stevemason

Can anyone tell me anything about the InterContinental Le Grand Hotel in Paris. I know it was recently remodeled. I'm staying there for 3 nights in July.

Raffles

LOADS on the InterContinental board about this. For my money, it is as nice (in terms of finish, looks) as any of the grande dames and a lot cheaper - albeit service is not at the Four Seasons level. Great location for most sights and the Haussman department stores.

Do NOT book a Classic room. These are unbelievably small - 20 sq m. Even the Superior and Deluxe rooms are not much better - I think deluxe is 30 sq m. If you are planning on swinging a cat in your room, take a junior suite or above.

If you are staying over a weekend, you will save money by joining the Ambassador loyalty scheme for $150, as one of the benefits is a voucher for a free weekend night at any IC hotel (no restrictions, no black-outs) with a 2-night min stay.

luxury

Perhaps the best location in Paris, directly over a Metro and RER station, and with a very good Club Lounge. The hotel is large and is quite make-like with many corridors -- you may need breadcrumbs to guide you from your room to the lift!!

IIRC, Virtuoso has had 4 night packages at this property for fairly reasonable versus the prevailing rate through the hotel.

The Chef Concierge, Gilles Harrault, is a very wonderful and knowledgeable gentleman and is a highly competent Concierge.

speedbird001

This is hardly a luxury hotel and does not belong in this forum.

ralfkrippner

I'll move this one over to the Interconti Hotels forum.

ralfkrippner, moderator

stimpy

Overall it's not quite luxury, but if you are in a Club room I would say it certainly qualifies as a luxury hotel. Concierge, restaurant, etc. are all up to par.

Lane412000

My wife and I just finished a 5 night award stay at the Le Grand Hotel. We enjoyed the stay very much. I took someone's advice and did not book anything until we got to the hotel and spoke with the conceirge desk. All of the people working this desk were helpful and had great suggestions. The location of the hotel worked for us. It was near the Open Paris tour bus office and also the starting point for the Paris Vision tours was a short 10 minute walk. If you take these tours, you will walk next to the Ritz Carlton hotel. Try and walk in and let me know how far you get before being ushered out by security....laughing. I think that I set the record of about 15 feet inside the doors.

A few negatives were that the hotel did not honor ambassador status or at least that is what I was told at the front desk. I asked about entrance to the executive lounge and was told it would cost me 90 euros daily, that the hotel did not recognize ambassador membership. Upon checkin we were told because the hotel was fully booked we would receive a 2 category upgrade, so I am thinking suite or at the very least a junior suite....we were given a classic room and yes it was small, but when you are not paying, why make a fuss?

Lastly, and actually this was more my fault than anything else. The closet for this room (think it was 2127) had an electronic light that turned on when you entered the closet space and only stayed on for maybe 8-10 seconds. The problem was that on our last morning in thr rush to leave, we emptied the safe of our cash and my wife's purse. By the time we removed these items, the light had already turned off so we missed that we left our passports in the safe (dark blue leather covered passports in a dark safe is not easy to see). I thought my wife had taken them when she grabbed her purse and she thought that I grabbed the passports when taking the envelope of money. We discovered no passports when we got to check-in at CDG. The hotel to its credit upon our phone call sent someone immediately to the room and sent the passports to us via bellboy in a taxi. Unfortunately, because of traffic we got the passports and ran to the flight check-in only to be told that we were 2 minutes too late (58 minutes before the NW flight to Detroit).

dahorns

wonderful hotel, if you book a club room you'll be treated to a wonderful staff i nthe club lounge... great location 5-10 minute cab ride to eiffel (sp?), louvre, notre dame....
can't wait to enjoy a return trip

Jet2K

For our stay last year, the Club Lounge manager, I think An, insisted that the BOGO cert was good for the cheaper night, and not the second night as was the case for all other ICs I stayed at. We spent five minutes or so discussing this, until we finally agree to disagree pending my communication with Ambassador Services.

After an email explaining the situation, I received a credit of a little over one hundred euros for the over-charge. If I recall correctly, the first night was around €400, and the second €520.

I think the lounge is fine, not as good as Hong Kong IC or Bali, but one of the better lounges:
Pro:
- Nice furnishing, relatively spacious area
- Breakfast is good, with orders delivered quickly
- Staff is cordial, got us in an alternate room until our Opera view suite is ready. Although I think they have been relocated downstairs?

