New Hotel le Voltaire in Paris

Had a 2 night stay recently in May.

POSITIVES -
Room and bathroom were tastefully decorated and clean.
Location is good, near range of bars and restaurants and Voltaire metro and a bus stop.
Bed good size and comfortable.
Breakfast had good choice and was open until midday if want a lie in.
Water /Tea /coffee making available in room.
Room had tv / phone/ small safe and free wifi.
Free Toiletries and has a hairdryer.

NEGATIVES -
Thought it was rather pricey for the very small size of room. We paid GBP142 including breakfast per night, we stayed for x2 nights. Given Room 501 next to lift.
Could only walk round our bed, very limited space for movement around room and placing our suitcase. Could only lie on the bed, not freely walk round room. One of the smallest rooms we’ve ever stayed in around the world.

Don’t think it merits a 4* rating.
No mini bar.
No fridge.
Maintenance not open x24 hours a day if required. Eg - when our AC was not working.
No closed cupboard/hanging space, just mainly open shelving / open hanging rail.
View from our room was a wall and darkish courtyard.

Now the very disappointing fact.
Our Air conditioning DID NOT work during our stay, so the room air was still and stuffy due to its small size, hence we had an uncomfortable x2 sleeps. It was one of our booking requirements, so it’s a “breach of contract” as it’s mentioned on the booking website and we didn’t have it.

We reported it on numerous occasions to 3 different reception staff , 1st was soon after checkin, and 2 other staff including the nice housekeeping man for followup.
( I’ve not mentioned their names in this review )

We Checked in early evening. When we rang the receptionist on duty and 1 of us even went to the lobby to tell the same lady, she said
NO ONE was available to come up to look at it. She said she’d get it working from downstairs but she had no luck. Said she was all alone so couldn’t leave the desk.She said she’d log the fault.

Next day , someone must’ve looked at it whilst we were out, and it was confirmed by her that yes there was something wrong with the thermostat, hence it still didn’t work.
We were advised to put it all in an official email the night before checkout which we did for the manager/ owner.

At checkout early afternoon, both receptionists on duty said they’d followup with the owner/ manager. She ( name withheld) did reply after our return apologising and saying she’d give us a discount of another stay and that it was working before our stay. Didn’t find her very empathetic , not apologetic enough nor very interested in caring customer service. We had earlier suggested some compensation as a good will gesture/ inconvenience caused as we don’t intend staying with them again. Any decent hotel would be apologetic and own up to a fault/ maintenance issue, not make us out to be the guilty party.

Now our followup emails chasing the latter are being ignored by the hotel.
Even the travel agent on our return rang them, and the lady he spoke to said it says on their file, that there there was NOT ANY problem with the AC. He said he can’t do anything more on our behalf.

If it’s fixed now, or if it was working previous to our stay, all well and good, but it WASN’T working during our stay and despite bringing it to the attention of 5 staff, it still wasn’t working on our checkout. They couldn’t move us , as the rooms were all taken.

Based on the above surprising and very disappointing experience, certainly unexpected from a 4 star hotel, or the hospitality industry, it has resulted in us giving this negative review.

If the AC was working during our stay, why on earth would we say it wasn’t and would we go to such lengths and wasting time and energy alerting so many staff and asking for someone to mend it?

!!! Warning to other travelers, personal property went missing from our room during our stay !!!

Unfortunately I cannot recommend this hotel. During our stay cosmetics went missing from our room. In the same weekend another hotel guest also had things go missing from their room too.

Both cases were reported to hotel management, but despite the seriousness of the issue, the management were not surprised by it. When challenged about what they were going to do about it the hotel manager was unsupportive and indifferent about trying to resolve it. Despite the seriousness of the issue, she implied it was our fault that cosmetics were not placed in the safe?!?

Although it was reported to the police, there is an open case with the police in the 11th district of Paris police commissariat, to date no compensation has been offered by either booking.com (the platform we booked the hotel on) or by the hotel.

This ruined what was otherwise a wonderful weekend in Paris.

UPDATE 13.01.2025. Today I finally received a reply, far to much time it should have taken for such a serious matter. Like other responses to negative reviews the response from new hôtel group is polite, but ultimately empty and worthless. The fact that the spend more time on their image on social media presence than solving real the real issue is highly disturbing.
Again I must repeat there was also another guest who had property go missing AND the there is an open case with the Parisian police!

On their website new hotel group prides its self on the heritage of a family home. In my home at least I can be sure my property will be where I left it when I return. I guess it is just nice marketing words that should not be taken seriously.

It very much seems that despite the polite words suggesting otherwise new hotel group really has no interest in serious customer concerns and profits come before customers. Very sad indeed!

This whole matter has been very disturbing and ruined our trip.If you indeed mean what you say that you remain reachable will you put this right for both the other hotel guest and ourselves who have suffered, or do you only offer more empty words?

Update 15.01.2025. Despite claims full faith in their staff, this if the the review that I found during my research is correct it would mean ours was not an isolated incident. On the zenhotels review site for this hotel one can find a 1 star review by a verified traveler who had electronic items go missing from their room. According to their review all staff were questioned in front of them but the items were not returned. Honestly what was the hotel management expecting, it was highly improbable that they would get a signed sealed confession!

Update 18.03.2025.
Nearly three months later and still no compensation. Despite their own written feedback to this review "We are, and will remain, at your disposal, Sir." they were clearly ware that that was never going going to be a satisfactory response to property going missing of that was a demonstrably false statement with only the intent to white wash reviews.