I guess one man's skanky is another man's basic lodging. I've stayed at Hotel Central twice and I would put in on the same level as some of the mid to lower-end B & B's in P'Town or Palm Springs.

The price is certainly much less than anything else I've found in Paris, but if you're finicky, you'd probably have issues.

The bathrooms are shared, as they are in many older European B & B's, but they are completely private. In other words, you go from your room into a corridor and there are individual bathrooms off the corridor,

The street itself is noisy and there IS a bar on the first floor, but I didn't find either of my rooms particularly noisy. The location is terrific. You can walk to the Marais, the Beauborg (sp?) and the Gai Moulin, my favorite gay restaurant in Paris.

You definitely get more of a feel for Paris than you do when you stay at any of the big box hotels, even though it's very basic with few, ie no, ameneties.