Adveniat Paris

The shared kitchen is really clean and well equipped, and the common areas are good. I stayed in a decent six-woman room. There was no soap in the shower, though, which feels like a pretty basic thing to be missing.

For my first hostel stay, this was a pleasant experience. Breakfast was included, the atmosphere was friendly in the mornings, and people at the front desk were welcoming whenever we spoke with them. The room was hard to cool down, but otherwise it was comfortable and worth the price. What I’ll remember most is how patiently they handled my mistake. I misread our checkout date, or maybe booked it wrong somehow, and later got an email from Adveniat saying checkout time had passed and our things had been taken to the front desk. I panicked. We arrived several hours later to return the key and collect our luggage, and the staff were nothing but kind. They didn’t charge us extra, and our belongings were in as good an order as could be expected. I’d recommend this, especially to people traveling for the first time.

I liked the breakfast and the coffee from the machine, which was still much better than what I get in my home country. The receptionist was so kind and patient with my rusty French that it gave me a confidence boost. And a big thank you to Luigi, who helped me out. On a different day, I had a strange encounter with a sketchy Bolt driver who asked a lot of personal questions, including my marital status, age, and whether I had children, then even told me to marry him. I decided to take Uber instead, but when the car arrived, it had a huge Bolt sticker on it. The driver just said “publicité.” I couldn’t understand him, so I asked him to wait une minuite while I brought a friend who spoke better French. It was dark and raining, but Luigi came outside and spoke to the driver, asking why there was a Bolt sign on his car. One heads-up: someone might take the lower bed assigned to you at check-in. The night watchman sorted that out for me.

There are two windows, and they give you clean sheets when you check in. The room was clean, the receptionists were welcoming, and the customer service was decent. I had a three-bed room with a shower inside and a shared bathroom outside, plus a room to leave luggage after checkout. It’s an easy walk to the Eiffel Tower. I hated the stairs up to the second bed. They felt dangerous, and the top bunk was much too close to the ceiling. It isn’t exactly cheap, but I think it’s worth it if you don’t get the upper bed.