Apart’Hôtel Citadines

Alright. Are you sitting down? This is quite a long tale. I will try my best to be brief, but please note, I can never keep a review under two paragraphs. :-)
I stayed at this establishment, Citadines Place d’Italie, five years ago during a beautiful time in my life when I was a carefree college study abroad student in Paris. It is important to realize that when you are studying abroad with a major university, you may have between 20 – 30 students living in the same apartment/​hotel complex. Of course you will be treated a bit better since the college is paying such a hefty fee, nonetheless, I did experience some issues with not having toilet paper, rooms not being cleaned, rude employees, slow internet when we had papers/​research homework etc. I think the toilet paper was our biggest issue. When you have 4 girls living in one apartment… you need more than ONE roll of toilet paper a day. I had instances where we would ask for another roll and they would say we were using too much. Some of us resorted to going to the grocery store to buy our own, which never should have happened. I don’t know what I was thinking, perhaps I was bitten by a nostalgia bug, but I decided that I would go back to Paris and stay at the Citadines once more. I mean, it wasn’t TERRIBLE, and it’s in a good area only steps away from the Metro. (We’re talking three separate Metro lines! Great stop.) I was sure to book my reservation VERY carefully. I know how these people operate. they’re tricky ones! Some rooms have SOFABEDS while others have BEDS. I was CERTAIN not to choose an option that said «sofabed» because good Lord, I do not want to sleep on a sofabed if I’m travelling thousands of miles away from home spending thousands of my hard earned dollars. Once you book, that is it. There’s no going back. But I was sure that all would be well because I did not choose the dreaded «sofabed» option.
I arrived at the CItadines, excited to be back in Paris after five years. I walked in, got my room key, and went upstairs. First thing I noticed: They’re doing renovations so three floors are closed. You also hear banging all day long. Not a problem since you’ll probably be out all day. Second thing I noticed: I groggily walked into my room, mind you I had just been in an airplane for 8 hours, and saw something I DID NOT want to see: A tiny room with one sofabed when I asked for a double bed room. I went back downstairs and told them of my dilemma and they were downright rude to me. They informed me that the sofabed opens and there are two beds inside. I DON’T CARE. It’s still a SOFABED. I did not reserve that so I demanded a room change. They said it was impossible because they were completely booked. I told them that they did not deliver and I wanted to cancel my reservation. They basically laughed because that would mean I would lose every last dollar because they take the fee for your entire stay. Basically, there was no way out. I either lost close to a thousand dollars or I just dealt with it.
I had no choice. I went upstairs and pulled the sofabed apart. I noticed the bed was filled with strands of hair, some leaves, and dirt. It was appalling. I was so exhausted – just dusted it off and fell asleep anyway. An hour later, I was awoken by someone ringing the doorbell. I opened the door and they said they heard I had trouble with the room. They called the manager and said I could go down and speak to the manager to get a new room. Okay, great! So I scurried downstairs and spoke with the manager who – get ready for it – basically reiterated everything that was just told to me in an even more rude tone of voice. I politely asked why he would bother calling me downstairs just to tell me what I already knew? Horrible. Horrible service. Our stay lasted five days. After day three, we realized that our room was not being cleaned. No new towels, no beds made, no garbage taken out. Five years earlier, my room was made every single day. I wasn’t sure why this changed. I went to ask about it. Turns out: ROOM SERVICE COSTS AN ADDITIONAL 9 EUROS A DAY. So if you stay at the hotel for less than 6 nights, your room will be a total mess. An extra slap in the face came when I saw the manager who called me over, asked for my room number and said, «We have a room that will be available for you but you’re checking out tomorrow…»
Sorry for the long review but I want to prevent people from staying at this hotel. If you’re looking to be treated the way you DESERVE to be treated, please stay elsewhere. It’s not worth any bit of the savings – you could probably stay at a Novotel for a similar rate. Get a nice room with a real bed, free room cleaning, and employees that are excited to have you there. YOU ARE THE CUSTOMER. The customer is always right and should be treated as such. You deserve only the best when travelling. Where you stay should be your home away from home, not a place that makes you upset.