ckendall

I ordered whatever I wanted and did not pay extra (Plat-50 member).

longtimeflyin

It may be worth discussing, on the topic of breakfast fees for platinum members, when was our last stay.

My last stay at this property was in 2016, and at that point I had one guest and both of us were not penalized for having a hot breakfast. E.g. there was no additional cost for having a hot breakfast vs. continental.

Perhaps other members can chime in here with respect to their last hotel stay date and their experiences (some upthread have indicated they were charged for a hot breakfast, and others such as myself were not)

bhrubin

We checked out on Tuesday. Anything above continental breakfast is an upcharge.

SHLTP

April 2017 had to pay for upgraded breakfast. Made explicitly clear. One waiter said my son could have a slice or two of salami for free. BUt everything else clearly more.

Christian K

Has anyone got any recent experience what a lowly gold member can expect in terms of upgrade?

Thanks!

JBauer

Staying here now. Short review to come. Upgraded as a Platinum member to a very nice suite. I can confirm breakfast is just continental - but they did offer it to all three of us including small child.

JBauer

Stayed with my wife and three year-old Daughter for two nights. As a Platinum we were upgraded to a lovely suite with two rooms, two bathrooms and a nice parlor/hallway. The suite was stunning. Very opulent. Black marble. Amazing furnishings. There was a cake and champagne for my wife’s birthday. And even a cute stuffed animal for my daughter. The rooms have to be some of the nicest in all of paris.

The Lobby is like walking into a movie. Opulence. Almost like a museum. And the staff is all too willing to help. They almost wait in line to help you. You get the sense there is nothing they will not do for you.

Location wise this is right on one of the most prominent avenues in Paris. Shopping. Offices. Right around the corner from the Eiffel Tower.

This may be expensive but you get what you pay for. The lap of luxury.

bhrubin

@JBauer thanks for sharing! Sounds like you also had a wonderful stay...and an even better suite upgrade than we enjoyed! (We only had the one main bathroom.)

EuropeanPete

Just back from an excellent Valentine's weekend stay. The hotel itself was beautiful and Starwood really showed why the SPG program delivers at levels far beyond most other programs.

Firstly, on the Starwood side the prepaid rates on spg.com were a bit more than I ideally wanted to spend for the weekend (560EUR/ night for 3 nights), so I found a much cheaper BRG rate on a popular website and ended up with a discounted rate of 317EUR/ night. The hotel is much more generous than most with Suite Night Awards and so I used three to upgrade to a Makkasar Suite. We were actually given what I believe was one of the largest, with a huge balcony. Lastly, I requested a Your24 late arrival and checkout, so was able to stay in the hotel until 10pm at night. In short, I paid around 1,000/EUR for an experience which should really have cost 2,000-6,000, depending on whether you value the Makkasar Suite upgrade at its actual retail value. Either way, pretty great.

To the hotel itself, it's compact and well designed, actually reminding me rather a lot of the (otherwise not comparable) Great Northern Hotel. Our suite wasn't huge (with the exception of the terrace), but it was well designed and was a comfortable place to spend time in. I could imagine staying for long periods at a time, except the 50,000EUR/ month run rate would make that rather impractical.

It feels very fresh, modern and high quality. Service was also flawless, and much better than I would expect from Paris in particular. I make an effort to speak my passable French when in Paris to avoid the unfriendliness that you inevitably get when you're pegged as an Anglo-Saxon, but the staff were friendly and effective in either language. Brunch at the 1* La Scene was an authentically Parisian experience, and the hotel bar (les Heures) is one of the most capable bars that I've seen at any Starwood hotel. We felt both the bar and restaurant were higher quality and executed at higher service levels than the George V next door where we lunched at the 3* Le Cinq and had drinks at Le Bar.

My one criticism would be that I don't expect a true luxury hotel in the 21st century to try to nickel and dime me with the incidentals. There may perhaps be not so many Millennials staying at the hotel just now, but that will change in the next 5 years. Dry cleaning my 2 piece suit was $60 ($90 on Sundays), and a vodka with sparkling water from the minibar would have cost $55. Not cool. It's maybe an easy way to make extra margin from its Arab and Russian clientele right now, but might end up being an expensive choice in the longer term.

mydogsmooch

I'm seeing a lot of great stories about upgrades here, and am hoping I will have one as well. Have 7 award nights booked in early May, but have not received confirmation of my suite nights yet. We are celebrating my best friends 60th birthday, and daughters college graduation, and am really hoping to get upgraded to a suite large enough for 4 people. The notes that I have received from the hotel have not been encouraging, as they are pushing to have me book 2 separate rooms. Fingers crossed!

