The best hotels in Paris are not the five-star ones

My love affair with Paris hotels did not get off to a good start.

Travelling solo, I was looking for somewhere dirt cheap, so I got a recommendation from an acquaintance for a hotel that a friend of a friend owned.

No-one does hotel elegance quite like the French ... Le Meurice.

I didn’t quite understand that “hotel” could mean a tiny attic atop a six-floor walk-up in a bad neighbourhood near a railway station, where the porters sat in a room off the lobby gambling all day and night, while all sorts of nefarious people came and went.

At least it was “romantic” in a sleazy way. I imagined myself as the writer Jean Rhys, who specialised in beautiful novels about depressed young women living in attics in cheap Paris hotels.

I’ve forgotten a lot of good hotels, but I’ve never forgotten that really bad one. Sometimes the worst hotel experiences make the most vivid memories.

Since then, writing hotel reviews, I’ve stayed at most of the Paris legends, among them The Ritz, Hotel de Crillon, Le Meurice, the Plaza Athenee, Le Bristol, Le Royal Monceau Raffles, the Peninsula, the Shangri-La and the venerable Hotel Raphael.

The Verriere Bar at the Ritz in Paris.

What are they like? Mostly, as you would imagine, very grand, with maids who are dressed better than you are and concierges who can be both as attractive as movie stars and judgmental as magistrates. I always feel as if I must be on my best behaviour when staying there, which I suppose is a good thing, even though some of their famous guests, notoriously rock stars, are often on their worst.

Eye-wateringly expensive in every detail, from laundry charges to cups of tea, they are designated “palace” hotels for a reason.

While these places are remarkable, my heart belongs to the more intimate hotels, places with warmth and character that inspire an emotional connection, even if that means enduring the claustrophobic old elevators that ascend glacially, wonky shower attachments, or ceilings so low you hit your head on the beams.

In 2023, Paris had 1600 registered hotels, most of them three-star. You could say it owns the concept of “small, charming hotel”.

The rating system means that three-star hotels must have an ensuite bathroom. They must have a bar and an elevator if they have four or more floors. They’ll have public spaces, and many have air-conditioning. For many travellers, this is the sweet spot where price meets comfort.

I’ve seen the inside of a lot of small hotels, some more luxurious than others. When I lived in Paris in the 1990s, I would regularly snoop around my Left Bank neighbourhood looking for places to recommend to friends. I found most were happy to show me a room.

Many of the hotels had idiosyncratic imperfections but they were easy on the budget and, depending on your tolerance for noise, bad plumbing or grumpy concierges, perfectly cosy.

Rooms tend to be tiny – often as small as 15 square metres. As long as you can get a good night’s sleep (beware of rooms opening onto market streets) most travellers aren’t spending their precious days in Paris in their rooms anyway.

Huffy concierges aside, the vast majority of small hotels offer friendly, personal service, especially if they’re family-run.

With so many hotels and so much variety – the terrible, the quirky and the lovely – theoretically, it should be easy enough to find a place to stay that’s a combination of good value and charm.

This year the cheap and charming Paris hotel is a unicorn. Many of the reasonably priced hotels have already been kicked into the $400 to $500 a night category due to our weak Aussie dollar, double or triple that with the Paris Olympics upon us, as even the affordable categories of hotels are stratospherically expensive for summer. (So are Airbnbs if that’s your thing.)

Even in a year without an influx of 15 million extra visitors, I’d give the same advice for hotel hunters – “location, location” doesn’t always mean the historical centre.

Some of Paris’ most interesting neighbourhoods exist outside the crowded Latin Quarter and Marais, easily connected by the Metro system. Try south Pigalle, Menilmontant, Oberkampf, Canal Saint-Martin, Charonne, Montorgueil and Batignolles.

You’ll find the same cafes and boulangeries as Saint Germain (and they’ll be cheaper), and you’ll also discover beautiful parks, old passages, burgeoning art scenes, young designer boutiques, markets and food streets where locals shop.

Just avoid anything in an attic across the road from a major train station.

9Now’s Getaway goes to France takes a closer look at the wonder of Paris and France’s diverse regions. (9Now is owned by Nine, owner of this masthead). Watch here.