Hôtel le Relais Saint-Germain

The staff provides perfect service, while the rooms are beautiful, spacious, and cozy. The excellent breakfast and central location near metro stations and parking are also praised.

We loved our stay at the Hotel Relais Saint Germain. The staff was just lovely and so helpful. We stayed in one of the suites, which was beautiful and very comfortable. The bed was great, the comforter was amazing (it was January, after all), and the bathroom great. We had a shower and a bathtub, and the plumbing was great. The hotel is eclectic with different decor in the rooms. We were able to see into some of the other rooms as they were being cleaned, and the decor was different from ours. Each room is named after an author, and there are books everywhere. Since we're book people, we loved this aspect. Breakfast was in the restaurant affiliated with the hotel (Comptoir du Relais). Breakfast was very good and fresh with fabulous bread and croissants, ham, thick yogurt, and assorted fruits, granola, and coffee/tea. The hotel was impeccably clean. There is a lounge area next to the main entrance area where you can sit and have a drink. I spent some time there reading a book with a glass of champagne. The hotel has an elevator. It's very small, and really only fits 2 people. However, it is a modern elevator and worked very well. The electricity and HVAC in the rooms is modern. We loved our stay and the location is fabulous. It's only 1-2 minute walk to the Odeon metro station, and there are several great restaurants and cafes walking distance. It's very close to the Luxembourg Gardens, the Seine, Notre Dame, the Pantheon, and the Latin Quarter. Great room, great staff, great location.

I feel obliged to report that the hotel did not meet our expectations based on our memories of staying there 8 years ago. Overall it felt a bit tired in need of a refresh. I reserved 2 rooms, one for two adult sons and was told that room had a double bed, not two twins and couldn't be made up as two separate beds and there were no other options. I had specified I needed 2 twins. The hotel still uses actual keys - but only one per room - and the last guest had left with the key to our room, so we had to wait for them to find a replacement key. I was not comforted that someone out there had a key to our room. The bed was hard and not particularly comfortable. Shampoo was provided, but no conditioner. I was told they would look into that, but they didn't. (The shampoo wasn't a combination shampoo/conditioner.) The door to our room had been painted without the brass name plaque on it having been removed, so paint was sloshed all over the edges. The small elevator hall light was motion activated, so only went on after you entered the hallway. The public reception area is very small and tired, it could really use a refresh. Departing guests who checked out before leaving the area had to leave their luggage lined up in the narrow hallway and everyone coming in and out had to walk past the luggage. The breakfast experience wasn't as enjoyable as one would expect. The tables were very small and crammed next to each other. Deliveries of produce etc. were carried through the breakfast room, extemely close to our table. The servers were somewhat surly. Dirty breakfast dishes were piled up on the counter immediately above the breakfast buffet table. I'm sorry, but this wasn't a 4 star eperience. The singular best feature of the hotel is its location.