Smart Place Paris Gare du Nord by hiphophostels — Hotel in Paris

Really bad. Low standards, poor service, expensive item vanished.

Bedroom walls so thin people next door clearly audible; nowhere to hang clothes; no bedside lights; no water/tea/coffee/kettle in room. Mould in shower, pubic hair in sink and bathroom stank so badly I reported it two days running. Their response was ‘Housekeeping didn’t mention a smell.’ (Oh. That’s OK then). The second morning the stench was so bad I vomited.

Only one out of 4 power sockets worked, so reading in bed impossible. Couldn’t even read by phone, I had to charge it overnight in only working socket on opposite side of the room. Receptionists indifferent to all problems; responses included ’Only shared rooms have bedside lights’; ’we can’t spend money on lights for every room’; ’It’s a hostel not a hotel’ (and yet they charge hotel prices).

The worst thing: they refused to post an expensive item I left at reception when I was shaken up after being robbed. I repeatedly offered to pay the postage but they still refused, saying “Sorry, we don’t do that’. They insisted I get item collected (despite knowing that I live in UK, not Paris), saying they’d keep it safe. When I found somebody to collect it I phoned to provide name and arrival time, but when she got there, the item had somehow disappeared. I received an email saying “…sorry, your friend come but we don’t have your bottle anymore. I ask my collegues and nobody know where it is.” (And it wasn’t just a ‘bottle’, it was an expensive hot/cold flask).

The only positive thing about ‘Smart Place’ is the humorous and helpful old lady who clears up after the single coffee, croissant and UHT OJ that...

Bed Bugs and Poor Customer Service - think twice before staying here.

I was bitten a little over 20 times in 2 hours by a bed bug(s) in the room and suffered a severe allergic reaction that caused a rash across my entire body. Luckily, we found the bug crawling on the bed and caught it proving it was in fact a bed bug.

The night receptionist rebooked us in a new hotel around the corner and promised a refund after explaining they had bed bugs before, however, no guidance was given as to how to control the problem and make sure our luggage was not contaminated or prevent us from carrying the bed bugs to the new hotel. The customer service after this point was horrendous.

We visited the hostel every day for the duration of our trip, hoping to talk to the manager. We were told she would call us, but she never did. We eventually got the day receptionist on the phone after our trip, but she insinuated we were making everything up and planted the bug to get a free room. I assure you this was not the case and to insinuate this is appalling. She also hung up on us without answering our questions. The manager was not sympathetic and explained that bed bugs were only a minor inconvenience (my allergic reaction and resulting swelling was not a minor inconvenience).

This incident effectively ruined our Parisian holiday. While we were relocated, I essentially didn't sleep because I noticed I was being bitten at 2 a.m., I tried to find the bug and also control the rash between 2 and 3 a.m. and then we then had to move hotels between 3 and 4 a.m. We were very lethargic for the rest of our trip due...

If I could give zero stars I would. While the hostel itself is pretty ok, the staff that checked my group in was not. We had to wait twenty minutes for them to hand us our key cards, because they decided to have a side conversation completely irrelevant to the task at hand. So checkin, something that has only taken 5-7 minutes tops at multiple other hostels, was ridiculously long. They utterly ignored us, and we're extremely rude. Next issue was the paint. There were signs in the lobby saying wet paint on stairs, please use the elevator. So following the advice of the hostel my group proceeded to do that. Now the elevator was one of those old styled elevators with just enough room for one person and their luggage. There's another wet paint sign in this elevator. Fun fact: there was no wet paint in the elevator, but there was tons of wet paint on the exit door of the elevator. All over the door, not even the handle was clean of wet paint. Since the door wouldn't stay open by itself and was quite narrow, you quite easily made a lot of contact with the door as you tried to pass through. The staff down stairs failed to mention any of this. So now my pants are ruined and all my luggage covered in paint. Why they just didn't close the floor until painting was done I have no clue. Paris was going so well until this point, extremely upset. I shouldn't have to deal with this for the amount of money it costs for...