jamesteroh

If you want to use a Hilton property, this is about your only choice if you want to be right in the city. Unfortunately Hilton doesn't have a big presence in Paris.

There are plenty of great non-Hilton properties in Paris for a lot less.

I got a great point redemption stay in July and this is also a great property to use the citi free night cert at but if I would have been paying for the stay at the rates on their site when I was there, I would have looked for a non-Hilton property.

dek526

thanks for the rec....will check this property out.

looking at the 2-300 range would be ideal. first time there so am not really sure what location is the best. prefer to stick with hilton or spg but leaning towards the opera as it's newly renovated. would consider W but some pretty bad reviews and pictures which would be hard to justify the price point

yes i would be using a citi weekend night cert along with a decent rate of ~200/night. one thing that i'm worried about is the bad reviews about homeless and shady activities around the property


tx again for all that have responded!

Pgoodall

I probably see more homeless people on my daily commute into London. I really don't think this should be a factor in staying at this hotel or not.
Compared to other major European cities and the majority off large US cities it's certainly no worse. I did not see anything that could be referred to as 'shady dealings' and walked around the area late at night on the way back from dinner and never felt any threat.
Use common sense as you would anywhere you travel and you will be fine.

dek526

cool...will definitely report back if we decided to stay here. tx for the info and i do see a ton of homeless people each and everytime we eat in dtla definitely have run into some pretty aggressive ones that are high on some sort of drug. just not sure on how aggressive they are in paris is all.

SR12

I had a 5night stay there in mid September. Rather small room, but usual Paris size and decent breakfast buffet. Lounge was ok and liked the location since imo it's not that far a walk to the major sights and you have the metro right in front of the door, which makes even a day trip to Versailles easy to do.
We saw and passed a bunch of homeless people on our walks to/from the hotel and in the metro station, but the amount didn't really seem different from any other major city. Besides didn't experience even one aggressive one during all that time. Just sitting on the sidewalks begging for money from people passing by. We returned to the hotel between 23:00 and 02:00 several times, never felt unsafe, so at least from my point of view it was a moot point.

dek526

thanks for the feedback....will discuss with the wife as to what she wants to do. glad to hear it's located in a convenient location

submonte

Some here already clarified that this is not the case.

Seems I absolutely want to defend the hotel in this respect. Nor the location is especially frequented by homeless people, neither I have noticed any "shady activities". It is, as I said earlier, a typical central Parisian place, like many others, and like in many other cities elsewhere. It is not Place Vendome, but it is not dangerous around the hotel.

jamesteroh

Agree. you are going to encounter a lot worse at the tourist places.

Matthew_22

I stayed here a couple of weeks ago and had a pretty disappointing experience. Lengthy diatribe below...

I checked in mid afternoon and was given the usual diamond thank-you-for-your-loyalty spiel and details on the complimentary wifi and breakfast. There was nothing said about an upgrade, nor did I push the matter as that isn't really my style. As I walked up to my room I was a little disappointed to find it was on the back of the building, and so only looked out at the side of the directly adjacent railway station. As this was my first time in Paris, and it was still early in the day so the hotel was by no means full, I thought I would see if there were any rooms with a better view available.

The girl at the front desk was very accommodating, and she even pulled out a floor plan to show me the new room she assigned. It was on the top floor along the front of the hotel facing the city, exactly what I wanted. After carrying my bags over, I went to open the window drapes, and was shocked to look out and see nothing but a builder's scaffolding! it Turns out this section of the hotel was undergoing some kind of minor exterior construction work, and the framework and hoardings were pushed right up against my window, completely blocking the entire view. It was the type of thing I would've been annoyed to encounter unexpectedly on a normal day, let-alone when specifically requesting a room with an improved view. The irony wasn't lost on me, and I actually did sit and have a brief chuckle over it all, it really was like something out of Fawlty Towers.

I went back down to the girls at front desk, and as politely as I could, whilst trying to avoid coming across like a precious DYKWIA, explained the situation and asked if there was any other room I could please move into. They were very apologetic, and said they would see what they could do, but as they were just that very moment about to go into their shift handover meeting, their colleagues would have pick this up as soon as the meeting was finished in 10-15 minutes. I could sense I was being palmed off, and I was not mistaken. After about 40 minutes sitting in my room waiting for them to get back to me, I gave up, and returned to the front desk for the 4th time, and it was promptly sorted. I was given a new set of keys and upgraded to an executive room along the front, which was perfect. Finally!

Here is the real kicker though, when I returned to the front desk on the first occasion, another slightly older gentleman began to check in next to me. He was also a diamond member staying at the property for the first time, and I couldn't help but overhear as he was upgraded to an executive room voluntarily and completely unprompted on his part, whilst I was simultaneously offered absolutely nothing? Even after making it known I wasn't really satisfied with my room. I was actually so stunned by this I didn't really know how to react, feeling too embarrassed to draw attention to my shunning any further, which in hindsight was obviously the wrong approach. The only reason I could really think of was my age? (mid 20s, leisure traveler) as I have a hunch this is something I've occasionally run into before whilst traveling, presumably due to the assumption that either a) I didn't pay for this or b) I'm not used to this level of service, ergo my expectations will be lower than others. But thats a topic for another day..

