Finding a good hotel for a great price in a big city like Paris, France isn’t quite as hard as finding a needle in a haystack, but it’s not so easy! If you’re lucky enough to have a friend who knows Paris well, or better yet, lives there and can recommend a good hotel in a nice Paris neighborhood, then by all means, get them to help you make your Paris hotel reservation. However, we are not all so lucky! For most of us, using the internet to find a hotel that offers an excellent value for the money is the best alternative and making the hotel reservation is a potentially rewarding adventure.
Finding a Paris hotel bargain is quite possible if you follow a few essential guidelines. First of all you need to know where you want to stay. Paris is a big and diverse city and the location of your hotel can make the difference between a vacation filled with magical memories and a nightmare made real. A link to a good map with descriptions of the Paris arrondissements (districts) is available at the end of this article.
Secondly, you’ll need to decide what kinds of hotel services you’ll need. Some people want everything from air conditioning to mini-bar to room service, with a four star restaurant on the premises. Others are content with a bed, a bathroom and a shower in a safe part of Paris.
The criteria for rating hotels vary from country to country, but in France, hotels are given a grade ranging from one to four stars based on the facilities that are available; but such ratings are not an indication of the quality of the accommodations. That means that the star rating will only give you a basic idea of what facilities a hotel has to offer. Two-star hotels must have an elevator (if appropriate), a telephone in every bedroom, and at least 40% of the rooms are required to have a bathroom in the room (en-suite). Three-star hotels must offer breakfast room service and 80% of the rooms must be en-suite, and four-star hotels are required to have a restaurant and all the rooms en-suite.
