HotelChatter

Hotel Deals / Paris Hotel Scene / Le Meridien Hotels / Paris Hotels / Design Hotels / → All Tags

Blazing Hot Deal on Le Meridien's Flagship Paris Hotel

Where: 81 Boulevard Gouvion Saint-cyr, Paris, France, 75848

Enough with the twee Paris boutique hotels we've been going on about all week! The monumental Le Meridien Etoile, which at 1,025 rooms is a shade bigger than the world's largest J.W. Marriott, has just popped up on Travelzoo with a remarkably low rate for a four-star Parisian property: €102 ($139) a night. That's more than 50 percent off the usual €299 rates. You also get a 10 percent discount at famed department store Galeries Lafayette.

But don't let the low, low rate make you think this is a fusty old convention center bore. These rooms are straight out of Blade Runner, with hard angles, gleaming surfaces and a lobby that reminds us of the space station in 2001.

more ›

Paris Hotel Scene / Paris Hotels / Bed and Breakfasts / Boutique Hotels / → All Tags

Get Intimate In Montmartre at the Hotel Particulier

Where: 23 avenue Junot, Paris, France

What is it about tiny Parisian boutique hotels? Oh, right, the privacy, charm, comfort, and living-like-a-local vibe. (Not to mention that you often get good rates, free breakfast and free wifi, too.) But now yet another property is on our radar, after Tuesday's round up, thanks to GQ which calls out the Hotel Particulier Montmartre, just a couple blocks from ever-so-wonderful rue des Abbesses and a short walk from Sacré-Coeur basilica—in other words, off the beaten tourist trail but a short walk to the tourist sights.

The theme runs through the hotel, too, owner Morgane Rousseau tells GQ:

I had a French star recently who stayed here for two months. He lived in Paris, but wanted to be isolated, and he felt he could work better here. … It's rare to find an intimate place, or find intimacy in general. And I'm not talking about VIP selectivity, velvet rope, guest list stuff, I mean places that are far from the noise and the ugliness and far from the nervousness of seeing and being seen.

more ›

Paris Hotel Scene / Paris Hotels / Bed and Breakfasts / Boutique Hotels / Budget Hotels / → All Tags

Looking For a Cheap Room in Paris? This Might Do The Trick

Where: 130 rue Lafayette, Paris, France

Seems the literary-minded Le Pavillon de Lettres isn't the only small hotel making a splash on the Paris hotel scene. In this month's issue of Budget Travel magazine, there's a roundup of six stays that actually deserve the boutique title. And they mean boutique - the biggest is the 39-room Hotel de la Paix, a renovated 19th-century guest house in the 14th arrondissement.

But having just spent a long weekend in the 9th, we're most fired up about BT's recommendation of A Room In Paris, a five-chambre spot near the Gare du Nord, and thus conveniently located for guests parachuting in from London or the train from Charles de Gaulle for short stays. The good eating particularly caught our eye:

more ›

Paris Hotel Scene / Literary Hotels / iPad Hotels / Hotel Technology / Paris Hotels / → All Tags

Inside Paris' Le Pavillon des Lettres

Where: 12 rue des Saussaies, Paris, France

We knew the doors are open and les iPads were on offer at Le Pavillon des Lettres, but it took a trip to Paris to finally check out the 26 rooms at this literary-themed boutique a short skip from the Champs Élysées. First impressions? C'est bon!

As we've reported, designer Didier Benderli, who did Pavillon de la Reine in the Third, masterminded the upgrade here, with custom furniture, '50s-inspired accents and sumptuous materials throughout. And the most obvious design feature: Each of the rooms is named for an author, with quotations hand-painted on the walls and a copy of the text from which they're drawn on the bedside table. (Fear not, digerati: these books are also pre-loaded on the guests-only iPads handed out at check in.)

more ›

Sweet Suite / Hotel Renovations / Paris Hotel Scene / → All Tags

The Plaza Athénée's Eiffel Suite Goes Pink

Where: 25 Ave Montaigne, Paris, France, 75008

When you stay in Paris, you'd best do Paris up right. If you're going to go, you should go all the way — live out all your Carrie Bradshaw-esque fantasies and just treat yourself to all the luxuries that a princess (or prince) such as yourself deserves.

