Bridgestreet Opera

The apartment looked appealing in the pictures, so we booked it for a few days in Paris at Christmas. Once we arrived, it was nothing like those images. There were no windows at all, just the entrance and another door opening onto a musty courtyard. Agoda Customer Experience Group replied that, after reviewing the matter, they couldn’t provide the compensation we’d asked for because of their policies and guidelines. That response was a further disappointment. I absolutely can’t recommend either the apartment or Agoda Customer Experience Group.

The person meant to welcome us was arrogant and couldn’t even say hello or wish us a pleasant stay. That was both shocking and almost funny. The company had made the reservation, but things already felt wrong as soon as we entered: there was a bad smell, and the linens didn’t seem clean. I don’t know whether they use fabric softener, but they certainly weren’t clean. We could also hear the neighbor walking around and his children running, so there was no peace and quiet. All in all, a very unpleasant stay.

It wasn’t a pleasant stay for what we paid, and I wouldn’t recommend the place at that price. The contact person was nice until we brought up the dirty laundry, then stopped replying. There were used towels from previous guests left in a bag in the living room cupboard, and the sofa was very dirty with no sheet for it. If you open the sofa bed, there’s hardly any room to move around. We booked for six, but the folding bed frame was missing a slat and the others were coming loose. The floor felt as if it was always sloping to one side, and there was a lot of dirt on top of the cupboards and the extractors in the kitchen and bathroom, as the photos show. The location was the only real downside.

I strongly advise against staying here. I booked through Booking.com expecting a 60 m² apartment for six at 9 rue Condorcet in the 9th arrondissement, with two bedrooms, each said to have two double beds, plus a sofa bed. After confirming, the host changed the address to 17 rue Caulaincourt in the 18th arrondissement, 1.6 km away, without asking me first. The actual apartment, on the fourth floor, left, is about 44 m². That’s 16 m² less than advertised, and there aren’t any 60 m² apartments in that building. It doesn’t work for six people: the round table is too small, with only two chairs and two stools, and the narrow space around the sofa makes them hard to arrange. The sofa bed was stained and broken, missing screws on one side of the folding mechanism. Its mattress was very worn, and one duvet was stained too. The beds were unusable. At night, getting to the toilet means going through the bathroom, which can only be reached from the living room, so you’d wake anyone sleeping there. Both bedrooms face a busy street, with a convenience store across the road open until 2 a.m. Jackhammering began at 8:20 a.m. The host hadn’t warned us, despite the sign at the entrance and scaffolding in the street. There were other maintenance problems as well: the bedroom and living room doors wouldn’t close, so there was no privacy; the ventilation was very noisy; the fireplace was dirty and hadn’t been cleaned before we arrived; and parts of the flooring were broken and sharp. I reported the problems the next day and got no response. They were later denied despite the case tracking. There’s a major gap between the listing and the apartment, with no transparency and no willingness to deal with the problems reported.