Intercontinental Paris Le Grand

"This is a great hotel in a good area of Paris (trust me it is not better anywhere else in the city, as I drove and walked all over this city over the years). The rooms (classic/cosy) are rather small for any american standards (not sure how the hotel passed the 5 star requirement on this aspect alone). Normally, if you have IHG elite status, you can expect an upgrade to a larger room (so you don't have to deal with the claustrophobie) . But whenever the hotel is full for some sort of an event in the city, you may get nothing besides what you booked. This is rather dissapointing, even iHG diamond or IHG ambassador members may not get their guaranteed upgrades. Staff is usually responsive at the front desk; housekeeping it varies quite a lot. Breakfast and restaurant staff is fairly accomodating. The breakfast buffet for such an IC hotel is rather slim on items and also in their variety from day to day and overall dissapointing-bread especially is rather old, stale and from the day prior and lacks variety, in a city that has endless bread varieties. Had better buffets in the city elsewhere."

"Great location and an impressive lobby. Breakfast at Café de la Paix is a real bonus. Rooms are quite small and could use a refurbishment—our shower had no hot water and we had an early checkout. Housekeeping could be better too - not sure I’d stay again."

"Beautiful hotel but showing its age. The room was nicely arranged and bed was very comfortable, but the room had a musty smell that did not go away even with the AC running. The breakfast is really wonderful, with a wide variety of offerings, all very delicious. Also the lobby bar service is excellent."