World4Traveler

View from Concorde Lafayette Paris Room 2823, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

This hotel stands tall on the Paris skyline as, at 33 or so floors, it is of unusual height for the city better known for buildings a few stories high. It also does not match the usual beauty of Parisian buildings, looking more like an ugly 70s style concrete office block.

The hotel is fairly well located as it is next to the huge Paris Conference Center (Palais de la Congress). It is convenient for the Metro which can be accessed via a shopping mall of great clothes shops which runs underneath the conference centre. It is a few short stops on the Metro or a doable, but fairly long walk, to the main stretch of the popular section of the Champs Elysées running south of the Arc d'Triompe to the gardens and the Louvre.

The hotel has been spruced up a bit but very much caters and is targeted at the conference and package tour markets seeking good location, suitable facilities and value. It is neither luxurious nor downmarket, and in almost everyway it is average. Not in a negative way but more in an unremarkable and very functional way.

You need to ensure that you get a room as high up as the one consolation for the averageness of the hotel is that the view across Paris from the rooms is beautiful. If you do not get a high room then make sure that you visit the Panoramic Bar on the top floor.

The bedrooms rooms are small with a large bed taking up most of it. On first inspection the room will look good, with a small sofa, big white duvet and functional bathroom. As you settle in you will find the room and facilities again average. The bed is not very comfortable and feels cheap. The sheets and towels are also not that high quality, but perfectly fine.

The breakfast is a strange set-up as it is on the First Floor across in what seems to be the hotel conference area and rotates through meeting rooms - I assume ones that are not booked for meetings. It is probably a cost effective way of running a buffet breakfast and is a good spread and selection, but there are usually queues to get your details and room checked before getting into breakfast.

The fitness room is small and hard to find on the first floor, but perfectly adequate. However, it can be frustrating as based on the huge size of the hotel is far too small as only about 5 or 6 people could be in there at one time. There is a massive Club Med Gym connected to the hotel that Club Room Guests can use but costs 25 Euros per visit otherwise.

One small touch that amused me is that they change the carpets in the lifts each day as the carpet says what day of the week it is in French and English.

Take a look at a video of Room 2823:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAq01uEk368

ADDENDUM

It is a year since I last stayed at the hotel. This time I was in a Deluxe Room on the 30th Floor and had access to the Club Lounge.

The room was better although the overall hotel can never be that special. The Deluxe room was less shabby, and having the breakfast in the club lounge was good (and you also get free access to the gym) - and if you do both this works out better than getting a standard room and paying for all of this).

Video of the deluxe room 3004 (watch on youtube: click here)