eat here, apart from a few dubious kebab places.
HOTEL
After the iron doors it looks like a small palace, and the reception is in a glass cube in the middle of the courtyard (don't worry, the hotel staff uses an underpass in rainy weather). The bar is very dark and sparkly - the walls are covered in black fluff, and sparkles (and so are the elevators). December mornings are gloomy by default, but having breakfast in this very fashionably dark bar was awful. My colleagues were joking about bringing headlights / headlamps next time, becasue they could not see the difference between red and blue coffee capsules.
ROOMS
The rooms are very spacious for Paris standards, and the bed is very comfortable (and funnily enough, very high), the bathroom is equipped with Alessi basins, but this is the best I could say. However, the negativ impressions:
- the doors in the hotel open with fingerprint scan (upon check-in someone comes up with you and sets it up) which is all very fancy, but usually does not work (during that week I stayed there a colleague had to change rooms TWICE because of lock problems. Very annoying.
- the free wireless internet does not reach up to the 3rd floor (this is where my room was), so no internet. Very annoying.
- the cold and hot water handles on the basin keep switching sides. E.g. Monday evening they worked fine (and on the right side - right side cold, left side warm as indicated on the knobs), Tuesday morning both of them were piping hot, Tuesday evening, too (this is when I called the concierge), by Wednesday morning they were OK again (but the sides were switched: the left was cold, and the right was warm). Unbelievable and very annoying.
SERVICE
One night after finishing work we took a taxi back to the hotel (the metro is further away and again, not the safest neighbourhood) and also wanted to dine there. Upon our arrival back we discovered that there was a private function going on in the bar. We asked the staff if we could have something to eat (either in the bar or as room service) but they were really arrogant, and said there is no way we get food here tonight, since they are busy with the catering of the function. We pointed out that they did not mention this upon our check in the day before (by that time they surely knew they will be hosting this party), we could've made other arrangements. Again, no "excuse me", no apologies - just the usual French shrug, Then our colleagues demanded to have a word with the manager / boss / person in charge - and this is when magically they managed to find us a table upstairs, on the gallery where we were reluctantly (and very slowly) served. Needless to say the prices are stellar in the bar / restaurant.
Executive summary: would not recommend and will not stay there again.
