There are two computers free for use by the check in counter (in a small side room). I believe both have French keyboards.

If I'm not mistaken, I remember one keyboard being North American. Still, one should ask a front desk person how to do "@" on the European one. That and, once you trap it, copy it to paste it in all your emails. ...Then there are the letters in different places. (Tip: Just type your stuff straightaway, and go back and correct ...much faster than retrogressing to hunting and pecking.) :)

And unless things have changed since I was last there, they are on a highish ledge so you have to stand while using them.

They must have gotten tired of the young people who were going in, closing the door, sitting down, and watching their TV programs on the computers.

Or you could do what I did....

Go to Paris with a French teacher!

redtop43, while I 99% agree - and 100% on a qualitative basis - I'm afraid I didn't learn the European keyboard in Français class. Now, if that teacher is French - Voila!

It gives me a struggle too.

The French keyboard is very distinct from most European keyboards. Out of those keyboards that use primarily a Roman alphabet, the French one gives English-language typists some of the hardest times.

Cut and paste of the @ symbol can be done from just searching the web for an email address that includes the symbol. A search of the contact us section of US government agencies or elected officials works well at that if making the setting switch from FR to EN on the PC isn't allowed and working the keyboard from memory were to give an issue.

@:-) Thank you, GUWonder, I forgot that there is a way to switch the French keyboard over to a North American one in one fell swoop. [...Then don't look at the keyboard ...Then kindly set it back.] Does anyone remember the keys that do it - Control ...what? Otherwise, that's what to ask a front desk person.

Is the in room Internet Wifi or dies it Require a cable . Would prefer to take IPad
Instead of laptop

It's both - wifi & wired.

Staying at the hotel now - been here a few days and leave tomorrow.

Everything is great. Staying on an all award stay and was upgraded to a Deluxe king room without asking. Originally had the regular queen room booked via points.

Great view overlooking Vendome plaza with a balcony.

Diamond benefits are great. Free American Breakfast for 2 each day (49 Euro each) which includes the buffet & then eggs, and a side such as bacon.

Free wifi / wired internet in the room.

Was given a voucher good for 2 free drinks at the bar at check in.

2 - 1 liter bottles of Evian replaced daily for free.

Diamond amenty was a 350 ml bottle of wine and a small box of chocolates.

They include 4 post cards (and replace daily if you use them) in the room and the concierge will ship them to the US for free.

Good report returning in a week !

That's a new one on me - er - them... Not trivial at all. Aren't drinks about €20?

Me as well. Last time I had a martini in the bar it was 25 euros ! Now that could be huge !

Yes, Martinis are 25 Euro. I guess I should have given more details.

It says it is good for: Glass of Champagne, wine, soft drink, or beer. *2 people.

Picture of the card is here: http://whichf.in/ger4SKmzu.jpg

http://whichf.in/ger4SKmzu.jpg

Oh well. The bartender in the hotel bar makes the best martini's around!

Booked 2 free suite award nights but couldn't book my third suite night using points. Had to book a standard king room for 22k points. Anyone with past experience know if the hotel will have me change my room? If so, I'm ok with that, really curious if there a good chance I wont have to. I do have the option of using all points to make it a suite for 3 nights, and not use my free suite nights but I don't have 99k points yet. Either way I am looking forward to staying at this property. I want see for myself what everyone else is raving about when they stay here.

I've only ever had the wine, and it was at least $20, if not €20.

At those price points, I'd rather get thrown out of the Ritz... :p (Not in the next two years, of course.)

BTW - interesting how they spell endeavor. Hyatt is a US company, but I just seldom see US spelling on that side of the pond.

Queen room or suite on points?
 

We're hoping to use points for a 4-night stay and was wondering if it is worth getting a suite at 33,000 rather than the queen room at 22,000. It is a tourist trip, and our first time in Paris, so I doubt we'll be in the room that much, although we do sometimes like to have room service breakfast (just a bakery basket and coffee, but I've been in some small rooms where even that is difficult). If there was some type of lounge access with the suite then I would go for it, but otherwise I'm leaning toward just the queen room and save to points for something else.

I would recommend going for the Suite, it is substantially more spacious than the standard rooms.

