Timhotel Opera Madeleine - Paris, France     

This hotel has a wonderful location so this is a big plus. Some rooms are tiny but that is to be expected in Paris. I stayed at another TimHotel in Paris a few years ago and was looking forward to the same good service. This was not the case. I think the workers as the reception desk may have been more helpful had they not seemed so overworked. Most of the time there was only one person on duty which meant it was very difficult to get a call through to the desk or have someone call into the hotel and get a call to your room. The biggest problem was the elevator. There was a sign on it that said it could hold six people. We arrived with a group of 30 travelers. Three got on the elevator with luggage. They went up to the second floor and the elevator cable broke. They plummeted down to the sub-basement. If this wasn't traumatic enough, there was no phone in the elevator and only a little bell. It took over 15 minutes before it was discovered that they were stuck. Someone went down and pried the door open. They had to climb out. One would have expected that the hotel management would at least express concern, ask if they were okay, or even offer some medical help. One person had a cane. They just kept telling us they were not technicians. 26 of our group of 30 were stranded in the lobby for about 2 hours and they never even offered us a glass of water. When we finally begged for it they got bottles of water. Throughout all this, there was one receptionist [I think he was Indian] who was pleasant. But the other man was stoic and unresponsive. He suddenly did not understand any English. They could not repair the elevator until the next day so members of our group who ranged in age from mid 50s to almost 80 had to walk up and down the 6 flights of stairs. They were finally able to change one person's room but that was all. Getting an extra pillow was another huge issue. They said they didn't have any. After two days an extra pillow was finally located. Receiving a call was also difficult. They just let the phone ring for one person who tried to call me. Calling the desk was difficult. That worried me because I wondered what would happen if someone had an emergency in thier room. Wake-up calls were also problematic. The first day, the call didn't come as scheduled and I had to call and ask them to contact the others in our group. The had only called two rooms. In general, I would say that there were not enough people serving the guests in the hotel. The hotel was full and it would seem that a full hotel would warrant one more person on the desk.