To book or not to book?

There are certain times of year when you might want to consider booking a hotel in advance, in Paris, especially in September/October when the fashion industry is in town or if there’s a big show going on at the Porte de Versailles convention center, but in the summertime, there are tons of hotels from which to choose. You might actually even save some money by waiting until you get to Paris rather than booking in advance. (On the other hand, I just checked out BNALLS’s listing of Paris Hostels/Hotels at prices in US Dollars that look very competitive with what you would find if you were already in Paris).

Another option is booking a hotel for one night, decide if you like the hotel well enough to stay for an additional few nights or look elsewhere for the next night.

I’ve mentioned in past posts some neighborhoods that tend to be less pricey than the Right Bank close to the major sites esp the Louvre and the Tuileries. If you gravitate more toward the Left Bank or head east around the Bois de Vincennes for example, you’ll start to find better prices on hotels - and the Metro will get you quickly to any part of Paris you’d like to visit.

One hotel keeper was surprised to learn how much people had paid to book a room at her hotel when they booked over the internet - if they had come in right off the street, it would have been much cheaper. Then again, she was the same hotel owner who gave away the room we had booked for a family member when she didn’t arrive before 6 pm. If you do want to travel spontaneously and book when you arrive, make sure you get into town early in the day to book your room for the evening.

Some reasonably priced ‘typical’ hotel chains in France like Kyriad, Campanile and Ibis are usually clean and predictable if you just pop into town without a reservation. Otherwise, the star system gives you a good guideline of price/quality. Every once in a while, you’ll run into a 2-star that is perfectly OK, but go for a 3-star minimum if you tend to be be finicky.

You may notice today that there is a sponsored post today regarding hotels. I decided to check out the site -especially because I had no idea about this post - until I saw it - like you did today.

I was surprised to see that only ONE HOTEL was listed for the entire city of Paris. Just one hotel for one of the most visited cities in the world? C’mon guys! You can do better than that.