starflyergold could we rename this thread to
Review: Pullman Paris Montparnasse
This is my go-to hotel in Paris. Wife likes it as the area is nice to walk in during daytime for shopping etc. Its opposite the Montparasse Train station which means the CDG busses also drop you off there (accross the road). Avis and Hertz also have car rental offices in the public carpark attached to the hotel. This carpark also has reasonable 3 day/weekend tarifs.
The past three stays have been ok so far. Always received an upgrade, but never really sure if it was an upgrade or not. This time I decided to write a short note to the hotel which was quickly replied and I was told that they will arrange the necessary.
I checked in at 11am and the gentleman checking me in was frantically looking for a room "as the one assigned to you isnt ready". I told him it didnt matter as I could head out for some shopping first and come back later. He did however manage to find a different room.
I had booked (using points+some cash) a Deluxe Family room. I was upgraded into a Deluxe Suite (according to their room type a double upgrade). The room is excellent. It doesnt differ much in the overall design concept of other rooms, but you get two rooms. One room with set up in the normal Deluxe room concept with a King bed, TV, Bathroom, wardrobe. The second room has a sofa/sofa-bed(!), table, nespresso machine, study table, TV, bathroom + a in-wall fold down double bed. So in fact you have a complete separate room where if you wanted to, you could have fold down bed + double bed = 4 people. That means the Suite COULD accommodate 6 people (adults) easily. Both bathrooms have a shower and toilet (the main bedroom is a bath/shower).
The way the building is orientated, you dont get a great view of downtown Paris, but that didnt bother us.
In the past, breakfast was a pain here as the large restaurant was always full. They cater also to larger tours. However they have now converted a second restaurant into the "Platinum Restaurant" which is far less crowded and I THINK is catered to higher category rooms / LCAH members - certainly not just Plats. But the breakfast is nice, excellent croissants, great coffee, made-to-order eggs etc.
I was given drink vouchers for 2 which I didnt use and was given a little notepad + chocolates as a welcome gift.
2 hours after checking in, the lady from Guest Relations whom I had emailed with called up to make sure all was OK and apologized that they didnt meet me upon arrival as they were assuming I would check-in in the afternoon. (Nice of them).
One small thing that irked me: I asked upon check-in for the to empty the mini-bar as I had some items to keep cold in the fridge. No problems.
The design of the fridges here is that they automatically register if you remove something from the fridge.
When nobody came, I called the front office and a somewhat rude lady told me "we will charge you for removing the items". When I tried to explain that this doesnt make sense as I would not contemplate to consume anything anyway her response was "its the way it is". I asked for her to send up the FOM. 30mins later the Guest relations call came and I explained the same thing to her. So by mid afternoon it was sorted and the fridge was emptied.
But I still dont get the rationale.... I mean I know of people who ask for the mini bar to be emptied just so their kids dont touch the stuff.... so where is the problem??. But that was just a tiny issue. We had a very good stay and my daughter thoroughly enjoyed her "own room".
I have pictures, but with 11 of them I'm too lazy to post them up. Here is the link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/106175...57658601255531