Villa Royale — Hotel in Paris

Myself and my husband stayed here for 3 nights, during the middle of June. I'll start with the good, then the not so good, then the bad.

The good..... The staff here are truly lovely, helpful and welcoming. I honestly haven't anything negative to say about any of the staff, from front facing to housekeeping. They were all lovely. The hotel is steps away from a metro station, which we only used twice as we explored a lot by walking. Both Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur are also minutes walking distance from the hotel. There are so many patisseries, bakeries, cafes and a variety of different cuisine restaurants, again all walking distance from the hotel.

Not so good...... The hotel itself really needs redecorating and serious repair. The theme of the decor is quaint and I liked it, but the more you look, the more you see. The carpet in the bedroom and the hallways was worn and damaged, really damaged in places. The drapery at the head of the bed was torn, large rips that were disguised in the folds. The double bed had two single beds pushed together, which I despise. If you request a double room, you should get a double room. The bathroom floor tiles were broken, one was so damaged it would move if you stepped on it. The clothes steamer that was attached to the wall in the bathroom tripped the electricity on the entire floor when I attempted to use it. To use the shower, you would step into the bath. By the end of the shower, you were left standing in about 6 inches of water. Either poor drainage or a clog in the drain hole. The floor would end up really wet, as there was only one pane of glass, that was immovable up near the taps. The bathroom window which faced a large apartment building, had sheer blinds, so when it was dark, you couldn't use the bathroom with the lights switched on, as people in the apartments would be able to see right through the blinds. When other guests doors closed, the room/bed would shake. There were a lot of doors closing throughout the nights and early morning.

The bad..... While I've mentioned the positives about the location, there were also a lot of negatives. The hotel seems to be located in the middle of a red light district. It's also located right beside 4 night clubs, that opens Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. They stayed open until 6am. All night, there would be music blaring, people shouting, glass breaking, fighting and the other usual sounds associated with nightclubs. The air conditioning was bad in the room, you wouldn't say it wasn't working, but it didn't really make much of a difference. On our first day, it was 32⁰ and while the temperature dropped slightly at night, the air conditioning did not make the room a comfortable temperature and we couldn't leave the windows open because of the noise on the streets. When the nightclubs finally closed at 6am, the street cleaners would come along then. There were also a lot of sirens from emergency services, like a lot, throughout the nights. In front of our hotel, there was a fountain, and this also seemed to double up as a meeting place at night. There are serious homelessness issues, along with drug use and mental health issues. The fountain area is where the homeless slept during the day, on mattresses' and make shift beds.

Lastly, while this is rated as a 4 star hotel, and certainly charged the rates of such, I would not consider this 4 star. At best it's 2.5. We included breakfast during our stay, and the breakfast provided was sub standard. Considering how many cafes and beautiful bakeries there were nearby, our breakfast resembled provisions from a supermarket. If you are considering staying here, and have young children, don't. This area, along with the nightlife is not suitable for...

We only managed to stay two of the four nights that we were booked because my daughter awoke the second morning to find many bed bugs crawling on her pillows! I've stayed at many hotels, and this is my first encounter with bed bugs. It was horrifying enough that, despite the hotel offering to put her in another room, we immediately changed our travel plans and moved to another hotel. Who wants to move to another room in a place that clearly has bed bugs?

My husband had commented from the moment that we arrived in our rooms (we had three rooms rented for five people) that the mattresses were old. They noticeably sag in the middle. I kind of dismissed that as charm for an old European hotel. It never occurred to me that there would be critters crawling in those old mattresses.

After the bed bug discovery, someone from the hotel called my daughter to tell her that the bed bugs probably came from the Metro nearby (WHAT?), and that she needed to boil all of her clothes to make sure that they weren't infested. Well, that wasn't exactly helpful since they weren't offering any assistance with her clothing. Nor did they offer to refund the room fee. They also did not offer to help pay for the cab we had to take to get to a new hotel. There was no compensation that they could have offered that would have covered the half day of sightseeing that we lost on our only full not-Christmas day in Paris. But since they didn't offer anything other than switching her to another room, it's not an issue (for them).

It's funny that when I informed the woman at the front desk about the bed bugs (and showed her pictures), she said almost all hotels in Paris have bed bugs because of the humidity. The hotel that we moved to, however, showed no signs of old mattresses and bed bugs. Hmm.

Also, the woman at the desk insisted that we send an e-mail to management about the bugs. I figured they already knew about it, but I sent an e-mail anyone. No one ever responded.

It's a shame, too, because we liked the charm of this hotel when we arrived. The staff was helpful and nice. I was even willing to ignore the fact that the water in my shower backed up around my ankles every time that I used it. We all chose to ignore the very odd bullet hole in the elevator door. Not sure how that happened, but they should probably get that fixed.

I can't recommend this hotel to anyone due to the bugs. And I don't think that the housekeeper who was vacuuming the room as we left is going to be enough...

Firstly I need to say that Staff at reception are LOVELY WELCOMING HELPFUL and super friendly and kind. So when I mention service, it’s not about them, as they all went beyond and above to help, plus they were very friendly and lovely. The location is absolutely great, it’s walking distance from,Gare du nord Paris international train station (15 minutes) moulin rouge (5min),famous restaurant like Pink mama( 5 min),Gallery Lafayette and opera garnier, and if you need to take a bus or metro( underground) it’s again 2 minutes to stations. And a 20 minute bus journey takes you to Eiffel Tower or champs elysees street! So you won’t even need a Paris visit card as bus is €2.50 Hotel doesn’t have a restaurant,nor does the room service, so breakfast( if you have one) will be served in your room. I asked it to be served between 9-9:30 am on the form I was given (as I was doing a late night the night before so I didn’t want an early morning, but despite that it was served at 8:00 am! Well that was a bit uncomfortable as I mentioned on the form the day before. Hotel has a nice interior design but it is dated and a bit tired. Jacuzzi in my room had cracks all over and toiletries were limited to hand wash and shampoo, which barely had anything, not even half full! Considering I stayed in a Deluxe double room with Spa bath, I expected a bit more. The curtain holder hook was fallen and just hanging off the wall on my bed side. Check out was 11:00 am and 10:59:30 😅 room service lady was at my door trying to come in and start the cleaning! 😅😄😄😄 So overall, if you are after minimum hours spending at the hotel and spending most of the time, out and basically want an easy access to everywhere (good location) and going to use the hotel only to sleep, then it’s a good value for money and rooms are a bit bigger than what you’d...