Pavillon Pereire Arc de Triomphe - Paris, France 

Weigerte mich, im Hotel zu bleiben
Posted: Sat, Sep 02 2006
Wir wollten dort vier Nächte bleiben, aber gleich nachdem wir das Zimmer betraten, fingen meine Beine und Knöchel an zu jucken, als wenn ich von Flöhen gebissen wurde. Das Hotel ist heruntergekommen. Wir hatten Angst, dass es der Fahrstuhl nicht bis in unser Stockwerk machen würde. Der Informationsbroschüre auf dem Zimmer konnte ich entnehmen, dass das Hotel Haustiere erlaubt. Das Zimmer hatte einen muffigen Geruch, das Ablaufdatum der Mattratze war schon lange abgelaufen, sie hatte die Form einer Schüssel mit einer riesigen Beule in der Mitte. Die Bettwäsche und der Teppich waren voll mit Brandlöchern. Das Zimmer hätte schon längst einmal aufgefrischt gehört. Die Kacheln im Bad hatten Risse und fielen von der Wand. Wir hatten sogar eine Klimaanlage auf dem Zimmer, die aber keine kalte Luft mehr produzierte. Es war ungewöhnlich heiß als wir da waren, über 35 Grad. Normalerweise braucht man dort keine Klimaanlage. Wir haben unsere Koffer gar nicht erst ausgepackt und haben sofort go-today(--) kontaktiert, damit sie uns ein neues Hotel besorgen. Der Angestellte an der Rezeption versuchte sogar noch, uns Geld für die Benutzung des Zimmers zu berechnen. Ich überprüfe jetzt meine Kreditkartenrechnung, um zu sehen, ob er es nicht doch noch gemacht hat. Er hat uns wirklich gesagt, dass unser Zimmer noch das beste im ganzen Hotel gewesen sei. Ich möchte dann lieber erst gar nicht wissen, wie die anderen ausgesehen haben.

Not so bad as I'd feared...
Posted: Thu, Aug 31 2006
I decided to travel to Paris, with my daughter, on pretty much a whim, but on a tight budget. I booked this hotel before finding the reviews on here and was more than a little worried after what I read. However, I didn't cancel and decided to go with my instincts. Travelling at the height of the chaos caused by recent alerts at UK airports I was more than a little highly strung on my arrival and not at first alleviated by the slightly faded facade of the hotel. I'd rung that morning to inform the hotel of our late arrival due to early evening flights and anticipating this being exacerbated by delays (in the end it wasn't too bad) and the member of staff had been efficient and courteous, but I wasn't so sure what to expect at the desk as staff would have changed. I need not have worried. We were greeted by a friendly woman who checked us in with the minimum of fuss and let us get to our room. I was nervous opening up our room after previous reviews, but pleasantly surprised. Yes the room is small, but then I hear most Paris bedrooms are, but it was clean and in good condition. There was some wear and tear to the furniture and a couple of tiny burn holes on the counterpane, but these could only be found by touch, rather than sight. It was nice enough and we had a front facing room so no one over looking and a sort of a view - there was a tree in the way. My only complaint would be that you could hear the music played in the corridor through the door. Otherwise, there wasn't much noise. The breakfast room is tiny and completely inadequate. My dining room at home is a comparable size if not bigger! The breakfast was OK, but I wouldn't have paid extra for it. The croissants, pain au chocolat and Pain au Raisen were OK but tiny. I've no idea how they compared to the great fat things sold in the cafes we passed, but they certainly looked pathetic in comparison. I've no idea if these mini versions (look more like the sort of thing you get in a tub at the supermarket, but in fairness they did taste better than that). All the reception staff we encountered spoke good (mainly excellent) English and were helpful and some friendly. The breakfast room staff appeared to have no English, though we didn't really need to speak to them either. Overall, I think the hotel was reasonable for the money paid. I've been in three star hotels of a similar standard before and it was adequate for our weekend sojourn. The storage space for a longer stay would have been troublesome mind, as there were 6 hangers and a couple of small shelves in a cabinet that didn't hold much. However, with hindsight, it is not in a location I would choose to return to. I knew before we left that in August many Parisians went on holiday and that things closed for the month, but I was sceptical of the impact. I was wrong to do this. Walking round the area we struggled to find anywhere to eat. There were a few ethnic restaurants open, but I'd wanted something more traditional and we failed to find anything open. Even in the daytime for every shop, restaurant and bar open, there were two or three closed. The sorts of places that were open (supermarkets, pharmacies and take aways) fitted with the needs of the residents as this seemed a predominantly residential area. On Sunday we ventured to a more touristy area via the metro and found much more open, but it would have been nicer to have these things in comfortable walking distance - in the pouring rain the metro didn't feel that close! It is also worth noting that the hotel won't book you a taxi for the airport. Instead they offer to arrange a shuttle service (for 2 this would have been 45 euros) or a private transfer for 55 euros. I tried to opt for the former, but it was 'full' and as we had an early morning departure and I was unsure how to reach the airport with public transport we accepted this. I'm not sure how it would have compared with the cost of a taxi as I know it works out more from the hotel than to it, but it had cost less than 40 euros on Friday and there was less traffic Monday morning than Friday night and took less than half an hour to reach Charles De Gaulle airport at terminal 1.