Best Western Mercedes - Paris, France     

I booked a 3 day stay at this hotel through Lastminute.com and it stated it was a city-centre hotel. This isnt a lie but it isnt exactly accurate either!!! It is located in the North-west of the city about 15 minutes walk to the Arc de Triomphe and too far from the centre to walk anywhere else unless you want to sacrifice your time trudging along the streets. Luckily, 'Wagram' metro stop is very close to the hotel (couple of minutes walk) so getting around isnt any hassle as the metro in Paris is excellent. Upon arrival, my wife and I were upgraded to a "deluxe" room, which was very nice of them. The kind receptionist said it was because we had booked a 3 night stay. The deluxe room we stayed in was very clean, comfortable and fairly big (not massive though). The bed was huge, very very comfy and clean. The bathroom was very clean as well. The room also had a nice flat screen TV although CNN was the only channel in English! However, everytime I or my wife took a shower, water went everywhere and turned the bathroom in to a small lake. The only way to combat this was to raid the towel closet outside the room and put some padding down! Also, because the towel closet was outside out room the cleaner would go to it repeatedly around 7am every morning and she made absolutely no effort whatsoever to be quiet (doors would bang and she would smash the hoover in to every possible wall and surface)which was very very annoying. However, when our room was cleaned, she did a very good job and nothing was stolen (plus the room had a safe which was free to use). The walls were quite thin and sounds of people peeing could often be heard, but I just turned up the volume on the TV and focused a little harder on some french bloke talking about Burma. It was also annoying in the morning when the room next to us went down to breakfast as the door opening and shutting made a lot of noise and woke us up. The neighbourhood the hotel is located in is a very safe middle class residential area and is very pleasant and has several nice restaurants nearby. I wouldnt return back to this hotel if I return to Paris as I would want to be a lot more central. However, this is a nice, clean and comfortable hotel and the reception staff were always very kind and were happy to speak in English.

Hotels in Paris are notoriously expensive for what they are and this is no exception. However it is clean, they are polite and as helpful as they can be - and there is an elevator! our room was tiny but pleasant...clean sheets, clean bathroom etc so i was overall quite happy here. you can (just) see the arc de triomphe from the hotel - probably a 15 minute walk which is nice if you enjoy exploring as you walk. 2 minute walk to the metro which is also good as you must use the metro when travelling around paris...it's just too big to all do on foot. i would recommend the mercedes although try and get a booking online (they often have specials) that includes breakfast (although there is a very tempting bakery across the road). if staying again in paris i would probably try to stay in st germain or marais, but i was also very happy here j'adore paris