Hotwire Hotel: Looking for Paris deal -- 03/28/05 - 04/04/05

[mecdatlanta]

Hi All,

This is my first post to this board. I promise to share my findings when I get back from my trip...

I am looking for a good hotel deal in Paris. I don't particularly care about location, although proximity to a metro station is important. Also, we will be bringing a 7-month old baby, so a room with enough room for a crib would be nice.

I saw the hotwire deal a previous poster talks about (4-star at $100/night), but now hesitate selecting it after seeing the replies. Any other ideas?

Thank in advance.

Don :)

[WillTravel]

I suggested against that hotel because of the possibility it would be the Sofitel Porte de Sevres, which is in a business park outside Paris, and not particularly convenient (other posters have said it takes about 25-30 minutes to get to sightseeing destinations). Of course it could also have been one of the nicer possibilities in that zone too.

I'd reconsider the centrality issue with a baby. If you have to take 30 minutes to get from the sights to your hotel during the day, and then 30 minutes to go back into central Paris, that would take a chunk of time out of your day and it would feel rather tedious. I'm assuming that with a baby, you'll probably want to go back to the hotel at least once during the day.

I think all known 4* hotels would have sufficient room for a crib, and would probably provide one. I'd be somewhat less certain with 3* and 2* hotels.

[mecdatlanta]

Thanks for the response. OK, what about the 3-star that is listed in the Champs Elysees - Trocadero area? It is listed at $80 a night.

I have a question about that. Why is it that when I search on the popular travel sites and do a search for 3-star hotels none come up under $100/night? Even the above-mentioned hotel is only 10% off the regular rate. So why wouldn't it show up on, say Travelocity"]Travelocity, for $89?

We have a big stroller and are totally mobile (portable sleeping quarters for baby). So going back to the hotel isn't a big deal for us.

Thanks,

Don

[WillTravel]

Check the Accor, Holiday Inn, and Best Western sites. I'd suspect the hotel is one of those.

[mecdatlanta]

Thanks Willtravel.

So what would you consider bidding on? So far everying in Paris seems to stink on both priceline and hotwire.

I am interested in any and all suggestions.

Don

[mecdatlanta]

Hi All:

I thought I would write a follow-up blurb to let everyone know what I ended up doing...

I finally decided to call up a hotel directly and make a reservation. The reason is I needed to be certain of the hotel's proximity to a metro station. I can't have a hotel that's 15 minutes from the nearest metro station. I have a baby travelling with my wife and I, and even if I didn't, I want to spend my time walking where I want to walk, not walk (and using up energy) in the middle of nowhere (sighseeingly-speaking). :)

I did write hotwire.com to tell them that I think it's rediculous that they don't list the fact that the hotel is within walking distance (i.e. 5 min or less), from a metro station. They said that it would give away the identity of the hotel. They obviously haven't been to Paris before. If they think that listing the fact that a hotel is less than 5 minutes from a metro station is going to give away the identity of the hotel, they should get rid of any information showing that the hotel has a workout center. Probably as many hotels have workout centers (if not fewer), that are within 5 minutes of the meto.

Anyways, I could see that big hotwire.com wasn't going to change their policy for little me (not that I expected them to be that agile), but I thought that I would pass on the information in hopes that they get the message and pass it on to the higher-ups.

In summary, I think that Hotwire.com could be a big player in the Paris market, but they need to have minimum information about the hotel so that we can make a good decision. You can tell that the site was modelled after the American market where everyone drives a car...

Don