Citadines Saint-Germain-des-Prés Paris (Apart hotel Paris) — Hotel in Paris

Citadines has several properties throughout Paris. We stayed at the Saint-German-des-Pres location, so this review is only for there. We stayed for 7 nights: May 13-20, 2025. ||This Citadines is an “Apart-Hotel” --- part apartment and part hotel. The apartment part is that rooms come with a kitchenette (stove, microwave, fridge, coffeemaker, glasses & tableware) and you can request a separate bedroom. The hotel part is that there is a lobby with staff to help with any matters you might need (checking in/out, extra pillows or toiletries, taxi, directions, etc). ||There is also free coffee, tea and water. Housekeeping is once a week, though at any time there is a room off the lobby where you can drop off soiled towels and get fresh ones yourself. Hotel staff was very friendly and spoke English.||This particular location also has a small laundry facility in the basement, a small hard-to-find gym, and a restaurant for breakfasts. We found the breakfasts to be rather minimal and the food quality rather standard. Thus, we only had breakfast there once. ||The location is great, with the Saint-Michel metro station nearby and plenty of shops, galleries and restaurants within easy reach. The building has an attractive facade and a beautiful lobby. |It faces the Seine on Quai des Grands Augustins, near the Pont Neuf, though there’s a busy street between the river and the hotel. Rooms facing the Seine are sought-after, but the truth is the Quai is lined with tall trees and unless you get a room on a higher floor you may not get the unobstructed river view you had hoped. The rooms facing the back look out onto a quiet and leafy courtyard. It’s a tall space, with full-grown trees. You won’t get a view of the sky unless you are on a higher floor.||We had requested a 1-bedroom unit on a higher floor facing the back and got #708 on the7th floor. It has an unusual layout: first door on left after entering is a tiny toilet, then a 1-person kitchen, then a surprisingly roomy living area, then an OK-sized bathroom, and then a separate bedroom. There were windows in the bedroom, living and kitchen areas, so it was always filled with light. The windows would open also, though there were no screens. Rooms have individual heating/AC, a flat screen TV (we had an additional one in our separate bedroom), and we had ample storage space. ||Rooms in the front of the building face north and those in the back face south. 708 was at an angle facing east, so had a great view of sunrise and the dome of the Pantheon. There did not seem to be a room above us, but there were most likely similar rooms below us on the lower floors. Higher up = better views. ||Our room had a lot of good things about it, so we did not complain about one other thing: it was considerably more out-dated than the online photos. We had expected something more modern and sleeker, like the rooms shown on the website. Of course, those photos are small and perhaps just can’t show the furniture dents, carpet stains, or shoddy carpentry. We met another couple who confirmed that their room was similar to ours in that it was outdated, cheaply constructed, and with similar poor water pressure.||When I mentioned this to one of the hotel staff, I was told this was a common comment from guests. He also said the hotel was set for a remodel, though he did not know when that would begin. How about now?||There are several Citadines apart-hotels throughout Paris. If you are looking for this kind of lodging, I think they are well-worth considering. Despite the improvements needed, in our case the good things outweighed the bad, and we enjoyed our stay at the...

Unprofessional, rude, and unaccommodating - worst customer service I’ve ever experienced. *Discrimination against Asians.

My family and I have been traveling all day from Chicago. We knew that check-in is at 3pm so we decided to just check our bags since we arrived at noon. The front desk told us that our room wouldn’t be ready until 3 but there are smaller rooms available now. We said we’ll wait for the bigger room that we have booked. (Why would we stay at a smaller room when we paid for the big room???) We left to explore and returned at 2 to nap in the lobby since we have been awake for 24 hours.

Right at 3pm, one of the ladies informs us that our room wouldn’t be ready for an additional 45-60 mins. A smaller room was available, but she suggested to just wait since our original room is much bigger. It’s 4:15 and they haven’t checked in on us so I asked what was going on. I stated my valid complaints and this other lady was so unapologetic and unaccommodating. She couldn’t care less that we weren’t being taken cared for. She said the room was going to take another 30 mins... I kept asking why and they accused us that it was because we wanted a bigger room.

