Hotel Jardin Des Plantes

The service charged us more than 200 EUR for the room even though the website listed the same room for 161 EUR. They say they have different prices on site and different on the website?! The rooms are so small that it is almost impossible to walk between the bed and the wall to the window. Upon arrival, the room smelled strongly of vinegar. The hotel is in a busy place where there is noise even during the night. Air conditioning set 15 degrees lower than the outside temperature is probably a Parisian custom.

I came to Paris as my graduation trip and chose this hotel to stay for about 8 days, besides the rooms, hallways, elevators and lobby all being super small and claustrophobic I had no issue with the hotel, it was clean and quiet. That is until New Year’s Eve, my boyfriend and I went out for the night and came back at around 3am (which yes was late at night but it was NYE, not a random weeknight) to find all the doors locked the lights off and nobody at the reception desk, we knocked for about an hour outside in the freezing cold, drunk and tired. We called and no one answered. Eventually as we knocked harder the glass panel in the door popped out and that’s when the worker ran upstairs to berate us that we broke the door and we’re paying for it, yelling at us, getting in our faces and physically touching my boyfriend while shouting “do not touch me”… all of this is crazy to me because none of this would’ve happened if he was doing his job instead of sleeping on another floor during his shift. As paying guests at a hotel we should never ever be locked out and unable to get inside a hotel, lock the doors because it’s nighttime, sure but then workers have to readily available to let guests in. I’ve never seen a hotel lock it’s doors and employees disappear in the middle of the night on New Year’s Eve leaving guests to stand in the cold with none of their belongings.we didn’t want a problem so we gave him the room number and last name so he could charge us for the door and went upstairs, when I was in the shower my boyfriend went downstairs to ask for towels and ended up detained by 8 police officers who were already waiting for him, threw him up against a wall like he was some dirtbag criminal and refused to speak English, screaming at him in French and therefore couldn’t communicate with him at all. Thankfully I went looking for him and was able to talk to the police and explain what actually happened and they apologized and let him go, but the entire night was ridiculous and it ruined our New Year’s Eve and our trip. Calling the cops after we had already gave him the info so we could pay for the door after it was HIS fault for locking us out of a hotel we PAID for, is unacceptable. Dealing with angry police in a foriegn countries where you have no idea of your rights, the laws, and there is a language barrier is downright dangerous. As I didn’t feel safe staying there after the incident I packed up my bags and left the next morning.Thankfully the employee I talked to the next morning was extremely understanding and apologetic about the entire incident and I even found out that the worker who locked us out and called the cops has done this before!!!! Taken the night shift and then locked people out to go take a nap leaving guests stranded on the street, and then getting aggressive with the paying customers who are rightfully upset about it. Having to pack up and leave and find a new hotel in the middle of our trip was wildly inconvenient but I didn’t want to run into that worker again so it was my only choice, the hotel reached out to appologize on behave of their employee and his actions which I really did appreciate and they didn’t charge me for the door which was nice as well but the whole night was just a disaster, I really hope that that lunatic employee was fired because it casts a bad light on the entire hotel and it’s not a bad place at all, all of the other employees were very nice and helpful, but sadly one bad egg ruins the entire place.