I appreciate in the grand scheme of things, griping about a view is pretty inconsequential, but I guess it doesn't seem that unreasonable to me, that in lieu of an upgrade, a diamond member should at least be able to expect a decent room in the category he's booked, especially when a dummy booking shows wide availability.

Other than that, the hotel is reasonable enough, the rooms are nicely decorated, although the Deluxe/superior are stunningly small, I couldn't real imagine two people staying in one of these. The executive lounge spread was on the modest side, and rather disappointedly for Paris, no champagne is offered.

I ordered a room service steak which was fairly poor, and a humble diet coke in the lobby bar was €8! Yikes!

Regarding the homeless people thing, I didn't seem to notice particularly any more unsavory characters around the hotel than in other parts of the city.

Would really only recommend at a rate sub €250.

sbams

I really do feel for your bad experience, and agree with you that your age or reason for being there should not matter - you are as Diamond as the next guy. I do hope that this experience will encourage you to speak up for yourself in the future - politely asking about the upgrade you are more or less entitled to is not DYKWIA behavior if you do it in the right way.

But as for ordering a room service steak while you were in Paris: shame on you!

myeurocrush

I'm pretty appalled that they moved you to a room with a worse view after having complained. Sounds like a typically French move. I would say, however, that in Paris, you rarely get a room with a view of anything. Even on the top floor, usually you only have a view of the building across the street. And actually, top floor rooms usually aren’t the greatest in many hotels in Paris because the roofs slant inward so the rooms are smaller and the windows are often dormers so they are smaller. I actually think that hotels staff believe the interior courtyard rooms or back alley rooms are better especially in a noisy area, because it is less likely for noise from the street, particularly at night if there are some bars around.

I often wonder about the upgrades too. I feel like I never get upgraded (albeit I'm only gold), not only at Hilton but at other chains too. Even if I ask… I feel like they look at me and immediately think "not worthy of an upgrade" every time I enter a hotel lobby.

For this one I could say there is the possibility that the other gentleman asked for an e-standby upgrade. Are you familiar with those? I have a stay coming up at the Paris Hilton and I received a confirmation recently with an opportunity for e-standby upgrades. I noticed that the upgrade to executive room would cost $0, so I put in for that. I figured it was because I'm gold and am supposed to get an upgrade if available. I'm not saying this makes the situation any better or more acceptable. I think this is sort of a wonky way to do things, seeing that gold and diamonds should get an upgrade if available. But perhaps this guy asked for an e-standby by like I did and managed to secure his room a little earlier in the day and you got the shaft because there were no more exec rooms.

We'll see if I get my upgrade this weekend, I have small expectations.

stimpy

I have about a thousand hotel nights in Paris and I have to disagree about the views, but I do agree that I personally prefer an inner courtyard room for the peace. Lots of hotels have great Eiffel Tower views from their top floor rooms. Some even from a level below the top, such as the IC which is very close to this Hilton. And then there is the Pullman Montparnasse which is the only high rise hotel in central Paris. It used to be a LM and a Sheraton before that, thus I have a lot of nights there. Great views.

myeurocrush

Understood, and I realize that lots of hotels do have a view, but many do not. Do you every actyally get free upgrades to Eiffel tower view rooms? Aren't those rooms that people normally pay dearly for? I recently stayed at the IC Paris Opera and my top floor room had no view. Are you talking about the other IC?

Chang11

I had a similar experience in Venice, the people checking in next to me were welcomed as Hhonors Gold members by the FD. The FD informed them that they had been upgraded to a view suite. As an Diamond I feel I should not have to ask for an upgrade and don't. I wasn't informed of an upgrade and my room was on a lower floor (High Floor in my profile) and had a view of a brick wall. I went back to the FD immediately but was informed that my room could not be changed. Contacted the hotel manager via voice mail never got a response back.

jamesteroh

You should have left a bad review on TA as well as a complaint to the diamond desk. It's my understanding a property gets hit with a pretty heavy fine from HH for every unresolved diamond complaint.

That's absurd a property would give a suite upgrade to a gold (who isn't even eligible for suite upgrades to begin with) while giving a diamond who is eligible for suite upgrades a lousy room.

I had an awful room at the Paris Hilton. The bathroom was almost as big as the bedroom and no view at all and what really made me mad is they wouldn't let me check in at 2 p.m. The Exec lounge is the worst one I've been to in Europe, I've been to nicer lounges in some North America properties. Not a lot of love for HH Diamonds here. At least I got a good point redemption here, I would never pay the kind of rates they were asking when I stayed there.