On my recent visit to Paris, I wanted to rent an apartment instead of staying at a hotel. I set a budget of $400 a night which got me a space that was about 10x bigger than the hotel I stayed in October AT THE SAME RATE. When traveling alone, or if I'm going to a new place, a hotel is a must for me, but since I'm fairly familiar with Paris and wasn't traveling alone, I opted for an apartment.
One thing I didn't want was someone's primary apartment they were renting out where we would be living around their things, so no Airbnb. The other thing was location. I wanted to be in the 1st, 2nd, 6th, or the 7th arrondissement. With that in mind, I found a rental company and a two-bedroom apartment right near the Opera House and Place de la Madeleine.
The space was pretty big with a large living/dining area, two bathrooms, a separate kitchen, and two bedrooms.
The decor was nice, but some of the furniture was fairly worn, like the two armchairs with cushions that sorely needed to be replaced. The place came with extras like umbrellas, and power converters both of which we were grateful to have.
One thing we loved was the washing machine and a dishwasher. We were supplied with detergent for both so we didn't need to purchase those. Knowing we had a washing machine and dryer, we packed accordingly and had more room in our luggage.
A couple of things I wish I had brought were slippers to walk around the apartment in, and bars of soap for the bathrooms. We made a trip to a store to get those right away once we realized they weren't supplied with soap to wash our hands.
There were two bedrooms, but one was HUGE...
and the other one was tiny, fitting just a twin sized bed and a wardrobe.
We made full use of the kitchen, eating breakfast in the apartment before heading out, and dinner on a couple of nights.
Dinners in were relaxing. On this night, we grabbed some bread from Maison Kayser, charcuterie, cheese, and butter from Le Bon Marche, and had a feast.
With this apartment rental, customer service was not the best, which is why I didn't mention the name of the rental company, even though we really liked the apartment. Unlike a hotel, there's no concierge downstairs to help you immediately any time of the day (or night) and if we did need anything, it was hard to get in touch with someone. They either didn't pick up the phone when we called or it took a couple of days to get a response to an email. The TV never worked, but that didn't bother us since we never watched it.
After I got back to NY, I checked the site again and noticed we were supposed to get a welcome basket and a booklet with information about the apartment and the neighborhood, neither of which we got. There's also no apartment cleaning services during the stay, but we didn't mind it since we were only there for 7 days.
If you're looking for an apartment in Paris, here are some rental companies that may help with your search:
- Paris Vacation Apartments
- Guest Apartment Services
- Haven in Paris
- One Fine Stay
Most places require a minimum of 7 days for a stay, and make sure you check for air conditioners (in the summer) and elevators since it's not a given all apartments will have them.