I stayed in Paris in mid December at both a hotel and a hostel. My sister and I booked a double room at Hotel Perfect in Montmatre (near Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rogue) for 20 Euros each (including towels, sheets, ensuite sink, and breakfast). The next night we stayed at the Woodstock Hostel across the street for 18 Euros a person in a four bed dorm, plus a key deposit, 1 euro to rent a towel, 2 euros to rent sheets, and deposits for that, ensuite sink. Breakfast was included but in the long run we paid actually a bit less and had our own room. Granted you dont usually meet people in a hotel, so the hostel was worth it in a social sense. Remember, these prices are for winter time though, things will increase by May possibly making a hostel a better deal.

PAm

I am going in April 2005.
I am staying at Hotel KEnsington…right near the Eiffel Tower
www.hotel-kensington…

Read some nice reiews
http://www.paris.org…

And one bad one at www.tripadvisor.com.

Costs 75E..Heard that Sainte-Marie Hotel is good.That costs 56E…but am not sure how good a location that is.

Thanks guys for your feedback.

Shankee the Kensington does look good and the reviews read well (I must admit I do not trust reviews as it is easy for the hotel to put the reviews on the website themselves).

Do you know if there is a Metro station nearby and cafes?

Thanks
Pam

Hi Pam,
Im going to be staying at Hotel Sainte Marie in Paris for 9 days later this month while going backpacking for a few weeks. I get back home to Sydney after my trip early in February. If you want to check back at this site by about the 2nd week of feb i will post what i thought of the hotel and it’s location. From what i’ve heard it appears to be cheap (im paying about 48 Euro for a single room with private bathroom/shower). It is also right near a metro (metro: Bonne Nouvelles) in the 2ieme arrondisement (about 20mins walk from the Louvre). the website is http://www.hotelsain…
So far whenever i’ve emailed the hotel to ask questions they have been friendly and helpful. I can speak some french though, i dont know if that makes any difference though.
anyway i’ll post again once i’ve actually been there…hopefully it will be good

Hi!!

Have a look at the Hotel Beausejour Montmartre, a 2 star hotel near Place de Clichy and Montmartre. It is a really nice hotel with a metro stop just nearby (Place de Clichy). The prices are of about 70€/ night for a double room. In this area, there are a lot of bars and restaurant, so you will easily a good and cheap place…
http://www.hbeausejo…
Have a nice trip!

Thanks Eowyn

I would be very interested in how you found the Hotel Sainte Marie. Looking at their website I get the feeling that the bathrooms are not ensuite and that is a priority for us. French is not a problem my husband speaks a little and I think that will get us through.

Have a great trip and I am looking forward to your review in early Feb. I will not be in Paris until 1 May 2005 so your review will be very useful to me.

We were in Paris in July and stayed in Grand Hotel de L’ Avenue, close to Place Republique. Their rates in 2005 is 60 Euro for a double room with private bathroom. It does not include breakfast. The rooms are not huge, but I think this is the norm in Paris. It is a two star hotel. Check the website www.accomline.com for more info.

Check these sites:

http://www.hrs.de
http://www.venere.co…
http://www.france.co…
http://www.ratestogo…
http://www.hotelclub…
http://www.accorhote…

Thanks for your info everyone. It certainly has given me lots of places to look at.

Pam

My wife and I stayed in Hotel Sainte Marie for 5 days last June and were pleasantly surprised. They do have rooms with bathroom and they do clean them everyday. The place is very old but the people are nice and they do keep it clean. They do have room without bathroom, but whatever you do, don’t get that b/c they are tiny and they only have on shower downstairs next to the check-in and it is not pleasant at all. Great deal though for double with bath. The neighbor hood is safe and has a lot of shops and eateries all around it and is next to metro station and is very central to most everything. Hope this helps.

Justin

As mentioned earlier, have a look at accor.com, especially IBIS hotels, which are found in many locations throughout central Paris. I’ve just stayed in one near the gare de lyon train station for 93 euros per night, and it had everything such as clean rooms, ensuite bathrooms, cable TV, etc.
There are cheaper IBIS locations available, but they might be more distant from major train stations, etc. I think that the more expensive locations cater to business travelers.
On the other hand, easy access to a metro station would rarely be a problem anywhere in Paris, but I’d say to avoid hotels that are from cental Paris because otherwise you’ll spend too much time traveling back and forth.

