Priceline Hotel: 4* Paris (St. Germain-LQ-Montparnasse) Le Meridien

[WillTravel]

After buying my airfare, I found that I could not resist trying to bid.

So I put in a bid for July 11-18 of $40 in the St. Germain zone, which looks like it might be one of the best options considering how Priceline has drawn the zone maps.

I did not expect anything - this was totally a lowball bid.

Surprisingly, I got a counteroffer for $67 (it did not say to raise by a certain amount, but specifically said $67).

So I tried again for 4 days only July 11-15 at $45 in this zone. I got the same counteroffer.

I tried again for 3 days only July 11-14 at $48 in this zone, and got the same counteroffer.

I tried again for 5 days July 11-15 at $55 in this zone, and this time got a counteroffer to add $15. (So a different message).

I didn't want to add any other zones to the bid, which was why I tried with different days. Having to switch hotels once would be okay.

I looked at the Libertel hotels that appear to be in this zone: Libertel Maxim and Libertel Austerlitz. There might be others - but this is what I could see looking at the www.accor.com site.

Both are in the 5th and are likely Priceline candidates. There is a summer rate of 75 Euros inclusive for each. So far as I can tell, neither has air conditioning, but are otherwise pretty good, if basic, hotels. (Of course no guarantee that either is the subject of the counteroffer - just a guess - but Priceline does use the Accor brand quite a bit in France.)

At this point, I think I probably would have to get into the $60+ bid range to get this, and that would not be that great a savings after taxes and fees, over the 75 Euro cancellable rate.

Still, this is pretty good for a 1-week stay and I am sort of torn as to trying to go for it anyway.

[iahphx]

i don't know Will, I think it's risky. There's just something scary about bidding on a 2-star in Paris -- you really could get ANYTHING. At more than 50 bucks, I think I'd be more comfortable picking my own hotel. As you know, Paris isn't a bad town for decent, small hotels (although with the value of the Euro, it will probably be hard to get anything "good" for below $80 or $90. Also, by "locking in" a non-refundable hotel, you forclose the possibility of picking up a good deal somewhere.

I myself am contemplating a Paris trip with the family in April. As you know, the family aspect complicates the matter, as you can very easily get a hotel room that only sleeps 2 or 3. I'm trying to keep my antenna open for "deals." If you see anything, please give me a shout. I'll report anything I find. I have made some lowball bids on priceline, too, but judging from what I read on these message boards, I'm unlikely to get what I want at the price I want to pay.

[WillTravel]

iahphx, are you taking two kids (for a total of four people)?

If so, you might want to consider a Novotel. Those seem to allow two children free in the room.

But you would want to enquire as to bedding arrangements of course. It would probably be cheaper than bidding for two rooms for a 4* hotel on Priceline (I think Novotel is usually 4*, and even if it isn't, it's reliable quality.)

Many Ibis hotels allow 3 people. Many of the Libertel hotels seem to allow 3 people.

I know some people bid for the La Defense area but I would really like to avoid that.

There are lots of fairly cheap hotels in Paris, which is another reason I was reluctant to try any higher. I'm quite willing to take a low-budget hotel with good reviews - more reluctant to take one blindly.

[iahphx]

It's actually 2 adults and 3 children -- the youngest not quite 3. I have some doubts about taking the gang to Paris -- as I think the European countryside works better with kids -- but my crowd has seen all the kids' movies about Paris and really want to go. So we'll probably do a couple nights in Paris and THEN head to the country.

While my youngest can easily sleep on a small "inflatable" bed we can travel with, I'm very reluctant to pile the whole group into 1 regular hotel room. First, I don't think the hotel would like it. Second, I don't think WE would like it. So I think I need either a large "family room" in a hotel, an apartment rental of some kind, or 2 hotel rooms. I'll pay more for better quality, but I want to do it for under $200/night (no easy task). I also don't want to stay in La Defense (although I'm contemplating staying at Versailles and taking the train in for a day).

Any recommendations would be most appreciated.

[WillTravel]

An apartment sounds like a good idea if you can find a deal.

Mercure also allows 3 people in a room if the youngest is under 12. So two rooms there would work.

Accor also has a SuiteHotel brand, but I think the Paris one is not that well-located.

Another brand I've heard of is Citadines - they are basically apartment hotels.

[WillTravel]

iahphx, I meant to point out this site if I haven't: http://www.hotelclub.net

It seems to have some of the best rates for Paris (especially lower-end hotels). I'm not sure what their cancellation policies are. But I think getting a double and a triple for a price in your total range might be possible.

