Originally Posted by
JohnRain
I want to like La Réserve as the location, hard product and design are all great. But after having visited all room and a few suite categories and having eaten there on three occasions (afternoon tea and a couple of snacks), I still don't get the place. It is always empty and F&B is disappointing and overpriced (even for Paris Palace hotel standards). I hope Epicure-trained F&B Director Marco will quickly leave his mark and bring things up to standard.
The rooms are nice but some suites are odd, like The Presidential Suite which has a bit of a strange layout (it is long and narrow) and it is on the small side (120 or 140 sqm).
In a city with so many great hotels and heavyweights like the FS or Le Bristol, La Réserve simply isn't competitive as it's in the same price range but not at all on par when it comes to pretty much everything else.
I think you need to stay there to fully get La Réserve. In fact, there are 3 Presidential Suites and one works better than the other 2. They are all differently configured and decorated.
In some aspects, the hotel is a work in progress and new staff is arriving all the time to further finesse the product. There are plans, for instance, to improve the Spa - Isabelle Gobbo, who was Spa Director for Le Bristol is now at La Réserve and is working on this. The F&B, too, is being worked on, and knowing how meticulous Didier Le Calvez is, having seen what he did at GV and Le Bristol, I expect standards to rise gradually across all departments. Even at this stage, though, I loved staying there. There is nothing of this size and standard elsewhere in Paris.