JO&JOE Paris - Nation — Hotel in Paris

This is a bit of a difficult review. Generally everything went well during our stay here, except on the last day. Therefore I'll rate everything separately.

Rooms: 4/5 The rooms themselves were pretty nice for a hostel. The beds had a lot of privacy and were all equiped with power outlets. The beds themselves weren't that great, the pillow was very thin and offered little support. The mattress wasn't the best either, but still pretty decent.

Facilities: 4/5 The toilets and bathrooms were very nice. The lobby was nicely decorated. There is also a rooftop terrace where you could normally drink something, but it wasn't open during our stay. It did offer nice views though.

Breakfast: 2/5 The breakfast was kinda decent. There were only a couple of options, which made sense in a way due to it being a hostel but still, a little bit of more options would be nice. You could get some mini-croissants and some baguette. As a topping for your bread you could get some jam, honey or choco. This was supplemented by some orange slices, tomato slices and some cheese. To drink you could choose between coffee, tea, water, orange juice and apple juice.

Breakfast was held in the lobby, which was kinda weird but ok. During the first morning it was understaffed causing a line to form, this made it so it took a while for us to get breakfast. It was then that they also complained that we didn't have any breakfast 'tickets', but this was caused by us not receiving them when we arrived.

The second morning was worse in every imaginable way. We reserved two time slots to eat (because we were with a large group). When we arrived to get breakfast at said timeslot the food was gone. They told us that we reserved a timeslot two hours earlier, which was completely false (and we were able to prove by showing them the email confirming the reservation). They proceeded to be very annoyed at us by this (even though none of it was our fault), and eventually reluctantly said that we could get breakfast one hour later. When we went to get the food, there was barely anything. The person behind the bar was pretty annoyed at us for asking for knives, for asking for orange juice, etc ... .

Overall the breakfast was okay, but the incident of the second morning left a foul aftertaste.

Staff: 2/5 The staff was very helpful and nice during our check-in, but during several instances they were extremely annoyed at us even though we didn't do anything. Examples of this are, among others, the whole problem with the breakfast 'tickets', the second morning breakfast incident and miscommunication about the bagage storage.

Overall: I was initially very pleasently surprised when I first entered the hostel. It looked very nice, and the staff was nice. Generally everything went well, except on a couple of occasions. Then came the last day, and this really left a bad aftertaste. I'd still recommend going here, but just be sure to manage your expectations when it comes to the breakfast and...

Overall good value for price. I stayed in a 6-bed room for a week and basically only slept there and it was okay: Obviously, it depends on your roommates but I had no big issues. Most of them came to their rooms at around midnight which made going to sleep earlier difficult though (consider a sleep mask and ear plugs). Communication was limited, but a fair amount of visitors seem to speak English and the staff does as well.|The location worked well for me: from the Gentilly station you are in the city center in around 15 minutes. If you get off at the Cité Universitaire which is within walking distance instead, I recommend the nearby parks. Directly next to the Hostel is a burger restaurant, a bakery and a kebap place, you do not have to walk too far for other options. I did not try the food at the bar because it seemed fairly expensive.|Clean-ish: My room was clean, but I found shards of pringles under my mattress and the bathrooms were not spotless either.|In my room, there were two toilets and two showers, separated in tiny rooms, I never had to wait. The shower rooms however are too small: Think about 1m x 1m with a sink in there too - there is no space to change in private or put on clean clothes. |You get a spacious locker (remember to bring a padlock). The locker did not seem to be particularly secure so I always took my valuables with me when leaving the room. This may have been unnessary, but I heard a story about someone having everything stolen there so I did not want to risk it.|There is a room at the top with a microwave and a toaster oven if you want to bring your own food (open until 22:30). It also has a washing machine and a dryer (5€ and 3€). The terrace was closed when I was there. |I did not spent much time in the common areas, but it is large and others seemed to be enjoying it. Not a definite recommendation, but I would consider going there again if I were to travel to...

Stayed here because I thought I’d treat myself for once with a nicer hostel. The price per night (62€) is in no relation to the standard, I’ve stayed in hostels for a fraction of that price and had better amenities. It’s not very clean overall, it’s dusty and dark everywhere. Lots of stuff is broken (lights, sinks). The mattresses are covered with plastic and underneath the mattress I found a smorgasbord of trash and breadcrumbs and a poison apparatus, probably to kill bugs. I found a plastic eyelash on my fresh bedding. It’s forbidden to eat or drink outside food/drinks anywhere but the common room in the cellar. This room along every other room with a sink has a weird bad smell. Some of the rooms with plumbing have an automatic perfume sprayer installer which fills the rooms with a cloud of heavy perfume probably to mask said bad smell. I did not feel very comfortable in this place. Towels cost 4€ extra and to store your luggage you have to pay high fees.

I have no clue how the reviews are this good, this place is terrible for the price.

Good things: The staff is very friendly and doing a great job. I never saw anyone standing around, they all seem very motivated and helped me swiftly anytime I had any question. The bad experience at this hostel certainly is a problem of upper management / the accor hotel group that makes this place feel like an unwelcoming money grab. They should budget more for additional deep cleaning and should rethink their role as hosts to make the guests feel welcome. The rooftop is a nice space with lots of shade but one evening at 7pm they told me there’s a private event and it was closed to anyone else which I think is an insolence as the rooftop is one of the main selling points of this hostel. Airconditioning in the room is working pretty good if you don’t mind that it’s...