9/2/2016

It could have been worse, but unfortunately, we paid a lot of money for not a lot of hotel quality.  While most of the finishes are beautiful, some of the charm for the Renaissance Le Parc Trocadero has been lost.

What was, a few years ago, a beautiful, pristine, character-filled garden hotel in the middle of Paris, is now a hotel with not much personality and a lot of maintenance issues (and, other than Sophie who helped us check-out, not so great customer service.) My husband and I have previously stayed at this hotel three times over the last 5 years, watching its unfortunate…Read more It could have been worse, but unfortunately, we paid a lot of money for not a lot of hotel quality.  While most of the finishes are beautiful, some of the charm for the Renaissance Le Parc Trocadero has been lost.

What was, a few years ago, a beautiful, pristine, character-filled garden hotel in the middle of Paris, is now a hotel with not much personality and a lot of maintenance issues (and, other than Sophie who helped us check-out, not so great customer service.) My husband and I have previously stayed at this hotel three times over the last 5 years, watching its unfortunate decline to a less-than-fantastic hotel that costs just as much as a fabulous hotel but with an experience that doesn't even meet requirements for an economy class hotel (but with beautiful finishes.) There are several other hotels in this beautiful neighborhood for a better value to money spent/more luxurious experience:  Stay elsewhere.  It's sad to advise this way, though, as our past experiences were why we chose to stay here again:  It was a beautiful thing while it lasted!

Our story:
Upon check-in, we were placed in a garden room; a "larger room" with a king sized bed and a view of the garden.  What we were given, once escorted towards the building that our room is in (and then abandoned halfway there,) however, was a hotel room with the oldest, cruddiest/crustiest-grout shower I've ever seen.  Not only was it nasty, but it was small, the door wouldn't actually open, and somehow, I was to use it with my child (who is listed on our reservations.)  While this oversight is slight, my husband tried to fix the issue and change rooms immediately upon opening the door and realizing this, but was told we'd have to--somehow--get moved to a "smaller room"; as if this was some way of deterring us from having an issue with the situation.  My husband came back to the shower-room and told me the situation, only to have me go back and talk to the front desk man and let him know it was NOT OK to shower a small toddler in a room with a shower that the door didn't even open 90degrees in.  The front desk man then, tried to let me know that there weren't any rooms available at all.  I responded that I didn't care about immediate availability, but I cared about not staying at the hotel if I had to find another place because I have to be able to bathe my son; I also chose this hotel because of its nice bathtubs!  What a junky situation to be in.

We finally got moved later in the day, only to be moved to a room with a non-working bathtub (the drain didn't drain and wouldn't plug either.) So somehow we're to conserve the environment (as per their advertisements on the door regarding towel usage)--and yet the bathtub doesn't stop?  Makes sense.

And no regular coffee in the morning (only decaf,) getting told that we'll get more the next day when we went downstairs to let them know we needed some coffee.

It was like pulling teeth just to get moved rooms, let alone that we didn't have coffee or a working bathtub (a no-fixer since they were booked-up for a party.) Coupled with its problem regarding plug-in locations in our room (there's a wall plug at elbow height in the middle of the wall but no usable ones in the bathroom other than for a shaver,) and having to walk through the smoking garden to get to our building, the experience not only didn't meet expectations,  but it was disheartening for our trip to be marred by what was once a beautiful gem in a sparkling city.  I miss the hotel I visited before!

As we checked out this morning, we let Sophie at the front desk know about our experience and she attempted to rectify it in as much as she could--and it was appreciated (she was very helpful!)--but I am definitely not going to blindly repeat the same hotel experience without considering other options in the neighborhood next time for a hotel that has less managerial flaws.

If you're to stay here:
1) Know that the beds aren't the softest, but they're not terrible; they're serviceable and a nice size.
2) The finishes in the room are beautiful; beautiful headboard wall, beautiful controls on the bathtub area, beautiful mirror in the bathroom/deep, rich wood-grain area in the closets.  Very, very pretty.
3) If you can get to breakfast when it first opens, maybe it won't be smoky; it's a beautiful setting to have breakfast in when it's not smoky.
4) Attention to detail isn't there; but it's not the worst experience ever--just not as good as it could be for what was once a very spot-on, attention-to-detail hotel (examples:  There's a generic-brand tissue box on the counter but the tissue cover for it is placed empty elsewhere in the bathroom; it doesn't fit in it.  The regular coffee that didn't exist until we had to beg for non-decaf.  The shower room that had cracked grout and cracked shower basin--but could have been maintained and kept clean for a serviceable shower.)

9/2/2016

It was absolutely gorgeous here. Great for photos except there are hardly any chances to get pix without another tourist entering your photos! Bring your patience & good walking shoes. Come early take the 8 am train to make it by 9. It gets super busy later on in afternoon. Don't take a tour it's totally doable on your own and super cheap subway/ train ride. 14€ round trip from Paris per person. Make sure you are well rested also it's exhausting! Lots and lots of walking.

9/2/2016

Not too bad. It's Better than the McDonald's here. They have chicken options for the no red meat eaters. Hot food & close to the American good old fashioned Burger. Close to the hotel and we were starving so we stopped here for a quick lunch.

9/2/2016

To set some expectations, this review is based on the level of quality of Mexican food in Paris. I am from Los Angeles, so IMHO Paris's Mexican food scene or its quality is nowhere near LA's.  Got to the taqueria around 2:30pm so all they had by this time was pork -- Al Pastor, Pierna Adobada, and Chorizo. Ordered the Al Pastor Burrito and 3 Tacos that had each type of pork. The tacos were decent. One highlight of the tacos is that they make the corn tortillas from scratch. They have the flattening device to make the tortillas. The burrito was okay as well. Most of the burrito was…Read more To set some expectations, this review is based on the level of quality of Mexican food in Paris. I am from Los Angeles, so IMHO Paris's Mexican food scene or its quality is nowhere near LA's.  Got to the taqueria around 2:30pm so all they had by this time was pork -- Al Pastor, Pierna Adobada, and Chorizo. Ordered the Al Pastor Burrito and 3 Tacos that had each type of pork. The tacos were decent. One highlight of the tacos is that they make the corn tortillas from scratch. They have the flattening device to make the tortillas. The burrito was okay as well. Most of the burrito was filled with rice. Wish there was an option to order an all-meat burrito.

The salsa was not spicy at all, probably because it's catered to Parisians and their spice tolerance. A couple of recommendations to make the food more on par with LA's:
-install a rotating spit that has Al Pastor cooking, and add pineapple to the tacos
-add more onions and cilantro in tacos
-add onions and cilantro in burrito
-not sure whether habanero peppers are available in Paris, but if they are, make pickled habanero onions so customers who enjoy spicy things can top onto tacos/burritos
-add an avocado salsa option

Overall, for Mexican food in Paris, this place is good. When compared to Mexican food in LA, this place is just okay and leaves Angelenos reminiscing of tacos/burritos back home.