Hotel De L'athenee - Paris, France     

My sister and I booked a room at Hotel de L'Athenee last minute, based on price and location. We arrived at 11:00 pm with 2 heavy bags. The young man at the reception told us the elevator was out of order, did not offer to help with luggage and gave us a room on the top floor. Now, we don't know if we got the worst room in house or what (maybe because we were the last check in?), but it was quite disgusting. The floor was uneven everywhere with huge stains on the carpet. The room door and door to the bathroom did not close properly as there was a 4-5 inch gap from where the door ended the floor started. This, of course, affected privacy and noise issues. The bathroom, truth be told, was not a separate room at all as the gap also applied to the top of the door and ceiling (think public bathroom stall) and the bathroom walls were made of thin ply-wood , so really, an armoire as a bathroom. The shower was outside the bathroom and it looked like a public telephone cabin from the 40's; needless to say, water leaked into the room. The bed spread was crusty and stained. The hotel advertises telephones in the rooms, but we certainly did not have one (again, did we simpy get the worst room?), there was only one in the hallway from which you could only call the reception desk. When our father called the front desk and asked to be transfered to our room, he was told we were not picking up so we must be out. This, of course, was a lie, since we did not have a phone! Although this review is very picky, we'd like to think we are not picky people. Paris is wonderful and we spent our entire time outdoors, needing the room only to sleep and shower. The location was indeed amazing and they did keep our luggage there for hours after we checked out.

Hotel L’Athene is a typical Parisian Hotel Hotel, with small rooms, small staircase and a tiny lift, but it is a lovely quaint hotel. Our room was spacious,which is a rare thing for a Parisian Hotel, in need of a re-vamp but the old style furniture added to the charm of the place. Our room was always lovely and warm and we had a piping hot strong shower. The people at reception were lovely and helpful and the breakfast in the morning was simple but tasty. The location of the hotel was absolutely brilliant, right beside Opera. The metro was on strike for the first couple of days that we were there but because of the location of the hotel it didn’t matter. If you going to Paris to see as much of Paris as you can and your only going to use your hotel room as a base then Hotel L’Athene is the place for you. I plan to return to Paris again and I will be staying in this Hotel because it’s value for more and just a really nice old little place to stay.