Newhotel Roblin - Paris, France 

Grim Hotel Roblin
Posted: Wed, May 30 2007
The good: central location off the Madeleine, smart restaurant, lobby and lift, free newspapers in lobby The bad: 1. Grim room with sagging floor, sagging single beds that of course count as a double as we are in Paris 2. Baking hot room even though nothing is turned on, seems to get hotter when you do anything to the box on the wall that might control the A/C (?!). The road is a busy rat-run just in case you contemplated opening the window... luckily I brought ear plugs 3. Supposedly renovated rooms but all I can say is that must have been 20-30 years ago... the decor is tired and "classic Paris" in the sense of everything that a traveller to Paris dreads 4. Random wiring with bedside light being powered from a socket sitting 5 cm above the middle of the pillow at the top of the bed, so you literally have the flex touching your face unless you unplug before bedtime and cuddle up to the exposed socket... 5. Not clean - hard to convey, but as an example the bathroom door had a piece of chewing gum stuck halfway down, with a trailing lock of hair stuck into it 6. No pay TV despite what it says on the website 7. A hairdryer that might keep you from getting frostbite in the arctic circle but is not going to dry your hair 8. Ropey bits of towel that you could use to sand furniture If, like me, you find a bargain and think "ooh how bad can it be?", don't say you weren't warned!