No. You guys are wrong. We just wanted the room we booked. We have been awake for 24 hours adjusting from Chicago to Paris time, so all we want to do is sleep in our room that was suppose to be ready at 3pm. We never asked for a change or upgrade. Stop blaming your customers for your incompetence. The room wasn’t ready when they should have been - this is your responsibility. What’s the point of having a check-in when the rooms aren’t ready? They literally said “just because we have a check in doesn’t mean the rooms are ready” - OK, so I guess customers can just check out whenever because they’re not “ready” right at check-out.

I had to raise my voice at them in front of other visitors lecturing how this was wrong and unacceptable and they did not apologize. We demanded to speak to their manager and after a few minutes the lady comes back and said that our room was ready. (Wow, how convenient. How long were you guys keeping that room from us?) The manager didn’t even come out to apologize. We left the lobby and entered our room very angry. What a great welcoming by the entire staff.

I’m not sure why this hotel has over 4 stars when their customer service is a joke and the staff is so unwelcoming. Is this how you treat all customers or just Asians? We are Korean-Americans and it felt as though we were being discriminated because they were friendly towards all the Caucasians. We were lied to about our room’s availability multiple times, the staff blamed us for their mistakes, they didn’t apologize or offer any discounts to make up for their poor hospitality.

Later that day, they slipped an apology letter with a box of chocolate. They addressed us as mister... We’re all females! They can’t even apologize correctly or in person. Here’s an advice: get the suffix right and apologize to our face to make it personal.

To Citadines Saint-Germain-Des-Pres, do better. Much better.

*Be advised: Housekeeping is only once a week and if you need additional stuff like toilet paper and towels, they charge you extra! The hallways smells like rotten eggs and therefore they have to use harsh chemicals to...

A total disappointment. I do not recommend it.

We stayed at this hotel, which advertises itself as a 4-star property, but the experience fell far below even the minimum expectations. We arrived at 10 p.m. to find that the rooms we had reserved were not available, and we were given worse ones instead. The next day, we had to move again to finally get the correct rooms. In total, we were forced to switch rooms multiple times.

The overall state of the hotel leaves much to be desired: everything is quite dirty, from the lobby to the breakfast area and the bathrooms in the rooms. Housekeeping does not clean the rooms during your stay. The breakfast is very basic and far from the standard expected of a hotel in this category.

Additionally, the bathroom sink was broken, which caused water to remain stagnant for over 24 hours. We reported it several times, but no one came to fix it. The only “compensation” they offered was a piece of chocolate.

But the worst part was the attitude of the staff. We lost a personal item (a pair of sandals) due to the constant room changes, and the only response we received was: “sorry.” They never offered a solution or even showed any interest in helping. We felt ignored and mistreated—whether due to xenophobia or sheer incompetence is unclear. One of the front desk staff members, whose name I believe is Dnysse (though I’m not even sure because she initially refused to give it to me), lied to us by claiming she didn’t speak Spanish and showed absolutely no willingness to help.

The only redeeming quality is the location, which is excellent. We paid 4-star prices, but the experience didn’t even reach the level of a 1-star hotel.

UPDATE AFTER MANAGEMENT REPLY

Thank you for your reply, but unfortunately it only confirms my experience: a lot of polite wording, but no real accountability.

You mention that the studio rooms were an “upgrade” — but two separate studios are not an upgrade from an apartment when you’re traveling with kids. It’s simply not a logical or practical alternative. It was not a favor, it was a downgrade disguised as a solution.

In fact, if the studios were truly an upgrade, then why were we later moved to an apartment — free of charge — as a gesture of goodwill? That clearly contradicts your claim. If the apartment was inferior, you would’ve charged us for “downgrading.” But you didn’t. Because it wasn’t.

As for the sink, again: saying no one was in the room is not an excuse. You managed to fix it the next day while we were out, which proves you could’ve done it earlier if you had prioritized it.

Regarding the sandals, a “thorough check” from your team should have happened immediately after we reported the loss, not days later. By then, of course nothing would be found.

And finally, you admit that several team members speak Spanish — which makes it even more unacceptable that one of them deliberately lied to my mother saying she didn’t. That is not a communication issue, it is a matter of basic honesty and respect.

I appreciate the effort to sound attentive, but this response does not change the fact that what we lived was far from a 4-star experience, and excuses will...