Le Presbytere — Hotel in Paris

This is an overdue review, we stayed between June to July 2023. When we checked out, the hotel staff Miguel said he will ensure our feedback was given to the management. I hope by now, things have improved.

Location: perfectly located in the heart of Paris and above the river seine.

Note the narrow spiral stairs up to hotel rooms and reception, can be a 3-5 stories climb. This is common in Paris and also due to the hotel situating in a historic building.

Service: was inconsistent between the day and night personnel, day personnel (Miguel) was prompt and helpful, friendly, offered to help us with our luggages when we arrived.

While the night personnel simply could not care and did the minimal to brush issues off. We feedback to Miguel and he listened.

Rooms: Clean and neat and furnitures were fitting. But sadly the heating bars in the restrooms were not working despite turned on. We checked with the front desk their reply was that it’s only turned on during colder seasons.. was not the case for other hotels we stayed in, it would have been very useful for drying clothings and towels.

Bedding: The bed itself was fine. However, most of the pillows had a wet and mouldy smell, and even after requesting for change, they still smell as bad, I brought the pillows down and even requested for the front desk to smell to which he agreed, but they had no replacements, we slept having the pillows covered up with bathroom towels to musk off the smell. This smell is like laundry left in a washing machine undried for couple of hours, or drying clothings partially and then not exposing it to sufficient heat, sunlight to dry, resulting in a damp and wet mouldy smell.

Others: front desk could have advised us not to open the windows to enjoy the view & city buzz, which resulted in many flies staying in the room and hovering around the lights throughout the night. We requested for help to resolve, or for insecticide, but night duty front desk told us there was nothing he could do, perhaps, try using the tower to get rid of them, he said.

We stayed in a total of 3 hotels during our trip in Paris, and had the highest expectation for Le Presbytere, which we also paid to most, but I’m sad to say I was disappointed with Le Presbytere. And other accommodations did fare better (service, issues faced) overall due to the concerns raised. Such a waste since its such a romantic hotel situated within a cathedral / church. We had high expectations because of the reviews we read here. I sincerely hope the other guests do not experience what we have encountered, and the management will take measures or have already taken measures to ensure.

Edit: Thanks Jeremy for your reassuring reply. To testify for my experience, you may verify with the day front desk person on duty around late end June period. I have also added a video of the flies for your notation. As you can see, there was no food in the room at that time, as we only dined outside of the hotel during the entire stay - we did not have breakfast even.

I also appreciate that you are taking this review seriously and being accepting of criticism for improvements, and thus, will not hesitate to give your establishment another try in my next visit. However it will surely be critically reviewed, hope I will make the next review 5 stars on the next opportunity to experience what you and your other reviewers have assuredly claimed.

Last but not least, I have to say if not for the issues of the inconsistent service, pillows, faulty towel bars and flies matter, it would have been...

I took a flyer on this hotel, on a solo 30-hour Paris layover. Too long to endure a faceless airport hotel, but I wondered about getting all the way into town and searching for something. It was the right call. Le Presbytere is a terrific place for this or for a longer stay. I stashed my suitcases at the baggage storage at the aiport and hopped an easy ride from Charles DeGaulle airport via the RER B train to Les Halles; a stop or two to the Chatalet metro station had me emerging into a quiet Sunday morning under the beautiful art nouveau metro entrance canopy designed by Hector Guimard @1900. I found the entrance to the hotel after 10 minutes wandering along. The door is discrete, dark wood and glass, like a private club you need to know about, not an advertisement. Location, just a few blocks from Le Marais and the Seine, and actually attached to a beautiful old church, is very good. I stayed in the room on the 2nd (3rd for Americans) floor with the stone buttresses shown on the website. This is unlike any other room you're likely to see outside of a cathedral tour, but with a very comfortable bed, a newly refreshed modern and clean bathroom, amenities like a nespresso machine and even a microwave cleverly hidden away in a cabinet to make this a desirable room for one or two. The tall windows are well insulated (so the room was very quiet) but open also, so you can lean out and watch the goings on in the little street below. It must be said that you need a certain agility to move around the buttress, which is not some pretend decorative flourish - it is one of the supports for the adjoining church. Other rooms i peeked into from the hallway don't have this. The hand hewn beams in the ceiling throughout are originals - centuries old - and the place is meticulously restored to reflect its history and the comforts of a modern hotel. The staff were as helpful and welcoming as could be, and the breakfast was very good - fresh fruit in the salad, and more pastries and bread than were good for one person. A little pot of coffee in case I was too lazy to pop a cartridge in the nespresso. On an on. A few reviewers have noted that this beautiful old building has no elevator - if you can ascend the stairs out of the metro station, you will be fine going to your lovely room at Le Presbytere. I didn't need it, but the staff would be ready to help with your bags if you did.

I'm not a 5-star hotel traveler, but not a budget one either. I find good results in getting the best room on offer at a 3-star in the right neighborhood, and you'll be hard pressed to find another example of the success of this strategy in Paris. ...

Staff: The staff were very friendly and accommodating. They helped us with our bags and answered all of our questions, which we really appreciated.

Hotel: Be aware that there is no elevator in this hotel. Upon entry, you’ll need to walk up about 1–1.5 flights of stairs just to reach the reception area. From there, you’ll climb additional stairs to get to your room. For example, if you’re staying on the 2nd floor, you’re actually climbing about 3 full flights. The staircase is very narrow, only wide enough for one person at a time, which made passing others difficult. Unfortunately, I even fell while trying to squeeze past someone. While the staff did help with some of our bags, we had multiple pieces of luggage and had to carry several ourselves, which was challenging. The stair carpeting was also quite dusty and clearly hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned in a long time.

Room: The room was moderately clean, but it was evident that only surface-level cleaning is done. We found used water bottles in the bathroom cabinet and shredded toilet paper under the sink. It was also quite dusty. The room itself was small, which is common in Paris, but the layout made it worse. We stayed in the room with two large pillars, DO NOT book this room. The pillars may look charming in photos, but they made the space nearly unusable. We had to constantly duck and squeeze around them just to move. It was a very poor design and not worth the cost. If you decide to stay here, I strongly recommend choosing any room except the one with the two pillars.

Location: The location is fantastic! Very walkable and just a short Uber ride to most major attractions. However, it’s situated on a busy street known for its nightlife (sports bars, late-night tapas, etc.), so it gets quite loud at night. This wasn’t an issue for us since we’re heavy sleepers, but light sleepers may want to consider this before booking.

Value for Price: I personally don’t believe that this was the best hotel that I could have stayed in for the priced that I paid. I believe that there could have been other better hotels. Just something...