Cactus - Paris

Probably years siince the website pictures were taken and the decor now relies heavily on masking tape to hold things together.

Very close to Institute Pasteur where I was attending a conference. The wifi worked.

Cold, smelly (the hotel is non-smoking but reeks of cigarette smoke) and dirty. The main light in the tiny, mouldy shower room did not work. There were two power points, one high up on the wall near the shower room and the other intended for the bedside light so in order to charge my phone at night I had to unplug the light. There was a constant large puddle of water on the shower room floor, sound of dripping at night and water stains on the ceiling. The door to the room was hard to close and when I returned to my room the second day it had not been locked. On the second morning reception was closed at 7.10 so I could not get breakfast and had to wait to check out.

I liked the location it was near a convience store and the Eiffle tower about a 15 minute walk it was nice to see it at night from the road outside our hotel and for the money was kinda what I expected.

It was a bit grubby and the bathroom was small but it did the trick for me.

The hotel staff was extremely helpful in showing us how to get around. Whenever we asked how to get to a site, he knew exactly which metro line to take, which by the way was less than a 5 minute walk. That was convenient in itself because it can get costly taking a taxi everywhere. The room was in a central location and you could see the Eiffel Tower from the hotel. The room was small, but cozy and we didn't mind it considering that we were only in the room to sleep. The beds were really comfortable too. The description says that they offer Wi-Fi for a low cost, but we received it for free.

The bathroom was probably the smallest bathroom I've ever seen. If you are bigger than petite, you may have issues. I could literally use the toilet (sitting down of course) and wash my face at the same time. There was more room in the shower than in the whole bathroom so I would have to dry off in the shower, then figure out a way to maneuver my clothes on once I stepped out. Also, they say that they offer satellite tv. They do, but it's only in French. It gave the option to switch the audio to English, but it wouldn't, so I was stuck watching American shows in French. It also says that they have 24 hr reception, which is a lie. I was given a code in which to enter the building after 11pm because there was no one there and the doors were locked.

The heating in the room didn't work, breakfast was poor bread rolls and croissants. Over all this is a cheap hotel an I wouldn't recommend it.

Staff was very friendly and helpful. The breakfast was fair enough except no croissant for late arrivals. :)

I asked for a room facing the courtyard (2 months in advance). The room what we got faced to the street and it was quite noisy (to be honest I am more sensitive to this than the average). This would be tolerable but there was also terrible paint smell, it felt that they painted that morning... Next day we got one other room which faced to the yard (thanks again for the staff, who was very helpful), the noise problem reduced for the thin walls, and doors which is a basic problem in the hotels. The rooms weren't nice. The carpet and the bed cover was so dirty that I can't imagine that they cleaner for years. On the other hand the bathroom was clean, and the sheets and towels seemed clean. In the bathroom there were missing tiles, and shower door. The corridor was really depressing. It was old an rusty with really dirty carpet (no elevator), used sheets laying around in the flight of stairs (and painter equipments, but I think that's temporary). It was really overpriced for this quality (but as far as I heard it's something general thing in Paris).

The staff was very friendly and helpful. The family room consisted two double rooms (one with extra bed), which was very convenient. The location was good, about 300 metres from the metro station.

Breakfast was very simple. Croissants, white bread, jam, coffee and orange juice. After a while it got boring. No lift, and our room was in the third floor. Staircase was narrow.