Concorde Saint Lazare: Kind of Sort of Liked it
Written: Jan 03 '04 (Updated Jan 09 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great lobby.
Cons: Location and rooms were not the best.
The Bottom Line: If you have lots of money to spend and don't care about location, this will work for you.
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| beglanlu's Full Review: Concorde Saint Lazare Hotel |
LOCATION:
Good Stuff
The Concorde Saint Lazare, which is a listed as a monument, has a distinctive combination of contemporary motif and enduring sophistication. The lobby is listed as a historical landmark. Marble, chandeliers, luxurious chairs in velvet and engraved very high dramatic ceilings strike you as you enter the magnificent lobby. I was overwhelmed when I walked into it because it really is beautiful. Elegant like nothing I have seen.
The Concorde St Lazare Hotel in Paris is located in the right bank; 8th Arondissement, across the street from Gare Lazare (Railway station). Within 4 blocks is L'Opera and major department stores. The Metro (Paris's subway station) is across the street also.
When you land at the airport just hop on the Roissybus from Charles De Gaulle Airport to L'Opera and the hotel is about 4 blocks from there. Pick up the Roissybus in terminal one at the airport, it is clearly marked. But make sure you make lightly because you will be rolling your bags several blocks before you get to the hotel from where the bus drops you off.Or spend $60.00 on a taxi. The Roissybus is about $20.00. It is a 40 minute trip.
I didn’t care that much for the location because it was in the middle of department store hell. You will get more Parisian atmosphere if you stay in the left bank. Even though this hotel is by a Metro (subway stop) it isnt the best subway stop in the world because you will have to transfer subways to get to the left bank and most of the tourist attractions.
Subways are impossible for people in wheelchairs and a nightmare for people with strollers. This isnt a place for kids. But it is ok for a person on business especially if you have business in this neighborhood.It isnt that great for your average tourist just becuase it isnt close to anything your average tourist comes to Paris to see.
Not So Good Stuff
The fun ends here.
ROOM
Rooms are somewhat of a disappointment. Our room had high ceilings and a comfortable bed. At the foot of our bed was a huge wall. The wall jets out so it makes getting around the bed not an easy task. You could barely squeeze past the bed.
The room was long and skinny and laid out oddly. View was ugly; the view we had was that of other rooms. The room had two large French door windows. But the windows were odd in that they were on either side of the bed & you could not walk around the bed very well. The room comes with a mini bar and a table and two chairs.Again, they were hard to get to.
I had emailed them several times asking for a room with a view. They did not have the courtesy of responding. When I asked for a nice room at the front desk this is what we got...a view of other people changing their clothes. Too tired to complain. She said if you want a nice room it would cost 40 Euros more per night. That was frustrating since I upgraded with them on Expedia. Don't bother to go for Expedia upgrade. 'Aint worth it.
Decorated in yellow, it was cheery enough; with two French door windows but again our view was staring directly into the room of others.
The room on one hand was spacious, but not really. Why? Because the room was long and skinny with a big fat wall jetting out again almost touching the bed. It seemed bigger than in was I assume due to the tall ceilings.
To be honest, I don’t know about the in-room phone service because we never used the phone, you might want to contact the hotel about that (not that they return emails).
They do have AC and heat that is easy to control and AC is a nice addition to a French hotel.
Our room was next to a very loud service elevator.It woke us up every morning.
Our room looked nothing like the pictures on their web site. I did like the in- room safe, which was stored inside a medium sized closet. This was a nice touch to be able to lock up your money, passport etc.
Don't touch that mini bar...pricey. $7.00 for a coke.
The bed was two double beds pushed together. Very comfortable however.The bed sucked up the entire room.
The TV did have CNN (The one English station). Oddly the TV had a hard-core pornography running all the time. Not good to let the kids have the TV remote.
No coffee pot or tea.
No turn down service.
No iron.
No ironing board.
Not a lot of storage space.
BATHROOM
The best part. Big. Marble. Comes with shower gel, shower cap, hair dryer, mirror for makeup (not well lit), we had a non-working toilet, a broken TV, no toilet paper. Two thin bath towels.
CONCIERGE
We asked about a simple boat ride on the Seine. He gave us a $100.00 dinner tour that we did NOT want and then he gave us the wrong times for the boats departure time. We stopped trusting the concierge at that point.
HOUSEKEEPING
We came back dead tired at 6 pm and the room was not cleaned. I called the front desk requesting toilet paper that the maid did not leave, 5 hours later it had still not arrived. Some staff spoke English about 50% did not.
RESTAURANTS
The Café Terminus is their expensive restaurant. We did not eat there. They told us that we had a free continental breakfast at check in. However when we checked out, suddenly, they tried to charge us 40.00 euros per day for continental breakfast. I refused to pay and she immediately waved the charges, I didn’t appreciate the scam.
WHAT WASN'T THERE
Conditioner, bathrobes (as advertised on their website), a real shower and no coffee pot. It is one of those hand held showers. A decent size elevator. They had the world's smallest elevator. Four people in the elevator was just a little too close. Very tight squeeze.
A good toilet (the toilet was shaky and temperamental) it usually took 4 flushes, rather frustrating. No iron or ironing board. No Internet service in the room.
THE HOTEL
The hallways were clean and quit nice. No Internet service in the rooms but they do have a business center. The bellman had our bags sent up within 10 minutes of our arrival. But 10 minutes after that came the repairman to fix the toilet. 10 minutes after that came the repairman to fix the TV. Again, the lobby is not to be believed, possibly one of the nicest lobbies I have ever seen.
Please look at my review Paris Paris Paris.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
beglanlu
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Location: Colorado
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Chairperson of college Theater Department.Professional Speaker in Denver. College Professor.
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