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This is one post in a series on visiting Paris:
1. Surprising Someone With a Trip to Paris
2. The Newark Lufthansa Senator Lounge
3. Lufthansa Business Class from EWR-FRA
4. The Hilton Frankfurt Airport
5. Roaming Frankfurt Wild
6. The Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan Hotel, Paris Eiffel
7. The Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme
8. Dining in Paris: Boco
9. Dining in Paris: Café Kléber
10. The Lufthansa Senators Lounge in Frankfurt
11. Lufthansa Business Class from FRA-JFK
12. Intra-Europe Business Class on Lufthansa
The Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan Hotel was cited often as a good redemption option for Club Carlson points. In fact, Tiff stayed there on her Paris vacation.
But does it live up to the hype?
The first thing that may surprise you about the check-in area is how narrow it is. I was expecting small, but not quite that small.
The staff was really kind, but we hit a snafu with the room. I had booked double beds and because of my Gold status (courtesy of my Club Carlson Card), I was “upgraded” to a better view, with only one bed. And the hotel was sold out at this point.
We rode an elevator up that really reminded me of the elevators in old New York City apartment buildings.
And our alternative was a narrow staircase:
The first thing I checked in the hotel room was the price of the Club Sandwich, to place this hotel on the Club Sandwich pricing scale. (Yes, it really is a thing!)
It’s right about correct for Paris on the scale. It’s one of the most expensive club sandwich cities, right behind Geneva.
The room, as expected for a European hotel, was narrow and did not have much room for luggage.
We used the only chair for my mother’s suitcase and I kept my suitcase tucked away in the bathroom!
The bathroom was much more spacious than the bedroom.
There’s plenty of room for my suitcase to sprawl out there.
I also felt there was much more room surrounding the toilet than the chair in the room. You could actually sit!
The one part about the room that really worried me was the bathtub/shower.
I’m not sure if the depth of the tub comes across clearly enough in that photo, but I found myself having to lean up against the wall to hop into the tub. I am just way too short to hop in easily. There was nothing to hold on to, save for a pane of glass–and well, I like to avoid glass when I think I might fall.
I was really worried about my mother and the bathtub. I had these images of her falling getting into the shower, and her birthday becoming “that time she broke a leg” instead of “that time she went to Paris”. I was determined to bring her back in one piece!
The view was gorgeous, and primarily what my upgrade was. There was a small balcony that opened up to this view:
There were a few disappointments with service.
Once we received our first day’s coffee, it was never refilled. None of the products in the room were refilled, but as coffee addicts, my mother and I noticed this part the most.
The red coffee in that picture is evil–aka, Decaf. (Sorry, Keri).
I love my mom. So much, I let her have the last coffee. But then my poor mother had to put up with me sans coffee as I stumbled through the streets of the Trocadero neighborhood, trying to find a shop that brewed it.
We ended up finding a cute bakery nearby, but I was unfortunately so caffeine deprived, I didn’t get a shot of where or what it was. But they had good quiche, so if you smell quiche near the Radisson Metropolitan Blu, I’d head over.
The other thing about the service was, from our check-in to our check-out, this tray was sitting here:
Our next door neighbor’s old room service. At first we wondered if he kept getting the same exact items each meal, but realized the level of… crusting going on definitely wasn’t fresh.
Ultimately, I ended up realizing I was panicking every time my mother showered. She would clink her shampoo and I’d hop up screaming, “ARE YOU OKAY?!” to which my startled mom would reply, …..yes…..
I decided to call the Park Hyatt Vendome and see if they could take us early, and they had availability (which I was grateful for because it was the Tour de France!)
I told the Radisson Blu Metropolitan that I was checking out early, and they were very apologetic. A gold points representative let me know I’d get one night’s stay credited back as a gesture, though this never happened. (But to admit, I never followed up on it).
So all in all, was it a bust? Well, no.
The single bed, combined with the narrow room, was a little too cozy for the two of us. I would go back with my husband and give the service another try (perhaps they weren’t used to being full!)
I also seriously was worried about the bath tub. If I fell, well, that’s a blog post. If my mom fell, I’d be devastated.
The other nice thing about the hotel was it in walking distance of the Eiffel Tower, which gave me plenty of opportunities for poor excuses of a “selfie”.
Nice post. Thanks
We loved the Blu, but we had two rooms connected by a small entryway which is where we kept our luggage. We arrived very early in the morning and they held and then sent our luggage up to our room while we were off sight seeing (so we didn’t have to worry about taking it up the elevator or the stairs). We also were just getting off a cruise ship so two rooms and two baths for four people seemed HUGE to us. =)
You were with your husband in one of the rooms, right? See, for a married couple, that level of cozy is okay by me!
Lol, true. =) Yes, we had one room and put the kids in another room. It was a welcome separation for all of us after sharing a room for two weeks!
Or I should say, any couple, or anyone you want to cuddle 😀
My wife and I stayed here for 3 nights last May.We also stayed on pts , were upgraded to room with a view (looks like the same room!) and had no issue whatsoever with the hotel. No question the room was tiny (chair held my bag).
As far as food, we never eat/buy food in a hotel. In Paris, omg , we walked the neighborhood each morning and found great crepes ! As far ad staff goes, our interaction was good morning and later that day good evening. We travel to see sights/people not hotels. Hotels are for sleeping, cities are for seeing . I would recommend this hotel to anyone, as long as its on pts. Their rates are a little high.