My sister and I booked a room at Hotel de L'Athenee last minute, based on price and location. We arrived at 11:00 pm with 2 heavy bags. The young man at the reception told us the elevator was out of order, did not offer to help with luggage and gave us a room on the top floor. Now, we don't know if we got the worst room in house or what (maybe because we were the last check in?), but it was quite disgusting. The floor was uneven everywhere with huge stains on the carpet. The room door and door to the bathroom did not close properly as there was a 4-5 inch gap from where the door ended the floor started. This, of course, affected privacy and noise issues. The bathroom, truth be told, was not a separate room at all as the gap also applied to the top of the door and ceiling (think public bathroom stall) and the bathroom walls were made of thin ply-wood , so really, an armoire as a bathroom. The shower was outside the bathroom and it looked like a public telephone cabin from the 40's; needless to say, water leaked into the room. The bed spread was crusty and stained. The hotel advertises telephones in the rooms, but we certainly did not have one (again, did we simpy get the worst room?), there was only one in the hallway from which you could only call the reception desk. When our father called the front desk and asked to be transfered to our room, he was told we were not picking up so we must be out. This, of course, was a lie, since we did not have a phone! Although this review is very picky, we'd like to think we are not picky people. Paris is wonderful and we spent our entire time outdoors, needing the room only to sleep and shower. The location was indeed amazing and they did keep our luggage there for hours after we checked out.

Hotel L’Athene is a typical Parisian Hotel Hotel, with small rooms, small staircase and a tiny lift, but it is a lovely quaint hotel. Our room was spacious,which is a rare thing for a Parisian Hotel, in need of a re-vamp but the old style furniture added to the charm of the place. Our room was always lovely and warm and we had a piping hot strong shower. The people at reception were lovely and helpful and the breakfast in the morning was simple but tasty. The location of the hotel was absolutely brilliant, right beside Opera. The metro was on strike for the first couple of days that we were there but because of the location of the hotel it didn’t matter. If you going to Paris to see as much of Paris as you can and your only going to use your hotel room as a base then Hotel L’Athene is the place for you. I plan to return to Paris again and I will be staying in this Hotel because it’s value for more and just a really nice old little place to stay.

We (three of us) booked for 5 nights in August. The first night's booking was so that we could check in at 7.00am the following morning. They will not allow early check-in. The three of us could not fit in the lift. Our three sets of bags could not fit in the lift ! The room allocated to my wife and I was reasonably sized (Paris standards) but our feet "stuck" to the carpet when we walked in barefeet. The (very old) candlewick bedspread seemed somewhat crusty. The tiled shower had been painted over and all the paint was flaking off and cobwebs had not been removed for quite some time. They could not find the key to our room safe. Our travelling companion was even worse off. In her (miniscule) room, you had to ~ quite literally ~ climb over the toilet bowl to get to the shower that was raised some 12 inches off the ground. The shower would have measured about 20 inches square ! It was 7.00am and we had just flown for more that 24 hours from New Zealand ~ so we decided to "give it a go". At least the sheets were clean. After our first day tripping around Paris, we crashed for the night and had quite a reasonable nights sleep. When we woke up, we found the whole hotel had no hot water ! This was the final straw ~ we immeadiatley checked out and went down the road and found a (more expensive) hotel. We felt so sorry for their relieving receptionist. She was a loveley, polite young lady who was obviously as frustrated as we were. I guess, if you pay peanuts, you can expect only monkeys. This aslo applys to hotel accomodation.