Another good site: http://www.hrs.com

[iahphx]

Thanks, Will. Those are certainly good European hotel websites. The HRS website actually had the 3-star Paris La Manufacture hotel (it looks quite decent) for 50 Euros a night for ONE night in April that I plan to be in Paris. The nights surrounding that day are 100 Euros! I really don't want to move my family from one hotel to another, but the rate is fully cancellable, so I booked 2 rooms for the 1 cheapo night and will decide what to do later.

I also saw some other good deals on HRS, like the 4-star Han Membling hotel in Brugge, Belgium for 90 Euros including breakfast (the hotel's own website wants 224). I didn't book that one because 90 Euros times 2 rooms is still a pretty pricey hotel night for my family, so it may pay for me to instead look for "family accomodations" elsewhere (ah, the pitfalls of bringing the kids to Europe).

[WillTravel]

Brugge has many relatively cheap B&Bs, some with several rooms. I have to admit the concept of a B&B tends to make me nervous, unless I have an excellent personal recommendation for it.

You are certainly brave to plan a family trip like this with three kids! They'll remember it fondly forever, though.

[iahphx]

Brugge has many relatively cheap B&Bs, some with several rooms.

Yeah, I just started researching it. That's the big pain of planning a family trip to Europe if you're going to try to do it economically (and given the value of the dollar, I think most people would!). While there are good sites to get recommendations and compares prices for "normal" hotel rooms, it's hard to "narrow the field" if you're looking for family accomodations. You have to figure out what the bedding is, if they have any larger rooms, how the price compares to renting two rooms, etc. It basically means looking at a lot of individual hotel sites (once you find them -- google searching tends not to work , you need to find the local tourist board and link from there).

I hope the kids appreciate the effort. :<)

[WillTravel]

Using HRS, I booked the Sevres Montparnasse for what works out to be 58 Euros per night total, including breakfast - a two-star hotel with good reviews (the few I could find) in what appears to be a good, convenient, fairly quiet area. This is fully cancellable. I could easily do worse with Priceline for a higher price.

It says it has "windows that open." I would really like air conditioning, but that's far from guaranteed with Priceline anyway. A two-star centrally located hotel with air conditioning seems to be at least 100 Euros per night. But if I notice there's a heatwave, I might have to up my budget.

Anyway, I'm going to *try* to leave this booking alone unless I see some evidence of a really great deal pop up.

[iahphx]

Well, that was another good tip, Will. I looked up the Sevres Montparnasse for my nights in April on HRS and found -- of all coincidences -- a 50 Euro/night rate (incl breakfast) for ONE of my nights! The other night was 35 Euros more. Fortunately, it is the night before the 50 Euro rate at the La Manufacture. So, knowing I cancel it anytime, I booked 2 rooms for that night.

Obviously, I would be more inclined to actually use either of these hotels if I could spend both nights at that rate. Now, I guess I'll take a wait and see approach. If something better/more practical comes along, I'll cancel. Otherwise, you can get a trip report from me.

BTW, here is the hotel's own webiste. I'm a little suspicious that there's no real outside shot of the hotel, but I did come across one very favorable review on the web by an individual travellers. And it would be hard to beat 50 euros with breakfast. Given these deals, I don't see how we could bid for anything less than 4-stars on priceline in the central zones (no La Defense). Otherwise, we definitely could do worse.

http://www.hotel-sevres-montparnasse.com/

[WillTravel]

I found several positive reviews of the Sevres Montparnasse on venere and one on TripAdvisor and two on USENET (via groups.google.com). The reviews on Usenet were quite old, though. One review specifically said the outside wasn't much to look at, but not to be concerned because the inside was nice. Then again, one could say that about a lot of buildings in Europe!

You might check venere to see the rates there, although those don't include breakfast.

The hotel only has 35 rooms, which would help explain the scarcity of reviews, perhaps.

[WillTravel]

If you want to see what the exterior of any building in Paris looks like, use this service:

http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/

The Hotel Sevres Montparnasse looks like a typical brown building about five stories high.

[iahphx]

Now that's DETAIL, Will. Thanks.

Looking around, I seem to have found another discount European hotels website: ratestogo.com. My guess is you've seen it. Any thoughts?

Somewhat of a "last minute" booking site, as you can only book 20 days out. Looking out 20 days, the Paris rates look attractive, with tons of selection (and you can book suites, quads, etc). I'll definitely check them out again when I'm "within range." Given the no fee cancellations on HRS, it pays to book there first and wait to see if you can beat it close in.

[WillTravel]

I hadn't seen it, but the interface looked strangely familiar.

Then I noticed a link: To book more than 20 days ahead click here

The link leads to hotelclub.net. So the two must be the same company!

[iahphx]

Then I noticed a link: To book more than 20 days ahead click here

The link leads to hotelclub.net. So the two must be the same company!

