Best Western Hôtel Ronceray-Opéra — Hotel in Paris

I searched up and down for photos and reviews before our stay with limited luck for recent information.  My hope is this review will answer a lot of questions for you.||Location – 4 Stars. The hotel really is in an amazing location and that was the reason I booked for our group of 15 with 8 rooms.  There are so many restaurants in the area.  It’s about a 7-minute walk from the Opera and the Galleries de Lafayette shopping centers!  There are definitely some bars and clubs which can go until 3 or 4 am on certain days. We stayed Saturday to Friday and late-night club days varied. We were on the 4th floor facing the main street and the music didn’t really bother us.  My husband described it as Bourbon street (New Orleans) meets Times Square (NYC).||Staff- 2.5 stars.  Some were pleasant. Some were average…and a few were rude. ||Rooms – 2.5 to 3 stars.  Nothing fancy. I’ll include photos of one of the standard double rooms, and I had a club level room.  The first room I was given was not great. I think it was #328 which was barely bigger than the standard room.  That room had no shower, the tiles around the tub were literally coming off, and the toilet seat looked as it had been through war for 30 years.  After quite a bit of “discussion” with the lady at the front desk, we were moved to room 408.  Much better with an updated bathroom, newer toilet seat, and a bonus of a balcony.  Although the number of cigarette butts, decaying table, and spider webs made it clear that the balcony had not been swept or cleaned in many months.  Overall, our room was clean and spacious.||Pros:  The best thing about this hotel is definitely the location.  If you get a good rate like we did, then it. worth it.  The breakfast is basic and doesn’t change but it was fine.  It includes eggs, European style bacon, chicken sausage, croissants and pastries plus two machines that make decent cappuccinos and expresso.  The passageways are great for exploring and finding cool shops, restaurants, wine bars and more so definitely explore.  The restaurants within meters of the hotel provided lots of options, and most have happy hour from 5pm to 9pm which is amazing.  You are steps from Grands Boulevard Metro station, so we were able to get around anywhere by starting with Metro #8 or Metro #9. ||Cons/Other:  There is only one elevator for the entire hotel so be aware that it might take a bit of time to get up and down.  The hotel advertises that there is air conditioning in all rooms, an iron and ironing board in each room, and soundproof room. It was about 80 degrees when arrived and for the next 2 days. At check-in, I was told there was no air conditioning until “summer.”  However, after I complained to our tour operator, they were told the air conditioning was under maintenance but it magically came on our last two days…after temperatures dropped to the low to mid 60s. We requested fans when there was no AC, and they didn’t have enough to provide so several rooms were left to leave the windows open to get some air which means no soundproof and loud noise as I mentioned the bars/clubs stay open to 3am/4am on different days.  ||There are no irons or ironing boards in the rooms. We requested one on our first day.  It stopped working about 3 days into the trip and when we asked for a replacement was told they didn’t have any more irons! Later a replacement was left in our room but housekeeping came back and took it the next day to give to another guest!  So, we had wrinkled clothing the last 2 days. ||If you aren’t familiar with this, a lot of European hotels don’t provide facecloths/washcloths.  My group forgot I shared this so I went to HEMA (one block away) and bought some for all of them.||We would definitely stay in this location again but not sure would choose BW Hotel Ronceray Opera hotel.  Thankfully I stressed that this was a 3-star hotel with great location before arriving so my...

DISCLAIMER I got this hotel through a Eurostar package deal, so I won't be able to comment on the value for money.

Overall, I had a very good stay at this hotel. First the location - Grands Boulevards. You can't beat it. Practically almost the centre of Paris. Loads of shops, restaurants, and transport links.

I do want to give people a heads up by saying that it is located inside a 'passage', or what other people might call it an "arcade". This means that after around 10pm, you will have to ring the bell outside of the passage, as it is closed off to the public. This shouldn't be a problem, but they might take a while to answer when it's early morning, so do keep that in mind.

The rooms themselves are decent and seem recently renovated. We were on the third floor, so I cannot comment on how the other floors fare. There was air con but it didn't fully circulate around the room. Bathroom was always very clean but has limited amenities, so do bring some of your own toothpaste bodywash etc.

The service was great. Reception staff were super helpful when it came to answering queries, and they always were happy to serve us. There was always someone at the reception, which put our minds at ease.

The only major flaw I can find with the hotel is that the breakfast is underwhelming. Again, this isn't something that we paid for, so I can't really comment on whether it's worth it. But, as someone who hasn't paid for it directly, I still wouldn't recommend it. The options are limited, and what they do is not really up to scratch. It would help if they spaced the pastries out evenly, so that they have space to breath and stay crispy, and it they cut the baguettes in half, since they are so small. The coffee machine was also slightly questionable - I made a cappuccino but it tasted like hot chocolate... If they also offered some fresh vegetables, that would really elevated the breakfast in my opinion.

Regardless of the breakfast, I still had a very good time at the hotel. If they iron out the breakfast, this will easily be a 5/5 for me. In the mean time, I'd highly recommend going somewhere else for breakfast. You're in Paris - enjoy what...

So this building is from the 1800s, as such it'll come with the quirks associated. There is one elevator only, it's on the smaller side but will fit maybe 5 people comfortably, the hotel isn't really busy so it's generally available....unless it's out of service or being used for something.

The rooms are very small, maybe some on the higher floors (like 4 or 5) are better but anything below is tiny. Wifi signal is terrible as well, my room had full bars beside the door, and one bar if I was lucky beside the bed, so that was fun to deal with.

There is 24/7 concierge which is nice - Youb is excellent by the way, probably the only person who cares about his job at this hotel.

Everyone else is rude/depressed or just unpleasant. The daily breakfast is the same every single day, eggs are extremely creamy which I believe is a French thing so it may not be to your taste, and the bacon is on the undercooked side, not crispy by any means. Somehow they keep a limited supply of hardboiled eggs & fruit then run out mid week, the croissants are good though.

I will say the hotel is pretty clean, the hallways are narrow and every light in a common area is on a motion sensor, so if you get up early for breakfast the hallway is dark like something out of a horror movie. I agree with the other reviewer about wallpaper peeling, the bathroom doesn't seem to have any sort of exhaust fan that works on a switch so the steam just collects and likely causes a lot of moisture buildup until you open the door.

Location is great however, close to everything walking wise and the metro station. Views all depend where you are in the hotel, some rooms you can feel the rumble of the metro...