And now you've got a new option for royal digs: the Eiffel Suite at Hotel Plaza Athénée. The property (yes, where the final two eppies of the Sex and the City series were filmed) just put the final touches on a newly revamped suite (complete with a connecting Superior Guestroom), and the space comes in around 300 square-meters, "dripping with costly fabrics, luscious colors and magnificent floor-to-ceiling views."

more ›

Hotel Openings / Paris Hotel Scene / Radisson SAS Hotels / Radisson Blu Hotels / → All Tags

Drunk on Champagne, High on LV at Radisson Blu Le Dokhan's

Where: 117 Rue Lauriston, Paris, France, F-75116

It appears Radisson Blu has somehow gotten into our Parisian daydreams, which go a little something like this: frolicking about the city looking at art all day, drinking champagne in an ornate bar all evening, and then riding up a magical elevator made out of Louis Vuitton bags to go to our sweet suite (um, then we eat chocolate and hang out with our lovah and go to sleep).

The brand new Radisson Blu Le Dokhan's, the latest property from the brand formerly known as Radisson SAS, makes the whole fantasy come true — well, the first part, anyway. The hotel, located in the 16th arrondissement, features 45 rooms accessible by — seriously — an elevator made from a vintage Louis Vuitton wardrobe trunk. And it's an art hotel, too, with its own art collection on display year-round in addition to traveling exhibitions in the lobby.

more ›

Hotels With iMacs / Paris Hotel Scene / Hotel Technology / → All Tags

A New-Style Hotel in the Old Latin Quarter

Where: 6 rue Victor Cousin, Paris, France, 75005

Finding a decent hotel in Paris without shelling out a mint of euros has gotten harder and harder, even in the economic downturn. That’s why it’s so exciting to come across a new entry like the Hotel Sorbonne right in the shadow of the Pantheon in Paris’s fifth arrondisement.

The hotel’s façade is still undergoing a bit of renovation, so rooms in the front can be a little noisy, but this is Paris, what are you doing sitting around in your hotel room anyway? Besides, the cleaning should be done any day now, so go ahead and book it. And if you need a further incentive, um...look at what's on the desk in the hotel rooms. Yeah, we're thinking the same thing. Oooh la la.

more ›

Hotel Hype / Paris Hotel Scene / W Hotels / Starwood Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags

Are We Supposed to Call The W Paris 'Double Vé?'

C'est bon: W is coming to Paris! Except maybe we're supposed to say "double vé" when we say it out loud? Our American "double-you Paris" sounds significantly less schmaltzy than the "double vé Par-ee" it's probably supposed to be — but after consistently butchering French hotel names in the U.S. (let's just say "L'Ermitage" doesn't always roll off the tongue beautifully), perhaps we best not try.

Anyway, great news: W Hotels has announced plans to open their very first Paris property by 2011. It will be close to Place Vendome, in the Opéra area of the city. According to the press release:

W Paris-Opéra will feature 90 stylish guest rooms, a world-class contemporary restaurant and destination bar, a state-of-the-art fitness facility with spa treatment rooms, and W Hotels' signature lounge experience where guests are invited to mix, mingle and relax in a chic social atmosphere.

The hotel will be inside a "quintessentially Parisian" 1870s Haussmann-era building, close to the Galleries Lafayette. This is W's first foray into the France hotel scene, but Starwood's been there for a while: the hotel giant has six properties in France under the Sheraton, Le Méridien, Westin and The Luxury Collection flags.

Hotel Video Tours / Paris Hotel Scene / Paris Hotels / Concorde Hotels / Dita Von Teese / → All Tags

Inside The Hotel Lutetia

Where: 45 Boulevard Raspail, Paris, France, 75006

Although we don’t like to admit it, we often go by celeb guests when we’re deciding where to stay. So when we decided to take an empowered single lady trip to Paris, we took a leaf out of uber-empowered single Dita Von Teese, by going for the Left Bank Hotel Lutetia, where she’s apparently staying at the moment.

