Concorde Lafayette Paris Hotel. Stunning Paris Views From 33rd Floor.

The view of the Eiffel Tower from Concorde Lafayette Hotel Paris 28th Floor room (Room 2807)

View from Concorde Lafayette Paris Room 2823, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Concorde Lafayette Hotel Paris France is massive. This hotel stands tall on the Paris skyline as, at 33 or so floors, it is of unusual height for the city better known for buildings a few stories high. It also does not match the usual beauty of Parisian buildings, looking more like an ugly 70s style concrete office block.

The hotel is fairly well located as it is next to the huge Paris Conference Center (Palais de la Congress). It is convenient for the Metro which can be accessed via a shopping mall of great clothes shops which runs underneath the conference centre. It is a few short stops on the Metro or a doable, but fairly long walk, to the main stretch of the popular section of the Champs Elysées running south of the Arc d’Triompe to the gardens and the Louvre.

The hotel has been spruced up and very much caters and is targeted at the conference and package tour markets seeking good location, suitable facilities and value. It is neither luxurious nor downmarket, and in almost every way it is fine though management are working hard to improve constantly.

You need to ensure that you get a room as high up. This one big consolation for the nature of the hotel is that the view across Paris from the rooms is beautiful. If you do not get a high room then make sure that you visit the Panoramic Bar on the top floor.

The bedrooms rooms are small with a large bed taking up most of it. On first inspection the room will look good, with a small sofa, big white duvet and functional bathroom. As you settle in you will find the room and facilities again average. The bed is not very comfortable and feels cheap. The sheets and towels are also not that high quality, but perfectly fine.

The breakfast is a strange set-up as it is on the First Floor across in what seems to be the hotel conference area and rotates through meeting rooms – I assume ones that are not booked for meetings. It is probably a cost effective way of running a buffet breakfast and is a good spread and selection, but there are usually queues to get your details and room checked before getting into breakfast.

There is a massive Club Med Gym connected to the hotel that Club Room Guests can use but costs 25 Euros per visit otherwise.

One small touch that amused me is that they change the carpets in the lifts each day as the carpet says what day of the week it is in French and English.

Concorde Lafayette Paris Room 2823, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Take a look at a video of Room 2823:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAq01uEk368

ADDENDUM
It is a year since I last stayed at the hotel. This time I was in a Deluxe Room on the 30th Floor and had access to the Club Lounge.

The room was better although the overall hotel can never be that special. The Deluxe room was less shabby, and having the breakfast in the club lounge was good (and you also get free access to the gym) – and if you do both this works out better than getting a standard room and paying for all of this).

Video of the deluxe room 3004 (watch on youtube: click here)

FURTHER ADDENDUM: APRIL 2009 – MORE ABOUT THE REVAMP OF ROOMS!

Concorde Lafayette Hotel Paris Room 425, originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Concorde Lafayette Hotel Paris Room 425 (5), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

About a year or so I reviewed this hotel and was not very complimentary as the hotel rooms were shabby and old fashioned. That review and some pictures are one of the most viewed blog postings I have ever written, probably as this is a massive hotel that attracts many conferences (as next to the Congress Centre) and package tours, especially American.

I was, therefore, very impressed on staying here again. The hotel is going through a major revamp and refurbishment and while not all rooms done yet as time of writing, the rooms that have been done have the “wow factor”. They have done a great job.

The new room look is contemporary, feels quality and is well done. The rooms are actually not very large but space has been used well.

The bathroom is very modern, with black slate wall tiles and light tiles on the floor. The bathroom fixtures are Villeroy and so quality. The whole look is stunning and good to use.

In the bedroom there is a decent sized desk to work at, trendy leather chair and large bed. They use 2 single duvets though that works less well to sleep under, and the linen is not as good as some chains – but that is me being picky than anything important…

There is a flat screen TV with a good range of channels, though for English speakers only news channels.

The building is I guess from the 70s or so, and there are some noises and such I think from the dated plumbing, but nothing too disturbing.

You can buy access to the gym under the hotel. It is a good gym but quite expensive and always very full, but at about 25 Euros a visit is quite costly, so if you want to use the gym check rates for room that give you gym access.

Breakfast is a bit of an ordeal as zillions of conference and tour groups and in what seems to be meeting rooms. But a good selection of food, though a bit stressful event for the morning!

In terms of service, it is pretty good. On checking in they made a fuss and someone from the corporate sales team came to greet me, saying how pleased they were to work with the company. Probably a bit over the top, but made you feel welcome in this massive and busy hotel where one could easily feel anonymous. So nice touch, though she did not upgrade me to a club room which would have been even nicer. But as above, I liked the room a lot.

Watch a video of one of the renovated rooms (room 425) on YouTube: click here

Here is a Junior Suite (Room 2807) which I stayed in October 2009, it is still one of the non refurbished rooms. Click here to see on YouTube or on the blog posting:

Video of room 2412 renovated room