B&B HOTEL Paris Nord Villepinte

There’s a shopping center with a supermarket close by, though there aren’t any public transport stops nearby. The rooms are quiet and clean, including the bathrooms, but they’re small, as is common in Paris, and fairly modern. Prices are reasonable, though breakfast costs an extra €9.50 and the selection is limited. We had repeated trouble with the room entry code. The reception team helped us get the door open each time. Reception is staffed until 9:00 PM, then you need to call through a kind of telephone system, so I’d arrive before then if you want someone there to speak with.

I came from Japan to exhibit at Première Vision Paris, and the staff were a huge help. They kept my exhibition items safe before the event, then agreed to store my packages until FedEx collected them and said they’d hand them straight to the driver. That made things so much easier. Traveling alone from Japan was nerve-racking since I don’t speak French and my English is limited, but they helped me with everything. I’m very grateful, and I’d stay here again for future exhibitions. I’d recommend it to everyone.

I’ve spent over 100 nights a year in hotels for more than 10 years, and I know B&B Hotels tend to have small budget rooms. I still expected a basic standard. This was easily my worst and most disrespectful hotel experience. The room had a strong mold smell as soon as I entered. There was black mold around the window frame and on the bathroom ceiling and wall base. The floor was bumpy from moisture damage, and the air felt completely stagnant, with no ventilation. Within minutes I had breathing trouble, so I asked reception to move me because of my health problems and allergic reactions. They said there was nothing they could do and no other room, which turned out not to be true. Only after I threatened to contact management did they call and give me another room at 1 a.m. I had to be at work at 7 a.m. Later, around 11:30 PM, my front door code stopped working, even though it had worked 15 minutes earlier. I waited several minutes at the intercom. The employee asked for my name and room number and offered a new code, then asked what the old code was. I told him it was 001991, easy to remember because it’s my birth year. He said it would work again. When I asked why it had stopped, he claimed it had been working the whole time. I’d tried it five times, so I knew that wasn’t true. I felt lied to again. The staff were very unfriendly, and I was treated like an animal rather than a person. The state of the whole hotel felt inhumane, and the way my stay was handled made it worse.

The room itself was in poor shape, with dirt and several broken things. The baby cot was damaged and unstable, which didn’t feel safe for a child. The sheets had a strong chlorine smell, and the bed smelled of cannabis, as did the hallway. We noticed an unpleasant odor as soon as we entered the hotel. That’s unacceptable in a non-smoking place, and the room fell well below basic standards.