Finding the Perfect Hotel in Paris
It may seem pretty daunting to find the right hotel in a city that has over 1600 of them. Keep reading and your task will be dramatically simplified.
The first thing you need to do decide is what part of the city is best for you. If you haven’t already, take a look at Tom’s “Where to Stay in Paris” page, which will give you a broad overview of the parts of the city that might interest you (think twice before you think you need to stay near the Eiffel Tower). One way to help you understand what part of the city might be best for you is this simple question: how much will you want to walk? If you plan on doing a lot of sightseeing by foot (or simply going from one sight to another on foot)—and Tom hopes this is what you’re planning—there are two possibilities to consider: (1) staying as close to the center of the city as you can; or (2) strategically choosing an appealing area away from the city’s center (the Marais, for example, or Montmartre or Montparnasse, just to take some “M” examples) but from and to which getting transportation is easy. If you don’t plan on doing much walking, you can stay pretty much anywhere in the city (but Tom hopes you’ll consider the charm and amenities of the neighborhood—are there cafés? bakeries?—as you make up your mind).
The next thing to do is to determine the class and price of the hotel you’ll be staying in. Luckily, there’s a reasonably systematic way to do this. Most Parisian hotels (and, actually, most French hotels in general) are assigned a one- to five-star rating depending on the quality of the premises and the number of amenities they offer. (In 2023, fewer than 10% of Parisian hotels were unrated in the star classification system.) One star will be your very, very basic hotel—think a bed in a bare room with a sink and a nightstand—and five stars will offer pampered luxury with every amenity you could imagine. So, your next thing to consider is: how important is a nice hotel room to you, and how much time do you think you’ll spend in it?
Here’s what Tom did: Tom’s first stay in Paris was in 1977 when he had a job working in an upscale food boutique. Upon arrival in Paris, he stayed in a questionable part of town, in a room that had scrawled on the back of the door a warning that “la chambre est infestée de vermine.” Even if you know no French you can probably figure that out. The toilet was down the hall; and it cost 5 francs (about a dollar at the time) to take a shower. Tom thought he had struck the jackpot because he was spending next to nothing on his place to stay (if I remember correctly it was about 55 francs a night, or $10 or $12), and he could direct his modest funds toward enjoying the city and looking for a more appropriate place to live. The only time I spent in my bleak hotel room was my time asleep. It was only years later that I was able to appreciate what a fine Parisian hotel can offer you when you’re actually awake.
So: what do you want from your hotel? If every centime of your travel money will be devoted to your experiences in the city; if every waking minute will be spent discovering something new in Montmartre, in the department stores, in a café, or in some kind of infatuation; and if your eyes are closed 90% of the time you’re in your room, then go basic. However, if you like to be pampered; if you like having space to yourself and staff who seem to anticipate your wants and needs; and if you don’t plan on running through every possible sight, scene, and store as if Paris might be burning, you might go a little less basic.
So how to calibrate? It helps to know how the star-rating system works. There are multiple criteria that go into the ratings, including size of the rooms, quality of comfort and of services offered, best practices for respect of the environment, and best practices for welcoming guests with disabilities. Hotels are re-rated every five years. Generally speaking, one-star hotels are classified as “economy”; two-star hotels are considered mid-range; three-star hotels are mid-range/superior; four-star hotels are considered top of range; and five-star hotels (including “palaces”) are luxury hotels at the very top of the gamut. One- and two-star hotels are quite basic and will typically have small rooms. One-star hotels may not have bathrooms in the rooms (or perhaps not in all of them). There are 243 total criteria that go into the assigning of stars (and you can find the entire list, in French, here). The most common rating is three stars, with four stars following closely behind. As you might imagine, price and star ratings are correlated but not necessary completely corresponding.
Tom imagines you’ll use your favorite search engine to find hotels throughout the different neighborhoods in Paris, and that you’ll also look at services such as TripAdvisor that provide customer reviews. All that is fine. One additional thing Tom recommends is that you use your favorite internet map service’s street-view function to get a clear idea of what the hotel looks like and what the neighborhood looks like, what services are nearby, what public transportation looks like, etc. It’s amazing how much information this can provide.
You’ll reserve on line, of course; they’ll ask for your passport when you get there and likely make a copy of the first two pages; most hotels will have some form of breakfast (continental), typically in a ground-floor or basement room; they will have air-conditioning, the bathroom may have a bidet, and they will have internet service. You’ll be fine.
If you haven’t already, check out the “First Things First” page for other daily necessities to process before you take off.