Disappointing flagship property: Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris
“Life is too short to wait hours for a hotel room to be ready”
It's fall, and right before I could even realize it, I was sitting in another plane flying towards France's capital. This time I was lucky and made it to the centre in about 35 minutes, approximately half of the time it took me the last time. Paris traffic will always remain a myth to me, and I never know exactly what time frame to plan when departing from Charles de Gaulles. Anyways, the primary purpose of the trip was a stay at Le Bristol, however, the night before I had the chance to visit one of the most celebrated Park Hyatt properties in the world. Namely, the Park Hyatt Vendome Paris, also known as Park Hyatt's flagship in Europe. Being a total fan of the Park Hyatt brand due to my various stays in Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul – I was up for the most surprising experience. First things first: life doesn't always come as planned. Again, I learned that not all hotels selling rooms for around 1k per night are stellar ones.
Having reached Paris downtown around noon, I was dropped off in front of the main entrance. Not a single person cared whether I am a hotel guest or any make-up artist trying to get to my client. So I showed up at what looked like the front desk (indeed it was the Conciergerie) and were friendly reminded that the front desk is in the corridor's back. Did they help me with the luggage? No. So I walked down to the front desk to check-in.
Interestingly it took quite long for the semi-friendly front desk attendant to find out that the room is not ready yet and I should just come back in an hour. Not an issue at all since it was only 1pm and standard check-in time is 2pm. Meanwhile, I had a business meeting that took me around 2 hours, so I gave them an extra hour for the room to get ready. 3pm and I was told that they just called the housekeeping (wondering what they did at 1pm) and told them to clean the room. At least they were releasing the secret: I was allocated one of their most wonderful suites.
To be honest, even me as a regular traveller, this one sentence can work wonders, and I was about to leave for some shopping at the nearby Galeries Lafayette. It must have been Black Friday, or Parisian just go crazy with shopping when during non-pandemic times, you couldn't even move by yourself in one of Paris biggest department stores. I definitely wasn't in the best mood for a hotel inspection on this day. Or maybe it was the situation at all because when I came back at 5 pm, they tried to tell me once more that the suite wasn't ready—no need to go into details to tell you what has happened. I asked for the manager and tried to get a shower and a bit of privacy after five hours of waiting for a room! And I think I am not alone here with a totally overheated reaction. It wasn't my day, and it definitely wasn't Park Hyatt Paris' best day.
After all, I was shown the suite, which was – well – basic, by European standards. Needless to say that compared to a standard room or a so-called Junior Suite at this Park Hyatt, my suite was vast. There was a spacious living room with sofa and armchair as well as a writing desk, a bedroom with a comfy king bed that opened up towards the bathroom which was really cool with a Turkish bath and a walk-in shower as well as double vanities and open wardrobe space. A separated toilet was situated next to the entrance. I guess what the front desk lady described as "most wonderful suite" is related to the balcony, which was a roof with railing overlooking Place Vendome. I have to admit that the views have been outrageous, but it wasn't the most romantic terrace I have seen so far.
Mentioning service here, the housekeeping was excellent, and the hotel tried to resolve first problems by offering a large etagere with pastries and a bottle of champagne. The treats did their job, and I finally enjoyed the stay until I had to face the next issue on the following day. My long-time-no-seen friend Ines joined me for breakfast at the hotel, and we were asked to have a seat in the lobby lounge where they set up for breakfast too since their main restaurant was already full. Unfortunately, not a single server was allocated for the lounge area, so we sat there lonely waiting for any server to take our order. It took astonishing 32 minutes until my friend walked up to the supervisor and complained loudly in French. The breakfast quality though was outstanding, and once we had a server (our neighbours had the same problem and once we had a server, she just ignored our neighbours), we couldn't complain anymore.
I truly wanted to love the Park Hyatt Paris, but this time, not even the outstanding design could come up for this total disaster of the hotel stay. Considering the extremely high rates and the terrible service, unfortunately, I have to conclude that I cannot recommend Park Hyatt Vendome. If you want to make sure your stay in Paris is an unforgettable one, better head to one of the Classics such as Le Bristol or Le Meurice. In regards to this, Olden but Golden totally tells it all.
I was staying at the Park Hyatt Paris for business reasons, however all the above mentioned hasn’t been influenced and expresses my own opinion.
