Sure Hotel by Best Western Paris Gare du Nord

The room was clean, had a pretty view, and was more than roomy enough for me and my luggage. I had a single bed on the sixth floor. The small bathroom had all the essentials, and the shower was really nice. I didn’t have breakfast, but I did use the room cleaning service. The cleaners were thorough, kind, and respectful of my things. I paid around 600 euros for five nights during fashion week, which felt like a good price. Staff greeted me kindly and helped sort out payment, though my Dutch ABN debit card wasn’t accepted for some reason. Future guests should bring enough cash or make sure their card will work. The staff found a kind solution, and we got it sorted. Personally, I didn’t feel unsafe at any point. Just stay alert and you should be fine. Gare du nord is like any train station in a big city. Good hotel, I’d come back.

We were very disappointed with our three-night stay at the Sure Hotel. The rooms had been advertised online as climate controlled with air conditioning, but the AC wasn’t working. The remote didn’t work, and when we went downstairs because our room phone was broken too, staff said the AC was “shut off” in every room but couldn’t explain why. The room was hot and stuffy, so we slept with the window open. Street noise and mosquitoes kept us awake. The bathroom also had a strong sewer gas smell. On the second night, the hot water stopped working. We waited ten minutes for it to heat up, then went to the front desk and were told the whole hotel was affected. Staff said only the manager could approve having someone fix it, and told us to raise it with her the next morning. She wasn’t there, but we were offered a room on the other side of the hotel. We weren’t given that option the night before, and staff had no answer when we asked why. The new room had hot water, but still no AC, street noise, mosquitoes, and a strong sewer smell in the bathroom. We asked about a partial refund and were told only the manager could issue one and that our concern would be passed along. We tried again to find the manager around 8 am on our third day. Staff said she’d arrive later and work until about 5 or 6 pm. When we returned around 3, she was still nowhere to be found, and they couldn’t say when she’d be back. They said she was still dealing with the hot water problem. We asked them to have her contact us since we were flying home the next day, but a week later we still hadn’t heard anything. We also contacted Best Western customer support to ask about a partial refund. We hadn’t known that each Best Western is privately owned and operated, and that refund decisions are up to each location’s operator or manager, so the call didn’t help. We’d stayed at many great Best Western hotels in the United States and expected some consistency from the name, but apparently that standard isn’t upheld everywhere. Support could only contact the manager and pass on our concerns and request. A hotel room should at least have working climate control and hot water. If you stay here, be careful about the advertising and the difficulty of reaching the manager if something goes wrong. Don’t count on the customer service number to fix it either.

I’d give this place a negative star if I could. A few things to know before booking: they charged about 5.5 Euro per person per night in city tax, saying it wasn’t included in the room price I’d paid. The agency I booked through hadn’t mentioned it. They also charged a 150Euros security deposit. I don’t know what it was for or whether they really refund it. And the staff were quite rude and impolite with customers.

The staff were great and always there when we needed them. They also let us leave our luggage for free before check-in and after check-out. Keep your physical credit card handy for the deposit, or have cash ready. It’s a straightforward 3-star place near Gare Du Nord and La Chapelle stations, with no luxuries, just somewhere simple to sleep between days walking around town. The neighborhood felt nice and not too risky at night, with good bus and train connections. The property has two main buildings, and the elevator in the main one is tiny, fitting at most two people with two small bags. Rooms were clean enough and not too old, fair for the price. I’d choose it again for the convenient location and friendly staff.