In general at Paris luxury hotels I would hesitate to book anything lower than a Junior suite, or in some cases a Premier Room (highest room category). Anything smaller typically does not have an adequate sitting area or enough space to properly enjoy in room dining. Entry level rooms at PH Vendome are particularly tiny.

Thanks. That will give me something to think about. I did note from the hotel's site that the queen is 26-30 m2 vs. 50-60 m2 for the Park Suite King. I wonder if the bathroom is much nicer; we're very fond of luxe bathrooms. The problem is that I'm such a cheapskate; I can't stop thinking that for the same points needed for 4 nights in the suite we could stay 6 nights in the queen and spend another 2 days in Paris.

Any comments from Plats who have stayed here would be nice to hear. It certainly seems that the treat the Diamonds exceptionally well. Wonder the Vendome interprets the new, incredibly vague Plat perk of a "preferred room". Might there be a slim chance of an upgrade to Deluxe Queen or King for a Plat staying on points?

Even in the smaller room types, the bathrooms are rather large and not that much different than the bathrooms in larger room types. [For the smaller room types, the proportion of the room allocated to the bathroom area is considerably higher than in some of the larger room types.]

The hotel gym has bottles for free too.

@:-) If you don't mind paying a bit of cash, you could have the best of both worlds: book six standard award nights, call the hotel's reservations department and arrange to pay an upsell to be confirmed in a Park Suite.

Since the price difference between the Park Suite and the standard room is relatively small, paying an upsell is possibly an even better value than the suite award. Also, there is no minimum stay requirement (although this is not a factor for your stay of four or six nights anyway)

If the suite upsell amount is more than you want to spend, at least consider paying the very small upsell to a Park Deluxe Room. As a Platinum, you aren't likely to get an upgrade to a nicer room unless you pay for an upgrade to the Park Suite or Park Deluxe Room.

I would agree that you should not count on getting the Deluxe room booking the base room as a Plat. Plat's are according to the T&Cs entitled to an upgrade to the best room within the booked category while Diamonds are entitled to an upgrade to the best non-suite room. If you were Diamond, I'd say that an upgrade to a Deluxe is likely.

We've been to the property 3x (once in a Deluxe, once in some sort of a connector suite b/c the property was sold out, once booked on awards in a suite but nicely further upgraded to the Park Executive Suite which is true 2 rooms). If you were in a Deluxe, I'd say that the base suite of Park Suite isn't worth it, you get a little bit more room but it's still one room, but from the base Park Room to the Park Suite could be worth it.

Actually, they changed the wording on the Plat benefits this year. Last year it was as you said, "best available room within the booked category" (or something like that). Now it is "Enjoy a preferred room including rooms on higher floors or larger rooms, based on availability upon arrival (Excludes Regency/Grand Club rooms and suites)". I'm not sure that it makes much of a difference, but it sure sounds better. I would think that anyone could expect the "best available room in the booked category", so it did not sound much like an elite (albeit petite elite:)). "Preferred room" and "larger rooms" sound a lot better. Maybe the change in wording is only window dressing to make us Plats feel better, or maybe it actually gives the individual properties a little bit more leeway. Some places that get few Diamonds might be more inclined to give upgrades to Plats.

Thanks for the clarification - even I learn something new everyday :)

That said, I think that this is pretty much "window dressing", since Hyatt properties have the leeway and generally go above and beyond the T&Cs anyways, some properties have the reputation of giving Diamonds suite upgrades if avaialble for example. However, we should not count on getting something more than what is called for in the T&Cs. In this particular case, I'd say that a Diamond should be able to count on getting a Park Deluxe while a Platinum could get one but don't count on it.

I certainly wouldn't count an upgrade at the Vendome even if I heard that some Plats had lucked out, since this is such a popular property, especially for those with 2 free nights from the cc (the unavailability of which to non-US members I won't get into). I was just interested in hearing the experiences of some other Plats, since most of the reviews (and I've read the past few years' worth) have been from Diamonds. Just as I would be happy to share my experiences as a Plat at the Hyatt Osaka and Kyoto, both of which I stay at quite frequently.

On another matter, I don't know if anyone else has ever expressed this, but I've always longed for a tier between Plat and Dia, maybe one that would offer a room upgrade OR comped breakfast, but not both. As a leisure-only traveller I find it impossible, at least on my budget and with no lower-end Hyatt chains here in Japan, to rack up 25 stays or 50 nights, while Plat is quite easy. There sure is a big gap between 5 stays and 25, or between 15 nights and 50.