EuropeanPete

Only two individual suites in the hotel will sleep at least 4 people (The Alma Suite and the Parisian Apartment) and both start at around 10,000EUR a night. I would have thought the odds of being upgraded to them for a long stay with anything but a 6-figure booking are about zero. I think you need to listen to the hotel here.

VCURamFan

Liked this hotel, the room was nice and very large for Paris. It was well staffed and definitely felt like a luxury hotel. However, I have to echo the sentiments about being nickel and dimed. 9EU for a drip coffee at the hotel bar, 70 EU for two gin and tonics. Give me a break with those prices, I've never had such sticker shock, these prices make the Maldives seem cheap.

EuropeanPete

Those prices do seem a bit odd. The hotel bar was expensive, but in my view fair (unlike the minibar, which was ridiculous). I was drinking high quality cocktails and was paying something like 20-25EUR each. 70EUR for two G&Ts seems vastly out of whack.

Always Flyin

Sounds like it might be the price for two doubles, so effectively four cocktails.

submonte

I am ordinary SPG member (Preferred Plus), with target Platinum (in the joined program or before) within the next months, and had some earned points plus some purchased earlier plus some from my Marriott account exchanged, so my wife and I decided one day before to try out PdG (2 nights Sun-Tue, Cash & Points rate per night USD 275 + 15,000 Starpoints + city tax US 6.60 per Person). Car was EUR 39,60 per 24h.

The hotel is Art Deco styled and in excellent shape. Clean public spaces, bar and restaurant, floors and room. We got a room in the 5th floor with view to patio. The room was with large mosaic bathroom, seperate shower. We loved the room layout and style. Food and beverage in the bar (we were three times there) was really good and fine. The sommelier made good recommendations. The bar which is also a cafe / lounge is very nice art deco casual styled. The restaurant is very nice and modern styled. The hotel location is beside FS George V, you walk some steps and are there.

We had to wait for the room as 30 mins early, were picked up by front desk team member from the bar where we had a drink meanwhile, taken to the room and explained some facts about the hotel.

We would come again, however I would like to express some criticism:

The restaurant La Scene is closed two evenings per week (Sun+Mon) and we could not have dinner there. For a luxury hotel I find this inadequate. We wanted to try it out as we liked it seeing many guests after check-in when we had arrived at brunch Sunday afternoon in the restaurant and were curious about the food of Michelin star Chef Stephanie Le Quellec. So the first evening (Sun) we went to the Bar Les Heures to have dinner, the second night (Mon) we went to George V to have dinner there at La Galerie.

Buffet breakfast ("Gourmet Breakfast") at La Scene is not worth EUR 49 per person. The choices were poor (Less than 5* Marriott Champs Elysees, clearly less than 4* Trianon Palace Versailles, and also the Le Grand Club lounge (!) breakfast the days before left a much better impression to us). Not even a typical selection of French cheese offered (2 Standard types, one hard, one soft). Food presentation was confusing and wide spread. The service was poor. Waiting long for two cups of coffee, the omelette arrived when I did not expect it anymore after 15 mins. (but was one of the best I ever had, very fine), and the oeuf poches (eggs Benedict) for my wife were totally forgotten and never arrived, what we did not complain as we saw the poor boy had problems to serve all the guests (while two senior staff ladies chatting at the restaurant reception desk, instead of intervening and supporting the servers) and end of breakfast time ahead.

Smaller Service issues include forgotten dinner reservation for bar Les Heures (afternoon by phone from room to bar, not appearing evening at bar reception desk computer), sometimes slow and inattentive staff at Les Heures. Inefficient labor organisation, sometimes no server far and wide, sometimes many, but more taking care of themselves instead taking care of the guests.

The best service over all was provided by doormen, bellboys, followed by front desk staff. I liked to give them tips as they deserved it most, good people, thank you.
The best service in Les Heures was provided by the young man with glasses evening at dinner. He recommened a fantastic wine to my wife, one of the best white wines we ever drank, thank you.
Thanks to the chambermaids. I did not meet one to give her a tip. They do really a good job. No fluff, no hair, no stain in the room and bathroom. Thank you.