Hi Pam,
Im back from my trip – had a lovely time However i really wouldnt recommend hotel sainte marie to anyone unless its pretty much the only thing you can afford, it’s a pretty dodgy place (or at least my room was – so definately dont ask for room #7.) If all you want is a bed and ensuite as cheap as possible then it’s ok. But the condition of the room is shocking…missing light bulbs, broken cupboard door, bathroom door wouldnt shut so shower water goes everywhere, the shower didnt drain properly so u had to stand in water up to your ankles and keep turning the water off every 30 secs to allow it to drain rather than overflow out into the bedroom carpet…the tv buttons were all broken off and there was no remote until i asked for one and they hunted around for a few hours and finally found one. There was a heater in the room though, and a phone, and a desk and chair. The staff were friendly, although one of the staff started to get too friendly and started to ring me up on my hotel room phone at like 10pm at night to ask me out for coffee and a date and wanting my mobile number etc which i thought was totally inappropriate and spent the rest of my stay there feeling totally uncomfortable. however the location is quite central (1min from metro bonne nouvelles, 3-5 mins from supermarket, cheese and bread and wine shops and lots of restaurants etc). Another lady i met at the hotel said she was given my room (#7) initially and instantly refused it and was going to look for another hotel but in the end the staff gave her a nicer room. i dont know if number 7 is the only dodgy room, maybe i was just unlucky. basically i wouldnt stay there again, and would only consider it if 45 euro is all you want to budget for accomodation. i hope this helps!!

Thanks Eowyn for taking the time to update me on Hotel Sainte Marie I will give it a big miss. Can’t stand faulty plumbing or drainage. Maybe we are lucky in Aus with the quality of our hotels here. I am getting the picture that pretty much most of Paris has hotels with small rooms and very few facilities unless you want to pay big bucks. I am sure your feedback will help many others. Glad to hear that you had a lovely time anyway.

By the way did you use Eurail on your trip. If so how busy were the trains and did you book your seat?

Regards

Pam

Pam, one relatively cheap hotel that has gotten good reviews at the Fodors.com forum lately is Hotel Tiquetonne – you can find it at www.eurocheapo.com/P… .

No problems. I hope you find a nice hotel. For what it’s worth i ended up having to stay an extra 6 nights in paris because i got sick and couldnt fly, and i found that if you wait till the last minute you can often get very good deals with hotels who have rooms empty anyway. I just went to the tourist info centre at Paris Gare du Nord train station and they had lots of options. i was a bit more flexible with prices though as my travel insurance had to pay for the extra accomodation since i was sick, but the hotel i ended up in was called Hotel Excelsior Opera (5 rue lafayette, right near opera garnier). it’s a 3 star hotel (which basically means not dodgy like hotel sainte marie, but not luxury…pretty much what i would expect an averge hotel to be). I got the room with private ensuite, including mini bar, tv with about 20 channels, phone, heating, cupboard, desk and chair, shower and toilet all spotlessly clean for 70Euro a night. it wasnt the most stylish place ever, but it was perfect for me….clean, and comfy,there was a lift, the staff were so helpful with everything, breakfast was included (croisants, pain au chocolat, coffee, bread, jam, cheese, juice), free newspapers, hairdryer in the bathroom, drinking glasses, shampoo etc provided etc. a whole new world compared to Saint Marie, for about 15Euro per night extra…very well worth it i thought. So maybe if you can wait till the last minute to book u should be able to get better deals, but in general i think there is a big jump in quality between 45 and 70 Euro. For 70 Euro you get all the basics you’ll need without going into luxury and next time i know im going to budget around the 70 euro mark for sure.

i dont know about eurail passes. sorry. I just bought individual train tickets as i needed them as i didnt do much long distance travelling from paris.

have a lovely trip.

Thanks Traveller & Eowyn.

I certainly plan to give feedback about my travels on my return from 8 weeks away. I have found this site so helpful in my planning.

Pam