There are thousands of hotels in Paris, and everyone on the internet has advice on where you should stay. Finding the perfect hotel for you can be time consuming and confusing.

I wrote this guide to streamline the process of selecting and booking a Paris hotel, so that you can focus on getting excited for your trip!

Step One:
What to Consider Before You Book Your Paris Hotel

1. Location, location, location!

No matter what anyone tells you, you want to be in an uncrowded, quiet area that is centrally located. I personally think the Left Bank is less busy and chaotic than the Right Bank. I also want to be able to walk to most of the places that interest me.

I highly recommend staying in the section in yellow on the map:

The first ten years I visited Paris I stayed near the Eiffel Tower. I enjoyed it, but taking the Metro or a taxi everywhere became a real pain. After that I tried many different areas. Then I discovered Saint-Germain-des-Prés/ 6e Arrondissement. Eureka! I could walk everywhere! Even during high season I can find quiet, peaceful non-crowded areas to explore. But as soon as I cross the river to the Right Bank, it’s very crowded and busy.

Before you book a hotel you should have an idea of the area(s) where you want to stay.

2. Size Matters.

Hotel rooms in Paris are notoriously small. You can usually find the size of the rooms in the description of each room on the hotel website. It will be either in square feet or square meters. If you can’t find it, email the hotel. Then you are able to compare room sizes of different hotels.

My husband and I stayed in a very nice 4 star hotel in Paris. The room was beautiful, but he felt cramped. We upgraded to a larger room and he was much happier. I now know what size room to reserve when we travel together.

In “Annie’s Paris Gems”, I have painstakingly provided the room sizes of my recommended hotels so that readers can compare.

Before you book a hotel you should know generally what size room would work for you, preferably in square meters.

3. “Double” rooms does not mean double beds.

“Double” rooms mean the room is appropriate for two people. It does not mean the room has a “double” bed as we know it. The bed easily could be a queen or a king that is able to be made into two twins. Email the hotel if bed size is important to you. If you want two twin beds, ask the hotel if it is possible to separate the large bed.

If the size of beds and sofa beds is important to you when selecting a hotel, please read The European Bed Size Dilemma.

Before you book a hotel you should decide if you want one small bed, a large bed, a large bed separated into two twins, or accommodations for 3-4 people.

Hotel Academie Saint-Germain–Large bed separated into two twins.

4. Breakfast or no breakfast?

Buffet breakfast is served in the charming 15th century wine cellar at the Grand Hotel l’Univers

Most Paris hotels do not offer free breakfast (unlike Italy). Usually you can include breakfast when you reserve, or decide after you arrive and pay extra for breakfast on the days you eat at the hotel. What should you do?

There are so many places to eat breakfast in Paris that I usually do not include breakfast with my reservation. I like the flexibility of deciding each morning where and when to eat breakfast. However, there are exceptions.

I have found that breakfast at a restaurant that offers eggs generally will cost me over €15. So if breakfast at the hotel is less than €20 per person, including eggs and coffee, I will eat breakfast at the hotel.

If breakfast at the hotel only offers bread, juice, and coffee, I will not eat at the hotel. You can find that anywhere in Paris and its very inexpensive.

So my rule of thumb is: breakfast at the hotel if it is less than €20 and offers eggs.

Before you book a hotel, decide if a hotel breakfast is important to you and what you are willing to pay for it. Also decide if you want to include it in your reservation, or pay each day that you eat breakfast at the hotel.

5. Matching Your Budget with the Hotel Star Rating

I have yet to figure out precisely what the star ratings mean. I have heard so many “experts” say things that I know are not true (example: “2 star hotels don’t have A/C or elevators.” Not true. Many do.) I will tell you that a 1 star is similar to a hostel. After that, any hotel from a 2 star to a 5 star can be great or awful, depending on your expectations. If you are a person who likes elegant, high end hotels, you are better off in a 4 star and above. If you want an inexpensive, basic, clean, no frills hotel in a good location, you may be fine with a 2 star. My advice is to look at the websites and read reviews.

Before you book a hotel, decide on your budget, and be honest about how fancy you want your hotel to be.

6. Book directly with the hotel.

When you decide on the hotel and the room category you want, ALWAYS book directly with the hotel. Don’t go through a third party website like Booking, Priceline, Expedia, etc. When you book with a third party website, you are their customer, not the hotel’s customer. You will be treated better and get a better rate, room, and extras if you book direct.

If the third party website posts a rate that is lower than the hotel’s website rate, contact the hotel and ask if they will match that rate. Be sure to send a screenshot of the booking website rate so that the hotel knows what is included in that rate.

The same advice applies to travel agents. I don’t have anything against travel agents, but their job is to make money, and they will always recommend the best hotel for themselves, not necessarily the best one for you. The first time I went to Paris, my travel agent booked me in a nice hotel, but it was very far from everything and I ended up not enjoying Paris because it was a hassle to get around.

It is customary in Europe to write dates as DAY, MONTH, YEAR instead of MONTH, DAY, YEAR. Keep this in mind when booking reservations (you don’t want to book March 6 when you meant to book June 3rd).

Before you book a hotel, compare the rates on the third party sites to the booking pages on the hotels’ official websites.