Con:
- Too warm in the upstairs area
- Only one PC, or was it two, in the even warmer alcove.
- They did not refresh any canapé during afternoor tea.

The concierge took care of getting our rental car picked up by the rental company, without us having to make a special trip to return it. I can't remember for sure, but I think there is actually an underground garage that we parked the car, and then asked the concierge to call and make the pick-up arrangements. No charges for parking, and only an incidental charge by the rental car company.

milepig

I've read all, or at least most, of the threads on the IC Paris and still need advise. My head is spinning with prices, room grades, and sometimes conflicting trip reports from previous posters.

I am regular Ambassador.

I'm booking a weekend stay in September with Mrs. Milepig, and will be using my Ambassador coupon for one night free. My goal is to get the best room at the best price - club level would be ideal, but previous threads seem to indicate that they won't pop for that as an upgrade. Here are the rates I'm finding:

420,00 € CLASSIC ROOM

450,00 € SUPERIOR ROOM

480,00 € EXECUTIVE ROOM

510,00 € DELUXE OPERA VIEW ROOM

540,00 € CLUB INTERCONTINENTAL ROOM

700,00 € JUNIOR SUITE

1.200,00 € PRESTIGE SUITE

There is also a 315,00 € advance purchase for a classic room.

Is itthe case that if I go for the Deluxe Opera View Room the upgrade would be to the Junior Suite rather than the Club room? If so, is it worth the 30 Euro more to pay for the Opera view (upgrade to Jr. Suite) over the Executive with upgrade to Opera view.

All this assumes that, based on price, the pecking order is:

Classic Room at 22 Sq. Meters
Superior Room at 27 Sq. Meters
Executive Room at 35 Sq. Meters
Deluxe Opera View Room at 35 Sw. Meters (the only difference from Exec is the view??)
Junior Suite at 43 Square meters
Prestige Suite (yeah, not in MY lifetime)

with the Club room falling outside the order completely. Is this all true?

If I really want the club room should I just spring for the EU540 and forget about it? Does the use of the coupon for one night change anything (will they bump me to the broom closet at checkin)?

allen074

i booked superior with the free night coupon and was upgraded to junior suite - which was absolutely awesome. probably one of the best hotels i have ever stayed at.

here are a couple of my junior suite pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allen074/25303515
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allen074/25303487
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allen074/25303460

stimpy

I spent two nights at this hotel this week. I got a nice upgrade from a Classic room and I got a colleague an upgrade even though he has zero status. So it always depends.

Also I was quoted €90 for a Club upgrade. I didn't take it as the new rule is that guests pay €30 to enter the Club.

lesteryen

Hi,

I will be traveling to Paris this coming August for 3 nights. As we have 4 persons, we need to have 2 rooms. I am wondering whether the Classic Rooms at this hotel are really small or not? Thanks!

lesteryen

Raffles

Click on the 'Classic Room' tag on the website. They are 22 square metres. Let me put this in perspective - there is about 2 feet of space around the edge of the bed, and that's it! A decent sized hotel room is normally about 40 square metres, for comparison, and I've had bathrooms in some hotels (eg FS Provence) bigger than 22 sq m!

You cannot get TWO people into a Classic room happily. I stayed in one on my own and found it really cramped. A couple would be killing each other within 24 hours!

HLS2002

I stayed at Le Grand last weekend as an RA. I booked the lowest room category, the classic room. My junior suite wasn't ready when I arrived early in the day, so I used a classic as a waiting room. At least this meant I got some bonus Molton Brown products. The classic room was small and the bathroom wasn't nearly as nice. The junior suite was very large, on the other hand, complete with separate tub and shower. I enjoyed about EUR 100 in minibar beverages and chocolate during my stay, all comped as an RA. Interestingly, the front desk said I could get a free movie for each night of my stay, but I didn't take them up on any movies this time. There was a half-bottle of a nice red wine, as well as a big glass container of apricots. These were presumably my Ambassador gifts. The manager left a hand-written welcome note. It was just about a perfect stay; I would certainly return. It would have been nice to get club access, but I was already getting a better deal than I could really expect.