Benny8444

Paris does have some of the best luxury hotels in the world. It def has the best in Europe. I wish there were an RC there, but RC has such a small hotel base in Europe.

RichardInSF

OT, but I can't resist: My vote for the only other city in this competition is Bangkok. But right now the best luxury hotel price-performance ratio compared to normal may well be Tokyo, which will also soon get a Shangri-La to complete the set.

robyng

We did have a great trip (in October). And I wrote a hotel report (George V) here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...-george-v.html. Robyn

vuittonsofstyle

Ritz-Carlton cannot go into Paris as they have a name clash with The Ritz Paris. Anyway, do we really need an up-scale Marriott there?

Just tried out the much-hyped Fouquets Barriere on the corner of Avenue George V (just up from FS George V and Champs Elysees). Designed by Jacques Garcia, it looks initially, rather good, but staff is hopeless and maintannce, already, is atrocious. When you look at the prices, you wonder why anyone would be mad enough to choose this.

Shangri-La's Palais d'Ilena is delayed. 2010 now. Do we care?

Pierre&Cédric

I couldn't agree more. Fouquet's Barrière is a disaster.
George V, le Bristol, le Meurice, there are plenty of much nicer propertes with a real 5* service.
I heard several times that the Ritz was supposed to close to undergo extensive restoration. Do you have accurate information?

Non-NonRev

Not much detail is provided, but this undated notice on an engineering firm's website seems to confirm the closure:

http://www.wspgroup.com/en/Welcome-t...el-Ritz-Paris/

vuittonsofstyle

There has been a lot of gossip over the years about The Ritz being up for sale. Last week, quite a few people in Paris thought that Al Fayed would sell. Whether this will be before or after a restoration, I do not know.

luxury

I am currently in Paris and just completed a stay at the Park Hyatt on a Faster Free Night award stay. The rewqrd night was for a standard Park room but it appears the hotel upgraded us to a Park Deluxe room.

The hotel is nice, with a soothing contemporary décor. The service is a bit slow -- 40 minutes for ice..... the location is excellent and the holiday decorations along Rue de la Paix were pretty at night. The one irritating thing is the perfume the hotel uses throughout the property -- much too overpowering and sickly sweet.

Le Grand is still the value leader in Paris and especially for (Royal) Ambassadors. The hotel, for me, keeps upping its level of service so much so the service is comparable to that of the Plaza Athenée and Le Bristol. The location is hard to beat and gazing out from the room to the Opèra Garnier is one of my favourite Paris moments.

Edited to add: The stay started off well at Le Grand but unfortunately dropped off quite quickly.....

wripro

vuittonofstyle,

Thanks for the heads up on Fouquet's Barriere. I was actually thinking of trying it on my next trip. Can you be a bit more specific as to its problems? Thanks.

vuittonsofstyle

Well, when you enter the porte cochére, you think, wow, this is nice, as the look is unusually contemporary for Paris, especially this part of town. Then you go to reception and think, hmm, not too clever, as staff is reasonably trained, but not exceptionally so. Then you begin to notice that beyond the 'design' which is Jacques Garcia, the maintenance is awful. The bar, for instance, had badly chipped tables and scuffed chairs and staff wore ill-fitting uniforms (I mean really badly fitting!) and dirty shoes. Yet, the prices were about par with Four Seasons, if you compared a glass of wine.

Rooms and other public areas had the same problem - very poor maintenance and amateurish service. Beds, too, are uncomfortable with synthetic pillows. Yuk.

Generally, this is also true of other Barriere hotels throughout France - they think they are much better than they are. Never again.

wripro

Thanks, Vuittonofstyle. The contemporary decor is what attracted me as a change from the traditional decor in most 5 stars but not at the cost of service. Guess I'll stick with what the French do best.

Pierre&Cédric

Have you tried the Park Hyatt Vendôme?

Braniff

Does anyone know why it is delayed. Did the property owner's financing dry up ??? The big Asian hotel groups do not have a good track record of success in Paris.

wripro

PierreandCedric,

Thanks for the suggestion but I've been in the Park Hyatt and it reminds me of a Park Hyatt anywhere. Fouquet's seemed more unique and organic, but as I said, not at the expense of service.

vuittonsofstyle

I think the delay is due to a number of factors. This is an old 1895 palais, so renovation is always tricky and deadlines rarely met. Also, the interiors are by Pierre Yves Rochon (brought in by previous GM, Didier le Calvez) and he has a massive workload worldwide, so many of his projects take longer than envisaged.

The loss of le Calvez must also have impacted, as he was COO for Europe and North America and was controlling the project. They have only just hired a new GM - Alain Borges.

Le Calvez's number two, Leah Marshall (also ex George V) has been in Asia for the past 3 months, working with Shangri-La, which says that the project has been held up and staff has been redeployed whilst it was sorted out.

I also suspect that now le Calvez has gone, Shangri-La will impose more of THEIR thinking on the hotel, which will not be a good thing, as they are more used to doing vast business style hotels in Asia than 108-room boutiques in Europe - probably one of the reasons that le Calvez left.