Was great. I loved the hotel (although we did have some problems which I will mention).
This was our third stay at this hotel - although the first since it was renovated many years ago. We booked a deluxe room. At 860 euros. Fashion Week - the week of the auto show. You pay rack rate that week or you don't get a room (unless you are some kind of VIP - which we are not). Every room in this hotel is probably different. But our room was larger than I expected. It had an angled hallway leading into the room. A bit down the hallway was the bathroom which I think was more or less standard issue for the hotel. A bit further was a recessed "nook" which contained the minibar. The room was at the end of the hallway - perhaps 15x20. Very spacious. King bed - nightstands. Reading chair and table. Business desk with 2 chairs. Large armoire. But what clinched the room for me was there was a very large walk-in closet off the hallway with built-in drawers. Plenty of room for the two of us to store everything we brought for an 8 day stay - including our luggage. Being able to store everything away is the difference between a gracious stay - and a cluttered stay. The style of the room was elegant - but not overly fussy. And it was very comfortable.
I suppose there was a trade-off for the size of the room. It had no view. Unless you count a view of the very top of the Eifel tower as a view. Other than that - we overlooked the backyards of the buildings behind the hotel. Not unpleasant - just nothing to write home about. But I will take the space over a view any day - and the room was extraordinarily quiet.
The toiletries were Bulgari green tea - which I like a lot better than the Bulgari white. The concierge managed to get me a going home gift of some soaps (the hotel size is easy to use - when you buy the soap in a store - it is a big round cake which is too big for me to use).
The staff - everyone from the concierge desk - the bar - the restaurant - reception - the front door - etc. - was friendly and professional. I am kind of a "friendly" guest - and my gestures were always reciprocated. The concierge desk in particular was great in terms of making restaurant reservations before we arrived - after we arrived - and reconfirming the reservations we had made in advance. It was also helpful in terms of giving us little tips about arranging our sightseeing. Overall though - I really can't say enough about how friendly and competent all of the staff we came into contact with was.
We dined at Le Cinq once. It was right on target for a 2 star restaurant. Excellent meal. And the 130 euro menu is a bargain by Paris standards. We had drinks several times at the bar (great martinis - seemingly ridiculous at 24 euros - but great pours and nice snacks made them seem like a bargain compared to what we got at some cafes). And room service dinner twice (pasta - quite reasonably priced and very good for room service).
My husband used the gym every day. He uses a recumbent bike. The gym only had one - but it was always empty - so he was a happy camper.
The television station selections were fine - as were the newspaper options - especially in a week of market crisis. We could watch world markets crashing in several different languages - for example - on CNBC Arabia!
So what went wrong? A few little things. I had asked that a coffee pot be placed in our room (because I like American style coffee first thing in the morning). And it was. Not a dinky little Mr. Coffee - but a full size 12 cup coffee maker placed on the counter in the "nook". Unfortunately - it gave off a lot of steam. The first time I used it - the lowest glass shelf in the nook cracked in half! Maintenance was up in a jiffy to remove the broken shelf. Over the course of a week - there were various mix-ups about providing coffee - filters - etc. - but a phone call rectified those problems in no time.
The internet system - Wayport - is one I have struggled with before at other Four Seasons properties in terms of configuring my outgoing mail server (Outlook Express). No better luck here than in Chicago a couple of months ago. I dislike Wayport (although Swisscom - at the Hilton at CDG - where we spent our last night - was more expensive - 27 euros versus 22 - and much much worse).
Cabs are a problem. Not only at the hotel - but in all of Paris - at busy hours and when it rains (which it did most of the week - we even had a hail storm one day!). Several times we were faced with taking cabs which already had 5-8 euro charges on their meters by the time they arrived at the hotel to pick us up.
The major complaint I have about the physical property is the bar is too small for a popular hotel of this size. The bar in the old George V was much larger. We managed to get in the good graces of the bar staff after a couple of days - and always got a seat when we wanted one in the early evening before dinner - but if you are drinking later - or not staying at the hotel - reservations for the bar may be necessary - especially in high season.
Overall though - these are minor quibbles. And I will tell you a story which illustrates the extent of the service in the hotel. We had a "red eye" arrival at 7 am. The afternoon before - a friend of mine dropped off a cell phone for us - which was placed in our room. Housekeeping apparently thought the phone had been left behind and removed it from the room the night before we arrived. The staff spent half a day tracking down that phone and found it for us. They treated a cheap cell phone as if it were an expensive piece of jewelry. Even if the public areas of the hotel didn't have beautiful flowers - I would have loved it. The flowers were just the icing on the cake
. Robyn