Renaissance Paris Arc De Triomphe Hotel Review
On a recent trip to Paris I did a video trip report of my stay at the Paris Renaissance Arc De Triomphe Hotel on youtube here:
Below is the written trip report which goes in to even greater detail.
The hotel is located convienently just about 3 blocks from the Arc De Triomphe and the Champs Elysee. A taxi to the hotel from CDG airport is about 45 Euro (not during rush hour). Or a cheap and also convienent alternative is to take the Air France bus, direct from the Airport to the Arc De Triomphe for about 13 euro, and then walk three blocks. Note, when you take the Air France bus, take the bus from the airport that stops at the “Etoille.” Charles De Gualle Etoille is the name of the metro stop at the Arc De Triomphe, so those names are often used interchangeably for the location. Also the metro here is very convienent, because metro Line 1 stops at the Etoille, which can be used to get the Louvre, and many of the other touristy sites in Paris. And for those of you that can’t live without McDonalds and/or Starbucks, both are within 2 blocks of the hotel as well.
The hotel itself is has a modern architecture and style with a bit of French / Asian fusion flair. It’s 8 stories tall, and the street side has a set of curvy/wavy windows that glow at night. The lobby is surrounded in dark wood tones, with red and yellow lighting that are meant to simulate candles. The lobby itself is small as most Paris hotels are, but is typically very well staffed. There were often not one, but two doormen that would open the doors to the hotel upon my arrival.
Off of the lobby is the hotel’s restaurant, Makkasar. A French/asian fusion restaurant. As the hotel doesn’t have a concierge lounge, Gold and Platinum members get a free breakfast in the restaurant on weekdays. The breakfast is a full American breakfast that was really quite good. The breakfast included eggs, pancakes, sausages, oatmeal, mushrooms, potatoes, fruits, yogurts, cereal, and typical French pastries.
I had e-mailed the hotel a couple days before arrival asking for an early check-in at 9am. When I arrived at 9am, it wasn’t quite ready, but was ready within 15 minutes of my arrival. It’s really nice to be able to check in early after a long flight from the US – so this really earned the hotel extra points in my opinion. Most hotels in Paris are pretty strict on the “no check-ins before 3pm” rule. As a platinum member, I was offered my choice of welcome gift. I picked 2 glasses of iced tea, and chocolates. The iced tea was a very interesting cinnamon flavored tea. But I think it’s a different type of iced tea each day.
Heading up to my room, I went in to one of the two hotel elevators. Each elevator glows in a different color…… one glows with blue neon, and the other glows with red neon. The blue elevator is a bit more soothing than the red one.
The room itself was relatively spacious, and continued with the dark wood tones from the lobby with bright pink accents on the bed. The room had the standard amenities, king bed, desk, desk chair, side chair. The room has a mini-bar that is only half-full, which leaves room for any beverages that you might want to keep cold. Two interesting items for sale on top of the mini-bar were an umbrella, and a power plug adapter.
My sleep quality in the room was great. The room itself was very quiet. The bed was comfy. The air conditioning was cold when I wanted it to be, and warm when I wanted it to be warm. Unlike many Paris hotels, the air conditioning and/or heat works all year round here. Many older hotels in Paris will only offer heat *or* air conditioning depending upon the time of the year, which is always sucky on those hot days in the middle of winter when the air conditioning doesn’t work.
The bathroom was nice and new, although a little dark as far as the lighting was concerned. The tub/shower had the typical French half/glass curtain. I always find these weird, because water seems to get everywhere when you don’t have a full curtain in the shower…. But maybe I’m just a messy shower taker. One of the coolest things in the room was actually in the bathroom… in the corner there was a piece of art with half of the Eiffel tower on it, then a mirror that reflected it, and made a whole Eiffel tower. See the video to understand what I mean.
My room faced the interior courtyard of the hotel, so it also had a small balcony with a table and single chair. I always like being able to get fresh air in to a room, so the balcony was nice.
The hotel really went overboard with the turn-down service each evening. My first evening, the turndown service included the regular chocolate you might expect, but also a bottle of wine, some olives, chips, and a small metal notepad. Each night the chocolates and office supply item were different, and there was also a printed weather forecast for the next day. My 2nd evening, there was the chocolate again, and also another notepad, but this time with post-it notes inside. And on my final evening, again the chocolate, and a paper holder to be used on a desk. I’ve never been in a hotel with office supplies as part of the turndown service… but I was always excited to come back to the room to see what was going to show up that evening. Much better than the just the standard mint on the pillow.
Each floor of the hotel has its own small ice machine, that in addition to dispensing ice, also dispenses filtered water.
My only real complaint staying here is that the internet was extremely slow. I don’t know if they were having issues, but it took like 15 minutes to download a 5 megabyte file. For a high-end hotel, this is really something they should fix.
Overall a very nice hotel, in a convenient location in central Paris. I’ve also stayed at the Marriott Rive Gauche, and the Renaissance Trocadero, and this one is my favorite of the three.
Related posts:
- Renaissance Paris Le Parc Trocadero Video Review
- Hotel de Crillon Video Review
- Paris Marriott Rive Gauche Video Review
- Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel Review (Norfolk, VA area)
- Shelbourne Dublin Hotel Video Review