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Arriving from Germany late in the evening, we arrived very late in the evening at the Holiday Inn Paris Gare de l’Est.  We were only staying only one night in Paris and leaving the next evening from the Gare du Nord on the Eurostar. While the location isn’t my favorite part of Paris, it is extremely convenient to both the Gare de l’Est and Gare du Nord.

Overall Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Location: 3 of 5 Stars
Service: 4 of 5 Stars
Comfort: 3 of 5 Stars
Cleanliness: 4 of 5 Stars

I had booked the room on Hotels.com for a very reasonable rate of €70 which I’d say is a great price for Paris the week of New Year’s. The area around Gare de l’Est is a bit scrappy but I selected it solely on convenience to the train stations. On the bright side, Metro access is very convenient and it’s easy to access the rest of Paris.

The Holiday Inn Paris Gare de l’Est is inside an 100+ year old building but recently renovated on the interior with uber-modern decor throughout. The hotel features breakfast for a charge of €15 which we did not take part in.  Our check-in was fast and easy which was welcome since we just wanted to get to bed. A surprise room upgrade was given We headed up to our room which was on the 7th floor. The property is quite old and there are the original staircases intact but fortunately there are also elevators.

On initial impressions, the room was well…..bright. Bright yellow. And very avant garde in style perhaps? I’m no fashion expert but it was certainly interesting. The room was spacious and we started to settled in.But soon we realized that there was a very large area of the carpet that was actually soaked between the bed and the bathroom. No good! We called down to the front desk and explained the situation and the manager quickly came by. He took a look and quickly decided he would move us to another room.

We headed down to the lobby and our new room keycard was waiting us at the front desk. I appreciate how professionally the staff handled the situation. We headed up to our new room which was also an Executive Room but now on the 5th floor. This room was also similarly “unique” in style but rather than bright yellow, this room was a bold indigo color. And while this was the same room type, it was more spacious than our original room and also had a mini-balcony in the bathroom. The room was appointed with all the basics including a nice little storage closet with an in-room safe.

The bathroom was quite spacious and featured a small balcony that faced the street. However the shower was fussy and it was almost impossible to not get water on the floor. There were in-house toiletries and the bathroom was clean with the exception of the water stains on the wall facing the shower.

For one night, I can’t have to many complaints about the room. The bed was reasonably comfortable. I was pleased how management quickly handled the water issues with our first room. The Executive Room upgrade was appreciated and I found the room to be incredibly spacious by Parisian standards. The balcony was also a cute little touch.

But I prefer a quieter location for my stays in Paris and the shower was too quirky and messy for my liking. These were probably my primary dislikes for the Holiday Inn Paris Gare de l’Est. But I guess it’s silly to complain too much about the location considering I wanted convenient access to the Gare de l’Est and Gare du Nord train station. While the overall stay was alright, I’m not sure I’d stay here again: the property lacks the kind of Parisian charm that I prefer.

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