65 Reviews
Renaissance Paris Vendome Hotel
Paris|0.13km from Borella Art Design
This was our third stay at this hotel over a period of several years and I posted a very positive review in 2014. Oh, how things have changed here! I begin with the most serious of the offenses and indignities we suffered during our 5-night stay. I was entrapped in the hotel's elevator for a period of 10-15 minutes before the staff registered any response to the emergency alarm bell or my pounding on the elevator door. When a maintenance employee finally arrived, he said that the alarm bell notified the off-premises elevator service company rather than the hotel itself. I knew this was not accurate as I could clearly hear the alarm when I repeatedly pressed it. When I was finally liberated from the elevator and spoke with the on-duty manager, he apologized and said he had been in the ”back office” and had not heard the alarm. The general manager of the hotel also stated that she regretted the ”inconvenience.” I think this event qualified substantially above the level of ”inconvenience” and the manager's proffer of a fractional portion of the substantial Marriott points I had used for my stay was wholly inadequate for the life-threatening emergency that could well have been the case. In addition to this incident, we experienced an appalling indifference and lack of basic service from the staff of the hotel, including (1) absence of a bellman to assist with our bags upon arrival at the hotel by taxi ,(2) failure to deliver an additional luggage rack to the room following request of the bellman, (3) failure of housekeeping staff to make up the room for a period of two hours and after three requests when we inadvertently left the French-language ”do not disturb” sign on our door, (4) failure to respond to three or more requests for towels that had not been left by the housekeeper, and (5) recommendation by the newest and least-experienced junior concierge of an Asian restaurant that displayed a ”closed” sign when we arrived and where no employees spoke English or could provide an English-language menu. (In fact, with regard to the restaurant, the chief concierge told us the next day that she had ”never heard of it.”) We chose this hotel because we had previously had positive experiences, notwithstanding the fact that the rooms are extremely small (even with our upgrade from a ”cubby hole” to a ”shoebox-sized” room). The hotel's common area is beautifully decorated and the rooms are well-appointed despite their size. The problem with this hotel boils down to indifferent management and that is really a shame. It could be so much more! 
Very Good
124 Reviews