Right. Although when I looked at their Paris offerings, ratestogo seemed a lot cheaper than hotelclub. If it's the same company, maybe they are getting better "last minute" deals. Frankly, I don't mind booking only 20 days in advance -- especially when I can hold something from HRS without obligation. FWIW, I would think you'll have plenty of good last minute deals for Paris in the summertime, when "everyone" leaves town. I'm not sure what the inventory will look like for me in April.

[WillTravel]

I did a bid of $66 for 4* in St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse and got a counteroffer for $120.

A similar 4* bid in Eiffel Tower - Grenelle - Montparnasse got a counteroffer for $126.

I have a hunch that longer stays are harder to get closer to the date, but as you said, a lot of people might leave Paris at that time.

I would feel pretty safe that these two particular zones would give an air-conditioned hotel.

However, I just feel very reluctant to jump into the $100+ bidding range, which is what I think would be required here.

[WillTravel]

I found the following place in Montparnasse in the 14th for 69 Euros per night, including breakfast, for a twin room. Most amazing, it says it has air conditioning! If true and if I can get confirmation that it is a reasonable quality hotel, I might consider this one.

http://www.discounthotelreservation.org/Tr...Hotel_Paris.htm

My husband thinks it is very unlikely that a building like that would have proper air conditioning.

The French web site is not too inspiring: http://www.transcontinental.fr/

[WillTravel]

I seem to be obsessing a lot about this week in Paris.

Anyway, I decided now to cancel the cheap hotel with the 58 Euro rate. They wrote in an email that they had neither A/C nor fans. That sounded like it could be unpleasant. I didn't expect A/C, but after last summer, any humane hotel should have gotten fans by now, in my opinion. So I canceled the HRS booking.

I have booked this Mercure chain hotel, which says it has "individual" air conditioning units in each room, for 85 Euros per night (a fully cancellable rate):

http://www.accorhotels.com/accorhotels/fic...che_hotel.shtml

I'm still a bit concerned this is not good A/C, but I'll let it go for now. It also sets a threshold for Priceline to beat.

And I decided to try to up my limit - keeping to a bid of no higher than about 85 Euros per night (which is about $108 now).

Priceline 4* bidding in St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse for July 11-18

Failed up to $109.

When I bid $98, I got a counteroffer for $22 more.

When I bid $107, I also got a counteroffer for $22 more.

Anyway, I have the 85 Euro threshold in mind now.

[WillTravel]

Still focused on 4* bidding for St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse.

Bid $94 - brought counteroffer of $119 for July 11-18

worked up to $109 with rebids including other zones for July 11-18

At this point I decided to test the waters a bit. My backup hotel is within walking distance of any 4* hotel that Priceline is likely to produce, so switching hotels would not be a big deal, if any of these lowball bids should have happened to work.

bid $90 - brought counteroffer of $113 for July 16-18 (July 16 is a Friday)

bid $95 - brought counteroffer of $113 for July 16-18 (new bid with free rebid zone)

bid $95 - brought counteroffer of $119 for July 11-16

bid $95 - brought counteroffer of $119 for July 11-14

bid $95 - brought counteroffer of $118 for July 15-18

bid $95 - brought counteroffer of $119 for July 11-15

bid $95 - brought counteroffer of $119 for July 14-18

bid $95 - brought counteroffer of $119 for July 11-13

bid $95 - brought counteroffer of $119 for July 13-18

I thought Bastille Day, July 14, might be a breakpoint for changes in hotel rates, but it doesn't seem to be. It does look like there is a rate drop on the weekend based on the counteroffers.

Le Meridien Montparnasse has a prepaid rate of 175 Euros + 5.5% tax for this time period (currently $218 USD) on its web site.

Sofitel Forum Rive Gauche has a cancellable rate of 157 Euros (currently $195 USD) on its web site for this time period, including tax of 5.5%.

Neither hotel's rate seems to change during this time period.

The USD has risen against the Euro a bit in the past few days.

[WillTravel]

I decided I would go up to $110, which is equivalent to about 88 Euros today. (1.00 EUR = 1.24375 USD)

I bid $105 tonight for St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse through SavingsBarn.

I got a counteroffer to add $22 more. Then I thought some more about whether I wanted to go up to $110.

Ultimately, I went back through SavingsBarn.

I did a bid with St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse and the Batignoles zone (which is now a free rebid zone, since it only has up to 3* bidding) and bid $110. As pointed out, a bid of $109 had failed a few days ago.

Le Meridien Montparnasse

Check-In Date: Sunday, July 11, 2004

Check-Out Date: Sunday, July 18, 2004

St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse

19 Rue Du Commandant Mouchotte

Paris, France

Your Offer Price: $110.00

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 7

Subtotal: $770.00

Taxes & Service Fees:

$69.39

Total Charges: $839.39

http://www.lemeridien.com/france/paris/acc...on_fr1610.shtml

Le Meridien Montparnasse is offering a special prepaid Dealseeker rate of 175 Euros + tax prepaid, via their web site.

