Hey!

First post in the Budget Travel forum. Can't believe I haven't really visited here before--I'm a budget traveler (I'm a working student and all of my trips are purely personal) and should be calling this place home!

Anyway, I'm on my way to Paris in a couple of weeks via NYC and, due to a recent two-month adventure in Southeast Asia and Australia, am really feeling the need to pinch pennies.

I'll be in Paris for four nights and am wondering if anyone has any recommendations for decent but cheap places to stay in the Paris area. I'm quite all right with hostels, but I'm taking this trip with my mom (it's a gift to her), and while she's a pretty adventurous spirit, a private room at a hostel is probably the lowest she'd be comfortable with...and obviously, it'd be nice to have a nicer, warmer place to stay. We're both fairly tight on funds, though, so no Intercontinentals on this trip...

We're both comfortable with using public transportation, and so my original idea was to stay outside the city a bit at a place near a Metro or RER stop. In fact, when I was in Sydney, my grandfather and stayed at a Formule 1 in Campbelltown and rode the CityRail in every day--even factoring in the CityRail pass, the room was only about $US50 per night (cheaper than two beds in the Sydney YHA!). It was cramped for two people and severely lacking atmosphere, though, which sort of negatively colored my grandfather's experience of Sydney, and while I was fine with the long train ride (an hour), that was a bit wearing on him. I don't want to recreate that same feeling for my mom, especially on her first adult trip to Europe and in such a pleasant city as Paris.

I've stayed at a couple of Ibises in Eastern Europe and found them to be satisfactory, and so I had found an Ibis for about EUR50 a few months ago in the eastern suburbs of Paris (Noisy-le-Grand, IIRC), but I hadn't booked it as I didn't have the exact dates yet. Now I have the dates (and that particular hotel is a few Euros higher, though still not bad), but after the experience in Sydney, I wanted to get some input before booking a place.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a place to look at that is affordable (trying to keep it as close to EUR50--or less--as possible, and definitely under EUR80), near public transportation (and preferably not an hour out of town,) and has a warm, inviting atmosphere? During my previous trips to Europe with my grandfather, we had a car and stayed at many wonderful guesthouses and pensions (one particularly memorable one I stayed at in 1999 was owned by the most wonderful Sra. de Rodriguez and her perrito Titi in Santiago de Compostela, Spain) for very little money, so perhaps there's something like that in Paris. My hopes remain high!

I do have a second part of this question: on the way to Paris, we're staying two nights in New York. The last two times I've passed through New York, I've stayed at Salvation Army residences (like the Williams Residence, which is a retirement home that rents out its extra rooms as hotel rooms), since my family is affiliated with the Salvation Army. These are a fairly good deal by New York standards ($120ish per night, IIRC), but that's still pretty spendy compared to my West Coast Motel 6-type travel standards. Any suggestions or pointers where to look here? (If it matters, we fly into EWR and out of JFK, and I did do a little searching and came up with this and this thread, which help a bit--especially the second--but I just thought I'd ask for any updated information or alternate suggestions...)

Apologies if this isn't the right place--maybe the Paris and New York forums would have been a better choice, but I thought that maybe the budget travel folks would have better input than the typical lavish spenders found elsewhere on FT (for whom the $200 per night Sheraton represents a fantastic deal . Feel free to move this post around, though!

Regarding Ibis : what you experienced in the Formule 1 in Sydney would be Etap in Europe. (Formule 1 in Europe has shared bathrooms in the hallway.) Ibis is supposed to be a level above that, so you should be OK.
However, if I have the choice, I prefer a new Etap hotel over an older Ibis. It will be cheaper and generally Ibis does not offer me a lot more than Etap. (In Ibis you have a phone in the room and a slightly bigger bed.)

I don�t know the Ibis you�ve mentioned, I�m sorry.

Have you tried rates on Hotwire.com or priceline? The betterbidding.com
site gives you recent successful priceline bids as a guide. Lonelyplanet.com
has a good budget section, but may not be exactly what you want with
your mom. I got a great internet prepaid rate in Paris at a Comfort Hotel
Montparnasse, about 50 euros double with breakfast.

Have a fun trip!

Try wotif and yeego you have some 3 star places that seems ok(check trip advisor) ; some Holiday inn or express by Holiday inn in your budget range( inside paris ; not in the suburbs)
what are your dates??

Thanks so much for the replies.

Dates (in Paris) are December 9-13 (four nights).

HI/HIX in that (sub-$80 and closer to $50) price range? That'd be awesome! (Hard to say no to points...) I'll do some checking tomorrow.

Though I wouldn't mind a place with bit less of a U.S. chain feeling and a bit more of a "French" character...but at my budget, I'm not picky either way!

I thought that your budget was 60-80 € not $

If you're looking for something French in character the Logis de France system has 'typical' hotels:
http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/rec...=paris&x=0&y=0 or
http://www.smoothhound.co.uk/france/paris.html has all price ranges. Another possibility is Late Rooms where hotels often sell off beds cheap closer to the date:
http://www.laterooms.com/en/k12835253_paris-hotels.aspx

HIX Porte d'Italie for 68�

Hmm...the dollar must have dropped overnight or something!

I swear the last time I checked it it was no higher than $1.15 to EUR1. Looks like it's $1.25 now. (EUR50-80 works at $1.15...not so much at $1.25...well, anyway, my goal is to keep it as cheap as possible!)

I chose the Hotel Eldorado in the 17th for myself. From what I understand it is run by a couple ho enjoy travel themselves but hate bad places. It is near le metro and close to Montmartre and not far from others at all.

Their website indicates that doubles with ensuite run in the 50E to 70E range so they may have something that works, particularly if you want something other than the HIX formula hotel.

www.eldoradohotel.fr

Sometimes some interesting places turn up on www.venere.com (be sure to also check the B&B tab), and www.hostelbookers.com. They both have references, so you can get a better idea of what you are getting yourself into if you read them carefully and stick with places that have a number of positive recommendations.

And besides www.biddingfortravel.com, www.betterbidding.com can help you through the bidding process.

Hope you have a wonderful time.

Romelle

I have found good deals on these sites:
http://www.hrs.de
http://www.hotelscombined.com

It's hard to recommend one single place, because the hotel that has a good deal three months from now, might not be the same hotel that has a good deal now.

For New York, I really doubt you can get a better deal than what you posted, even with Priceline.

Thanks again for the input! Off to bed now but will look into all these links and references tomorrow (I have tomorrow off).

I've mentioned this place on previous posts and it's probably on the low end of what you're looking for, jackal, but...

Check out the Hotel de Rouen
http://www.hotelderouen.net/
Double bedroom with shower and toilet : 56 euros per night

We've stayed there each of our three stays in Paris. It's about two blocks away from the Louvre. It's basically a 1star hotel. They have rooms with and without WC's. They serve breakfast for an additional cost. We've found the staff friendly. Various staff have helped us make reservations to restaurants we wanted to go to. The frontdesk is only open to midnight but they give you a keycode to get in afterhours. There's free WiFi.
On the downside, there's some paint peeling. The view towards the rear of the building is not great. There's no elevator so it's a bit of a hike to the upper floors. Some fixtures in the washroom are loose.

Also check out EuroCheapo.com
http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/

if you want to do formule1, they do have them in paris. we stayed at one. it's sparse but clean. as someone else mentioned WC in another place. they did have a sink in our room, i think. i think the one we stayed at was Porte de Montreuil. it's 44eur per night for your dates. not that close to public transit, but not that far. maybe 10 minute walk