Hôtel George Sand — Hotel in Paris

Sorry, it's long. If you don't want to read my sad tale, skip to the bottom to see the moral of this story||||I would love to review the actual hotel, but they are ruthless business people and liars and I never was able to stay there. I booked the room online months in advance (February 25) for arrival on October 16, and selected the option to pay upon arrival. I confirmed the booking before leaving the US for our 22 day trip and that we could drop our bags with them before check-in time since our train was set to arrive at noon and check in is 3pm. ||||On October 14, while traveling on the high speed train from Amsterdam to Paris, I received an email from Hotel George Sand (via the online travel site the room was booked through) that my payment method wouldn't go through and that they will cancel my reservation if I don't call them to resolve. I couldn't call from the train as I didn't have consistent cell signal.||||Upon arriving in Paris at Gare du Nord, I call my credit card company to find out what's going on because I've been using this card for the last two+ weeks with no issue and they say no problems, no attempted charges have been made or declined. Then, I call the online travel service that I booked through to find out what the problem is. They don't see an issue, so they call the hotel while I'm on hold. The hotel is telling them that my credit card was declined for the deposit. The online travel service conferences me in with the hotel, the hotel rep again says the my credit card was declined. I gave him a new credit card to process deposit and he said he would email me if that one didn't go through. (Why would he assume it wouldn't go through?!) ||||My husband and I took a taxi to Gare Saint Lazare to catch our train to Bayeux and while on that train, I received another email from Hotel George Sand saying that my card did not go through for 'pre-autorisation' and that if I didn't give a valid card number they will cancel the booking. (SEE ATTACHED PHOTO. The date/time in email is EDT, I was in GMT.) I called them directly and confirmed my credit card number with the Hotel George Sand employee (I made him read it back to me twice!) and he said it won't go through we are cancelling your reservation and then HE HUNG UP ON ME. ||||I was in a panic, as I needed a hotel for Paris and was bumping away on a train for Bayeaux for two days, so managed to book a new last minute hotel for twice the cost. ARGH Are you kidding me right now?!||||I spoke with a number of other travelers about this, along with our native French Normandy tour guide, and the consensus is that they overbooked their rooms and since I chose the 'pay on arrival' option, they intentionally cancelled me. My two totally separate credit card companies said they NEVER saw attempted authorizations from this hotel, so I believe this is the case. ||||MORAL OF THE STORY: If you need a hotel room at Hotel George Sand, you better pay for it up front and check your email often to make sure they haven't screwed you over and cancelled it. ||||MESSAGE TO HOTEL GEORGE SAND: If you aren't going to honor the 'Pay on arrival' reservations, THEN DON"T OFFER IT AS...

Great hotel. The rooms are spacious and beds are comfortable. Everything was clean. We had a triple room and it was great for our teenager to have her own space. This hotel is in a great location, close to restaurants, shopping and attractions. The air conditioning was lovely. We had stayed at an expensive Parisian apartment prior to this (with no AC) and I regret staying there and wished we had just booked at the Hotel George Sand Opera as the price was very reasonable with better facilities. There was a small lift for luggage, breakfast room and did I mention the air conditioning? A must for summer in Paris! The staff were exceptional. We were travelling to Belgium for one night in between our stays in Paris prior to checking in to this hotel. We went out on a limb and asked if they would store our luggage for one night before we even checked in so that we didn't have to carry our heavy suitcases on the train and they didn't even hesitate in the slightest to say yes! It made our trip so much easier. No charge, no questions, they were fabulous. Also super close to the Metro at the Haussman - St Lazare station. I would highly recommend and I would stay here again next time I...

We were supposed to have two interconnecting rooms with a double bed and a single bed. They gave us instead a small room with only a double bed. After realising the mistake they now added a camp bed. As a consequence we can barely move around in the room. This is not at all what I booked and paid for and I asked immediately for a refund. They told me I’ll have to talk to the manager tomorrow.

PS the experience got worst. Refused to reimburse me the difference for the price of the room they gave me versus what I booked. And claimed that the breakfast they offered as an apology should cover the difference. Baseline: I’m blocking my credit card payment to them since there is a very simple word for this behaviour.

Note for families: on the last night we got the family room we paid for, only to discover that there is no heating in the room meant for the child.

Overall, my experience has been just horrible - I would have never chosen to stay in these conditions travelling with a small child!

Never again! Stay clear of it!

PPS: after investigating the matter my credit card company reimbursed me and is recouping the cost...