Hotel Celtic

The room was small, as budget rooms in Paris often are, but it was clean, with white bedding and excellent towels. I’d seen plenty of negative reviews and took a chance, but didn’t regret it. The view was better than I expected for what I paid, and the location is wonderful. It’s a perfectly decent Parisian hotel. My room even had a mirror and a fireplace, probably dating from Napoleon’s time!

I left without caring about the refund after the boss started giving me dirty looks and talking rudely to the staff member about me in Arabic, apparently not realizing I speak it too. He said, “What is she still doing here?” Earlier, I’d asked for a refund because the room was moldy and covered in bed bugs crawling all over the bed. The room looked nothing like the pictures and was horribly small, though I didn’t mind the size by itself. The boss tried to gaslight me, saying they’d changed my room and there were no bed bugs in the second one, then told me to wait for someone to come give me their phone number so I could claim a refund. This was the worst hotel experience of my life. The people were horrible, and not everyone is cut out to run a business.

We couldn’t stand the noise, and it went on past midnight. There was racket from other guests and outside, where there are lots of restaurants. The bedding cover was dusty, as were the floor and corners, and the room was old and dirty rather than the “historical” look we expected from the website photos. The price wasn’t especially low, either. The house rules were ridiculous: no eating or drinking in the room, even water, and no hanging clothes. We switched hotels immediately and didn’t stay overnight. Luckily, we found another room at the last minute, for not much more money. It was a nightmare, and there are plenty of better options if you don’t want to ruin your Paris trip.

The location is good, but the receptionist was unresponsive and impolite, and one of them didn’t even know English. Breakfast was butter and a croissant for 12 euros. The room doors were broken and had to be forced shut, while the elevator made so much noise I’d recommend earplugs if you want to sleep. They may have lice, too.