Villa-des-Prés

It’s astonishing how the staff at Villa des Prés, a so-called five-star hotel, can work together to deceive and mistreat guests while still maintaining this rating. When checking in, we clearly informed the concierge that we needed a warmer room, preferably set at 28°C, as we had been outside in 3°C Paris weather for quite a while. They assured us this would not be a problem. Yet upon arrival, we discovered that our AC was not working—there was no air coming out. We immediately contacted the concierge, and they told us to wait 20 minutes because the AC needed time to “warm up.” We waited—nothing changed. When we called housekeeping, they lied to our faces, insisting that the AC was working—just “not that obvious.” After suffering in the cold room, a staff member finally admitted that the AC was not working. We asked for another room, and the front desk immediately lied again, claiming there were no available rooms—even though their own website showed that suites were still available. When confronted, they suddenly changed their story, saying we could switch rooms, but only if we paid extra. When we refused, they showed us a filthy, unacceptable room, saying it was the “only option”—a blatant attempt to pressure us into upgrading. At this point, it was obvious we were being deceived and manipulated. With no other choice—it was already 9 PM, and we were exhausted from a long flight—we had to accept their only “solution”: a small heater that dried out the air and made the room unbearably uncomfortable. The next morning, I woke up with a bloody nose and a painfully cracked throat. ⸻ Management’s Gaslighting & Racially Insensitive Attitude The worst part? When we tried to escalate the issue, the staff actively blocked us from speaking to management and refused to give us their names. They clearly hoped we would just give up and accept their mistreatment, all while insisting their actions were legitimate. After a long argument, we finally spoke with the manager, Camille, who gave us a completely contradictory and nonsensical explanation: • First, she claimed that French ACs do not provide heating, and only a heater can warm the room. (Yet multiple staff members had previously told us the AC was “warming up” and working fine! Also, when we later stayed at a four-star hotel, we found this to be an outright lie.) • Then, she presented room temperature monitoring data, claiming that the heater was effective. But when we pointed out that we were asking about AC, not a heater, she changed her story again, now claiming that the monitor only measures AC temperature and cannot detect the heater’s warmth—even though a staff member had already confirmed that the AC was not working. • When my mother—exhausted from a 7-hour flight and freezing Paris weather—tried to explain our frustration and simply asked for a working AC, Camille accused her of “making a scene.” Not once did she acknowledge that we were only upset because her staff had repeatedly lied

Small hotel with nice rooms. The lobby bar is not worth the space it occupies. The WiFi and chromecast in our room did not work properly and after sharing this with the front desk, I expected a speedy solution, given this is a 5-star property. No help or change was rendered. Seemingly the message was lost from front desk clerk to management. 5-star hotel in Paris, I’d expect more.

This has truly been the perfect stay, location of the hotel is just perfect, in the same street as the hotel you can find a lot of restaurants and cafes, offering french, japanese, italian and many other cuisines, the street is full of people enjoying food and drinks, hanging out, shopping, and yet the rooms of the hotel are perfectly soundproof, you basically can’t hear a thing from the room. The rooms were perfectly clean, the cleaning service cleans the room once in the morning, and then in the afternoon they prepare the room for sleeping while you are having dinner, the service was fantastic. The hotel spa was also perfectly clean, we used the sauna and the pool, you can enjoy some tea afterwards, I usually don’t like hotel pools, this is probably the first one I enjoyed and went for a swim every afternoon. The decor of the hotel is very elegant, very stylish, very new, there are a lot of books everywhere, we went through all of them, there are a lot of interesting books about architecture and design. The fragrance of the hotel is also very elegant, the bedding and the towels are high quality, the Illy coffee in the rooms and the Dyson airdryer are an excellent touch. I probably forgot to mention something but the whole stay was just perfect and we can’t wait to be back, this will definitely be our choice of the hotel every time we are in Paris.

My husband and I were on a very quick trip to Paris as part of our 35th anniversary trip and we could not have been more delighted with the outstanding service we experienced at Villa des Pres! Every single person was so friendly and helpful, professional and kind. It seemed like there were several members of the staff for every person staying there. Our room is absolutely beautiful and we were greeted with a lovely bottle of champagne and delicious treats plus a handwritten note welcoming us to Paris. In 60 years I’ve never received a handwritten note from a hotel, and we have stayed in some beautiful resorts. We felt extremely safe walking around and found some lovely cafés and bars nearby. We felt very spoiled by our treatment at this beautiful establishment and I can’t imagine staying anywhere else in Paris!