Originally Posted by
wripro
I spent a few days at Peninsula Paris this past spring and while it's an impressive property in many ways I had two major problems. First, the location. Like the Shangdi-La it's in the 16th but at the Shangri-La a few minutes walk down the Avenue President Wilson brings you to the Pont Alma to cross into the 7th or the Avenue Montaigne. The Peninsula is only convenient to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Ulysses and I found myself taking taxis far more often.
The second problem for me was that as beautiful as the rooms were, and they were beautiful, they could be in any city in the world. Totally luxury generic. I much prefer rooms that reflect the city I am in, such as GV, Shangri-La or Plaza Athenee.
The location of the Pen in Paris isn't ideal indeed, but neither is Shangri-La's. The rooms at the Pen don't make you feel like you're in Paris, but the public areas do and from the exterior it's definitely a beautiful, classic French building (like the SL). The MO on the other hand has a good location but has by far the ugliest facade of any 5 star luxury hotel in Paris. Why they decided to put a hotel with such heritage in a nondescript office building is beyond me. Service levels don't even come close to Asian standards at all 3 Asian properties in Paris (MO, SL, Pen).
Unless the rates suggest otherwise, I'd always prefer a classic French
palace hotel like the Plaza, Meurice, Ritz or of course GV.