Hotwire Hotel: 4* Paris (Eiffel-Invalides-Orsay) Paris Hilton

[ithaca]

Great News! :D

I made the purchase on Hotwire for the 4* Eiffel-Invalides-Orsay at $106 per night and got the Hilton Paris 18 Avenue de Suffren.

I made a couple of observations over the past few days that I thought I would share:

I noticed that the tax recovery fee changed somewhat in relation to the price of the room. When hotwire listed $104 per night, the tax was higher than when they listed $106-$110. This is something to keep your eye on, because it actually cost me less at $106 than it would have at $104 once you figure in the varation in "tax recovery fees." :)

Also, before I completed the booking I tried to "login" to use my credit card information. Once I did this the price rose from $106 to $107. I did this twice with the same result (signing in and then closing the browser to start over). This isn't a big difference but if I hadn't closed my browser, than it would have charged me a total of $6 more for the week. :o

Strangely enough, this same effect happened when I tried to use the link provided above. It again jumped from $106 to $107. Any thoughts on this, because I find it a bit strange? I can only speculate that they keep it lower for "new" customers. This happened too many times for it to be completely random; however, the logic escapes me. :)

Hilton Paris

March 19th-25th 2007

1 room @ $106 per night x 6 nights=$636.00

Taxes and fees=$42.49

Total Price=$678.49

Thanks again for all the help. This is a wonderful blog! :)

[Chiliweenie]

Thanks for the info on the Hilton in Paris. I will be going over Thannksgiving.

How was the room ? Service? Were you stuck in the back of the hotel or in a smoking room?

Again, thanks for the insight and observations.

[FBNY]

I've never had a problem with additional fees on hotels although to be honest, I don't watch +/- $6 on a $650 tab that much.

I hit the Hilton Paris on Priceline in November 2005 without incident.

Where I HAVE noticed a huge problem with Priceline is on their airfare taxes and fees.

I've bid on fares say, from Syracuse to Paris and then from smaller airports such as Elmira or Ithaca to Paris.

The smaller airports have more than $100 more in taxes and fees attached. That's pretty noticable on a $400 flight.

I've emailed Priceline about it and all I get is the worthless canned "taxes and fees" response but that's BS because on other sites like Orbitz and Expedia, the taxes and fees are essentially the same from the smaller airports.

I say this to warn bidders to be careful if resubmitting a failed bid from a smaller airport - watch the extra and significant fees they tack on. Thankfully I've caught it and didn't just resubmit from the new airport.

Regarding the Hilton Paris, I was pleased with my $96 Priceline win in November 2005.

The room was big and had a big bathroom - both exceptionally large by Paris standards.

Yes, the room was on the rear of the hotel but I didn't mind - it was a view of Ave Suffern and not a wall.

It was a typical business class hotel and was worth the money.

The only drawback I can think of was it was isolated in a way.

If you are going for the tourist thing la Tour Eiffel was right there and every day the sight coming and going was breathtaking.

All the other tourist sites and the city center were quite a hike away though.

Some are walkable but if you plan to visit the Champs, Latin Quarter, Opera/Boulevards, Louvre, etc. you will need a ride.

Another thing to watch is the taxi queue in the morning. I had a flight to catch and the wait for taxis was 20-30 minutes because all the business people were leaving for their morning meetings. If you need to leave in the morning by taxi be sure to add an extra half hour.

Lastly, while the Hilton is very nice, it's typical business class hence quite sterile. If you are looking for a romantic getaway with Parisien ambiance the Hilton isn't it.