We didn’t catch Dita, or anyone else of note, but the bar is the place of choice for a host of French celebs – Carla Bruni used to be a regular before she became Mrs. Sarko, and Gerard Depardieu pops in most days. We can imagine that – it’s a gorgeous art deco hall with a couple of bronze statues propping up the lights, and panes of coloured glass on the ceiling.

more ›

Paris Hotel Scene / Luxury Hotels / Intercontinental Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags

Homeless Shooed Away From Luxury Parisian Hotel

Where: 2 Rue Scribe, Paris, France, 75009

While the homeless were being treated at the Hyatt Regency Dallas, a different scene was unfolding in Paris in front of the Intercontinental Paris Le-Grand Hotel. France24 reports:

Several dozen protesters, mainly women and children, briefly occupied the entrance patio of one of France's most famous and prestigious hotels on Friday to demand better low-cost housing.

Around 50 police moved in and removed the group, many of them African immigrants, after they moved into the Intercontinental Paris-Le Grand on Place de l'Opera in the heart of Paris' main shopping and tourist district....

Their group, Right to Accommodation, is campaigning for homeless and poorly housed families to be provided with long-term low-cost housing by the French state, and has been fined in the past for camping on public thoroughfares.

The protestors were seeking a meeting with the prime minister's office. The hotel is a short walk away from where they have set up a squatters camp. It's also a top hotel for first class jet-setters as we learned last month. Fortunately, the protest did not turn violent although the police did break up the group. Let's hope the gendarmerie did not have to use any of that serious gear they were sporting.

[Photo via France24]

Celebrity Scoop / Beyonce / Paris Hotel Scene / Hotel News / → All Tags

Beyonce and Her Freakum Dress Prefer Le Meurice

Where: 228, Rue De Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France, 75001

The divalicious Beyonce, whose every move is worshiped by some of us here at HotelChatter HQ, was in Paris last night. She was spotted emerging from Hotel Le Meurice looking fly, naturally, in a blue Freakum Dress (note: if you've yet to convert to the church of Knowles, she has a song called "Freakum Dress" about a super fly dress much like this one).

Gossip Girls reminds us that she may have been on her way out to celebrate her Golden Globe nomination, which was announced yesterday — Knowles received a nod for Best Original Song for "Once in a Lifetime," a jam she co-wrote for the Cadillac Records soundtrack.

And just so we're clear: when we picture Beyonce in her posh suite at the ultra-expensive Le Meurice (single rooms start around $695 USD tonight), we like to think she's singing her song "Upgrade U", with its lyrics that mention things like purple labels, diamond cream facials, VVS cuff links and 6-star pent suites.

[Photo: Bauer Griffin via Gossip Girls]

Hotels with iMacs / Geek Hotels / Paris Hotel Scene / Hotel Technology / Philippe Starck / Paris Hotels / → All Tags

Mama Shelter is the Mother of All Geek Hotels

Where: 109 rue de Bagnolet, Paris, France, 75020

Paris' newest Philippe Starck-designed hotel, Mama Shelter, may just be the mother of all geek hotels (get it? Mama? Mother? Har har).

No, but really: the new hotel, located in the Saint Blaise quartier (which is the 20th arrondissement and on the edge of Paris), has 174 "digital" guest rooms that sort of give us of a trippy NYLO-meets-geek-chic vibe — with a techie twist.

French company DirectStreams has outfitted every guest room with an iMac — which, in itself, is nothing particularly groundbreaking given the number of hotels that are throwing iMacs into guestrooms nowadays — but Mama Shelter's actually act as comprehensive multimedia centers: a single terminal that offers every in-room digital service you're gonna need (HDTV, music, radio, CD, films, DVDs, Internet, etc.)

more ›