Hotel Prince de Galles 52 Euro Mistake Rate Stay

Last year the Prince de Galles hotel in Paris had a mistake rate of 52 euros per night (they intended to load a 520 euro rate). It was only available for up to 4 nights, the week of Thanksgiving.

I’ve just returned from the hotel, and had a lovely stay.

On check-in I was upgraded to a deluxe room on the top floor with a large balcony looking out over Paris (and if you crook your neck and look right, a view of the Eiffel Tower). I did check availability, figuring that the hotel wouldn’t provide much of an upgrade – as a result of the rate and of this being Paris, after all. The hotel wasn’t offering any suites at all online, for any of the four nights of our stay. And they were in fact sold out for our last night. So though I asked about a further upgrade at check-in, I had to believe them when they looked and tried to move some things around but concluded that nothing in fact was available.

The hotel room itself was quite small, with a nice bathroom of a good size. The balcony was probably a third the size of the room, at least.

The room wasn’t in the best shape, the hotel had to replace the battery in our door lock in order to be consistently able to get back into the room. A fuse blew in the room one morning while I was getting ready, but they fixed the problem without much difficulty. The toileteries were Luxury Collection branded. Toilet paper in the room really ought to be upgraded, it was pretty rough (think Scott tissue). Housekeeping didn’t touch the bathroom on our second day.

But the hotel was always friendly. I never received any attitude from the hotel, as some have reported. Everyone was genuinely warm. While service was reasonably good, it certainly wasn’t above and beyond. I used the concierge to make several restaurant reservations for me a few days before arriving at the hotel. They confirmed everything in advance by email. I never did receive anything from the concierge during my stay about these reservations. A proper five-star hotel, in my view, ought to reconfirm everything day-of and provide me with a re-confirmation. Normally that’s not a big deal, but I arrived at one of the restaurants where I ahd a lunch reservation to find that they had closed for the week. A proper high-end concierge service would have been proactive enough to avoid that.

Prices at the hotel are high, but not stratospheric as I had expected. Internet is 22 euros per day. Coffee service for one from room service is 10.50 euros. Still, I think a bit lower price point might actually generate more revenue for the hotel by enticing guests to order more services.

The hotel is located right next door to the Four Seasons George V, on l’Avenue George V off the Avenue Champs-Élysées. It’s a very upscale neighborhood, but there are some reasonably priced restaurants and cafes a few blocks from the hotel. While the Eiffel Tower is walkable (a good walk), it’s otherwise not close to the sights. But a Paris metro stop is a couple blocks from the hotel, and the subway is one of the easier ones to navigate of major world cities, so I’m fairly unconcerned with location in Paris.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Americans always complain about the rough “European” toilet tissue, however there is a good reason for this. Europeans tend not to use Old Growth Forests for their tissue (usually 100% recycled paper products) hence it tends to be more rough whereas Americans demand soft tissue and lots of it. When Greenpeace demands that manufactures stop using Old Growth Forests the industry replies that US consumers demand soft tissue. Greenpeace had changed their tactics to try to convince US consumers however now they just see this part of the situation as kinda hopeless. Whether they are aware of it or not the hotel is just being a “responsible” green business. Try even premium recycled paper and it is still rougher than most “American” toilet paper. Shocking that so many big tough Americans have such tender a-holes!

  2. @doubled no, i didn’t fly coach 🙂 i may write up air france business class, but the gist is the hardware is antiquated, service perfunctory, but at least departing from cdg the food was pretty decent.

  3. *sighs with relief* I’m glad you didn’t fly coach! Did you use Delta miles for the flight? I’m curious b/c I’m wondering if it is possible to book a trans-Atlantic flight using Delta miles.

    Here’s to more mistake rates in Paris!

  4. The hotel honored your “mistake” rate? I should be so lucky!

    What is the best way to search out “mistake” rates.

    Photos were very nice.

    BTW, I am FT’er member

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