We stayed at The Hotel De L'Athenee in July of 2006. Despite the overwhelming heat in Paris we had an excellent time. The hotel on the other hand was NOT what we had expected! We chose the Athenee due to a recommendation from a friend of a friend who lives in Paris. It was supposedly a standard quality hotel in paris but I would consider it low class in the US. For starters it was extremely dated and slightly dirty. Luckly, our room was on the second level and easily accessed from the stairs, because the elevator in the hotel was so small one person and a large suitcase would be cramped. Our room was quite spacious, but very outdated. We had a TV(all french), free telephone and 2 large windows which helped. Luckily again, we had an air conditioner in our room, others we were traveling with did not and ended up sleeping out of the room during the night. We returned to the room one day discovering that the hotel staff had shut off our air conditioner. Our room was about 90 degrees, this was extremely irritating. The bathroom was fine, but one downfall was that it had no shower. This made it extremely difficult to bathe especially with four people in one room. The bed linens were grose and itchy, but we slept well due to the amout of walking necessary to navigate the twisty streets of Paris. The hotel staff was accomadating, considering we had a group of about 14 people. The fact that none of the employees spoke english well was slightly inconvenient, but expected when traveling abroad. Speaking of inconviences, the room key was like an old fashioned skeleton key and looked as if it would open any door in the place. Also, it was attached to a giant brass key chain forcing you to leave your key with the front desk anytime you left, turing a quick trip out, into a small ordeal with worrying about who had the huge key and had it been turned in. there was a small safe in the room that we could never get to work, which left us leery about leaving any valuables behind. Another downside was the unlike hotels in the US, the Athenee had no room service, in-room mini bars or a continental breakfast, forcing you to leave and eat out aven when you just wanted something small to eat. I also had problems with the hotel's power outlets, even when using a travel power adapter, i still fried my digital camera charger, causing me to rely on batteries to power my camera, which are very hard to find in Paris. The location of the Athenee was great. Really central around all of the sites and it was tucked away on a little side street with limited traffic. We were within walking distance of several restaraunts, shops and large department stores. The metro was a wonderful mean of transprotation, if you could figure it out. I would recommend steering clear of it unless very familiar with perisian street names and how the whole system works. Overall, I greatly enjoyed our trip to Paris, but next time I would definitly stay in a more well known or an American hotel. As far as I know, the price was right for the summer in Paris, but I would spend the extra money and stay somewhere a little nicer and newer. If you do choose the Athenee, I am certain you will have an excelent time in Paris, just as long as you get out of the room and experience all of the wonderful sites and attractions Paris has to offer.

We stayed at The Hotel De L'Athenee in July of 2006. Despite the overwhelming heat in Paris we had an excellent time. The hotel on the other hand was NOT what we had expected! We chose the Athenee due to a recommendation from a friend of a friend who lives in Paris. It was supposedly a standard quality hotel in paris but I would consider it low class in the US. For starters it was extremely dated and slightly dirty. Luckly, our room was on the second level and easily accessed from the stairs, because the elevator in the hotel was so small one person and a large suitcase would be cramped. Our room was quite spacious, but very outdated. We had a TV(all french), free telephone and 2 large windows which helped. Luckily again, we had an air conditioner in our room, others we were traveling with did not and ended up sleeping out of the room during the night. We returned to the room one day discovering that the hotel staff had shut off our air conditioner. Our room was about 90 degrees, this was extremely irritating. The bathroom was fine, but one downfall was that it had no shower. This made it extremely difficult to bathe especially with four people in one room. The bed linens were grose and itchy, but we slept well due to the amout of walking necessary to navigate the twisty streets of Paris. The hotel staff was accomadating, considering we had a group of about 14 people. The fact that none of the employees spoke english well was slightly inconvenient, but expected when traveling abroad. Speaking of inconviences, the room key was like an old fashioned skeleton key and looked as if it would open any door in the place. Also, it was attached to a giant brass key chain forcing you to leave your key with the front desk anytime you left, turing a quick trip out, into a small ordeal with worrying about who had the huge key and had it been turned in. there was a small safe in the room that we could never get to work, which left us leery about leaving any valuables behind. Another downside was the unlike hotels in the US, the Athenee had no room service, in-room mini bars or a continental breakfast, forcing you to leave and eat out aven when you just wanted something small to eat. I also had problems with the hotel's power outlets, even when using a travel power adapter, i still fried my digital camera charger, causing me to rely on batteries to power my camera, which are very hard to find in Paris. The location of the Athenee was great. Really central around all of the sites and it was tucked away on a little side street with limited traffic. We were within walking distance of several restaraunts, shops and large department stores. The metro was a wonderful mean of transprotation, if you could figure it out. I would recommend steering clear of it unless very familiar with perisian street names and how the whole system works. Overall, I greatly enjoyed our trip to Paris, but next time I would definitly stay in a more well known or an American hotel. As far as I know, the price was right for the summer in Paris, but I would spend the extra money and stay somewhere a little nicer and newer. If you do choose the Athenee, I am certain you will have an excelent time in Paris, just as long as you get out of the room and experience all of the wonderful sites and attractions Paris has to offer.