The best thing about this hotel was the location - very close to the Arc de Triomphe and with many restaurants nearby.

I booked the Travelzoo offer which included breakfast, river cruise, bottle of wine and an upgraded room, if available. When I booked I requested a balcony, but on arrival we were given the room number with no indication as to whether this was an upgrade or a standard room. I enquired as to whether it had a balcony and was told that it did not. When we opened the door to the room, it was so dark that it needed all the lights on in the middle of the day. The window looked onto another room a few feet away and to see any natural daylight it was necessary to look up to the left to see a small shaft of light between two buildings. I returned to reception to ask for another room, but was told nothing else was available. I would have happily paid extra for a decent room with an outlook.

On further inspection, I realised that our room had no chairs, just one dressing table stool. The room was very small and an L shape and to view the television you had to sit on the bed. The bed had a bedcover which was turned right down exposing a beige blanket. Cushions which matched the bedcover were in the cupboard. Not once during our stay was the bed made up into "daytime mode". It was always turned down ready for bed with the blanket exposed. When we returned to the hotel for our final evening the bedcover had disappeared out of the room completely. Perhaps they thought we were going to put it in our luggage!

The bar and restaurant were closed and will not re-open until 23rd August. We were not notified of this either when we booked or on arrival. The only public area available to us was a small lounge area at the side of the small reception. As there was no seating in the bedroom this was particularly disappointing. I would never knowingly book a hotel without a bar or restaurant, even though there were restaurants nearby.

Staff, particularly the concierges, were reasonably friendly, but nothing more than I would expect in a small hotel. The breakfast buffet was good, but I would not have paid 25 Euros per person for breakfast. However, I do see that at the moment at the top of the Trip Advisor entry there is a "free breakfast" offer.

All in all, after reading other reviews, I felt let down. The hotel did not appear to us to be particularly busy and we were surprised to have been told that no other rooms were available. If you get a good room perhaps that and the location make up for the shortcomings of the public areas of this hotel, but really this seemed to me like a small average hotel with a breakfast room and I cannot see why it rates so highly on Trip Advisor.

I have stated that I would recommend this hotel, but this would be dependant upon having a balcony room with a view and on the bar and restaurant facilities being available.