I'm sorry if all of this is off the topic of Vendome reviews.

Well...crap.

Just realized that I will lose Platinum status next Tuesday. I check-in to the Vendome the following week. Hopefully they will still give me some free wi-fi :(

Wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that, alas.

Absolutely wonderful experience at the the PHV last week. I am a platinum member and despite using Chase free nights (which they noted I was on) they did not hold back any hospitality:

-Early check in no problem at about 10:00am, showed me around the hotel and noted my free internet as a platinum member.

-In the room, a box of chocolates to welcome me to the hotel along with the standard two bottles of daily evian (although 1 liter of this is 60 cents at any grocery store there)

-After giving the front desk my platinum extra certificate (which I got for getting plat again this year) and choosing the amenity, delivered a bottle of wine AND chocolates to my room.

-After returning to the room later that evening, a note under my door welcoming me as their "most valued of guests" with FREE FULL AMERICAN BREAKFAST for two (which is over 50 euros a piece), and free welcome drink at the bar, "see card in room", which I did not see.

-5 minutes later, delivered ANOTHER free bottle of wine for no apparent reason with the welcome card talking about the free welcome drink (which me and my guest each got a glass of wine for over 30 euros at the hotel bar later that evening)

-Great attentive service throughout the two nights we were there. Unfortunately on my check out morning my passport, computer and ipad were stolen in the train station, and going back to the hotel they had no problem letting me use internet and their concierge (even though I already checked out) and even opened availability for me (they had no standard rooms left) to let me spend another night there on points.

Needless to say, very appreciated and a wonderful experience!

That's what I figured. My only saving grace is that my travel partner is also a Platinum and the reservation is under his name the following two nights. Maybe they'll make an exception since we'll likely keep the same room for the duration of our stay. (Twin)

Thanks for that review. We're planning a 4-6 night stay as a Plat, and although I won't absolutely count on all the perks you got, at least I can keep my fingers crossed. It's also useful to know what the Plat Extras amenity is. At the HR Osaka is a some fruit, like 2 small apples or mandarin oranges, value about UA$1, so I always use the Extra cert for points on dining (to be fair to the HR Osaka though, they give the amenity to all Plats, maybe even all GP, anyway without using the certificate, but I certainly do not see the value of getting another 2 small apples). The Extra cert used to be good for a RC upgrade, but now only after stays 15 & 18 and only in the US:(.

I don't know about the Vendome, but in the past I've had hotels note the status at the time of reservation and not bother to re-confirm it later, so you may get lucky.

Make sure your platinum status is noted on the reservation. Print out a copy of you Hyatt Plat status card from the site and in one window it says Platinum since with no expiration date

Laminate and show it

Good Luck

Actually if his name is on the registation as a guest you will get plat benefits

Have to stop answering until I have read all the posts :)

yet another way to keep the French attitude to us !

All of this discussion has given me a serious case of "diamond envy", so I'm going to do my own 'diamond challenge' this year. I've just booked another 3 stays at our local HR Osaka that has a spa treatment plan my wife likes, and will be looking to get a couple more stays at HR Kyoto as well, so I should have at least 14 and maybe as many as 16 stays by midyear and shoot for the 25 by year end.

If I manage to make diamond, it seems that if I book the standard queen on points we are likely to be upgraded to the Deluxe. I don't imagine the 4 suite upgrades/year for diamond would be combinable with a points award? If we went for the suite award, which should be the Park Suite, is it likely that we would be upgraded to the Exec suite as diamond? I would think the higher you start from, the less chance of upgrade, simply due to lack of availability resulting from the fewer number of suites to start with.

1. Yes, if you book a Park Queen, you're fairly likely to be upgraded to a Park Deluxe.

2. No, the 4 Diamond Suite Upgrades cannot be used with a points redemption regular room.

3. I would not say that booking a Park Suite is likely to get you a Park Executive suite, it's certainly possible.

How is the spa at this location? Is it similar to the one in Tokyo? Do diamond members get free access to sauna, jacuzzi? Is there a cold water bath?
My partner is running the Paris marathon and after the one in Tokyo, the cold water bath at the Park Hyatt Tokyo was the perfect source of muscle relaxation! It'd be great if we had access to a similar service in Paris.