hotelF1 Paris Porte de Châtillon (rénové)

The hotel was clean, pleasant and looked modern and new. I booked the hotel last minute as He air BnB I had booked wasn’t as advertised. I booked quite easily on hotels.com half an hour before I went to the hotel. Although, upon arrival I was told that I had mad two separate bookings so I am not too sure what happened there. The staff was friendly but a little argumentative when I said that I had not made two bookings. They insisted that I had made two bookings, rather than accept that an error had been made somewhere. Otherwise, the hotel was clean and bright with a decent sized room. The towels are €3 each and really bad quality. They are not towel material and more micro fibre than a towel. Check out was very easy - you just leave without any fuss which is great! Porte d’orleans metro station is around 10 minutes walk away and the area felt relatively safe. There are quite a few restaurants close by and en route to the metro. Overall, it was good value for what you pay. Please bear in mind that the showers and toilets are shared (something I did not realise when I made my speedy booking). The toilet/shower area is very clean and the cleaner visits regularly. You only have a sink in your room with a few hooks to hang clothes and a small table and chair. There are no bedside tables.

I have visited Paris many times and stayed in quite a few budget hotels, but this is by far the worst. Even when talking about budget hotels, the quality-to-price ratio is very poor. It is much better to stay in a hostel. The reception staff was somewhat rude. The bed was quite uncomfortable, the pillows almost as small as sofa cushions, the showers and toilets to be shared by lots of people. In the room, NO TOWELS, not even a tiny soap to wash hands, despite a sink in the room for that purpose. The toilets were clean, but you can feel them moving unsteadily when you sit, as they are somehow attached to the wall on the back, and not to the floor. Very uncomfortable. I was SO GLAD I stayed only for one night. Never again staying here.

The online photos were taken by a great photographer who was able to make the rooms appear much larger than they are. The room has a double bed and barely walking room around it. There is a small alcove with a shelf they call a desk area. There is no closet or dresser - nowhere to put your clothes. The private bathroom is the size of a broom closet, the shower is so small you can barely move to clean yourself. The sink is basically non-existent with no real space for toiletries. Also, you have to buy towels for 3 euros each, none are supplied. The "breakfast buffet" consists of a choice of 2 different cold cereals, bread with butter, Laughing Cow cheese, jelly, assorted coffee or chocolate and juice. I was sorry for choosing this hotel and will never use it again.

The staff was mostly unfriendly. Check in was very unorganized. Check in time given by Hotels.com was at noon and 1 pm many customers were told they had to wait because the room was not ready. We were told they would let us know when the room got free. 30 minutes later we asked and the room was indeed free, but no one had cared to let us know. The room is clean but nothing exceptional. The hotel is located neighboring a cemetery, so our room for example (facing south) had the view of the cemetery in the image below. Quite not pleasant... Google Maps does not recognize the hotel's street as a walking way, so its only directions is to go through the cemetery. However, one can simply ignore the directions and walk to the hotel.

For a hotel there was a lack of amenities that should have been provided, for example, shower mat, towels, toiletries, air conditioning. The bathroom was extremely small, like an aeroplane toilet, you couldn’t move in it, difficult to wash your face in the tiny sink! Not livable really! I can’t fault the cleanliness or the hotel. The guy who checked us in was great however a different guy the next day was horrible and shouldn’t have been working with the public, we asked him for help in the metros and getting around Paris and he was aggressive and useless! He fire alarm went off at 4am and about 10guests actually came out of the building while hundreds were left in, no fire engine was called and there was no staff to be seen to assist and care for the guests, thankfully it was a false alarm but we didn’t know this until 30/40 minutes after the drill. It was a terrifying experience and it should have been taken care of better.