The Sofitel Rive Gauche has a special cancellable rate of 157 Euros.

I had a strong suspicion that a bid equivalent to 1/2 of 175 Euros would win.

It's possible that a lower rate would have succeeded closer to the dates, but this bid is pretty close in value to other bids for Paris, when the strength of the Euro is considered. Plus, since we have a one-week stay, which can often be a bit harder to get, I thought I might as well go for it now, since there was obviously availability.

In my opinion, this is about the best possible result for a Priceline 4* bid in Paris, in terms of the hotel and the location. The price is not much more than my 2* backup at 85 Euros per night, which had no reviews. I had spent a lot of time looking on numerous sites to find a suitable hotel that was as cheap as that- almost all other options with air conditioning and a central location cost a lot more, even 2* hotels. All the cute options listed in numerous guidebooks were considerably more than that, if they had A/C and a good location. Plus, my husband preferred that our son and me stay in a modern chain hotel while in Paris - he just felt more secure about that choice. So this result fits the bill. :-)

Reviews on TripAdvisor mostly good:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1..._de_France.html

So the bottom line is - I'm happy with the result. It's possible I would have saved a few Euros by bidding closer to the date, but probably not many, and now I have the security of knowing. Of course before this purchase I double-checked my travel insurance.

Thanks to Priceline, we have very nice hotels for a total of fifteen nights in London, Paris, and Berlin!

[iahphx]

I guess you couldn't wait any longer! :<)

I do agree that, of the current Paris priceline choices, you picked the best deal. It's also obviously a "fair" price -- you can't easily stay in a 4-star hotel for $110 in Paris. That said, the hotel and location itself are only "OK." Whether it was worth booking that far in advance on a non-refundable basis I'm not sure.

FWIW, I did make a fully refundable reservation at that Accor Suite Hotel Porte de Montreuil at their weekend rate (3 day stay required) of 46 Euros. That's my current back up plan as I await the 21-day "last minute" specials and wait to see if Starwood will have an April "dollars and points" special for Paris. The price differential between that property and anything else in Paris for my family is currently staggering. My only problem is that I have 3 children and I'm only supposed to have 2 -- my guess is that my "extra" 2 year old won't be a problem if I'm discrete about it. The room is certainly large enough for everyone (I'll have an inflatable mattress for the little one).

If anyone has any additional information about that hotel or the Porte de Montreuil area I would be most apprciative. And for folks travelling later this year (after the summer), I see that Accor will be opening a new Suite Hotel on the north side of town that might be a better choice.

Meanwhile, for folks travelling without kids, the Villa Royale Montsouris in Montparnasse is available for 99 euros in April on hrs.com, including a nice breakfast. That's a very good deal for this well regarded boutique hotel. Unfortunately, my crowd would need 2 rooms, and that makes it expensive for me. Not sure it's worth 5 times the price of staying at the Accor hotel!

[WillTravel]

I am impatient :) .

In this particular case, I would have felt worse if I hadn't been able to get this at the last minute than I will if the price goes down a little. The location is approximately the same as what I had booked as my backup hotel, so I didn't lose there. The rooms are supposed to be large for Paris, which will be nice given we are there for a week. It would have been nice to be in the 1st or 6th arrondisement in a large air-conditioned room, but the odds of that happening at a lower price were very long. I think the one thing that might give me a pang of regret is if Paris has a cold spell while we are there, making this whole quest for air conditioning unnecessary. But again that would be much better than getting stuck in a heat wave in a hotel with a small room and dubious air conditioning. I'll keep this in mind for the future when booking future summer destinations, though.

I got an answer very quickly to my request for twin beds, so it looks like it's all set.

Good luck with Starwood and/or the Suitehotel. I'm sure you can figure out a way to get the little one into the room. The Suitehotel St. Denis is on the north side of Paris and appears to be taking bookings now - is that the one you meant?

[iahphx]

I was actually referring to the new Accor Suite Hotel at Porte de la Chapelle, which is supposed to open in the fall.

My knowledge of "suburban" Paris is mediocre at best, but I'm thinking that the Porte de Montreuil location would be more convenient/better than St. Denis (which seems further and doesn't have Metro access).

Can anyone confirm or deny this? :<) Thanks.

[WillTravel]

Use www.ratp.fr to figure out some sample public transit routes. I did try the St. Denis one for fun, and it takes about 40 minutes using a combination of bus and metro to get to the Louvre-Rivoli metro stop, which is a typical central location (another one would be the Cite metro stop, or Bir Hakkim for the Eiffel tower). I didn't try the Montreuil one, but I suspect it might be more convenient.