My spouse and I stayed at the Hilton Paris Opera for two
nights in late August 2017. We booked our stay online using the Hilton HHonors
website. We booked a non-cancellable and non-refundable rate in order to save
some money on our room. We checked in online the day prior to our stay and
selected a room that suited us; note that as Hilton HHonors Diamond members,
when we checked the room availability at the earliest time we could check in,
we found that the available pool was narrower than when we checked again in the
evening, at which time we were offered an upgrade.
The Hilton Paris Opera is located on the Rue Saint Lazare,
adjacent to Gare Saint-Lazare, so if you are arriving or departing by train at
this one of many main Paris stations, this hotel provides a convenient
location. (Although we departed by train from Gare Saint–Lazare to Bayeux, we
arrived in the city by plane at Charles de Gaulle Airport; the hotel is about a
30-minute drive from both CDG and Orly.) The hotel is located near many shops (including
Galeries Lafayette and Le Printemps)
and cafes/restaurants, and within walking distance to the Jardin de Tuileries,
Place de la Concorde, Louvre Museum, Musee d’Orsay, and Musee de l’Orangerie.
The train station contains two grocery stores where you can purchase food and
beverages.
The Hilton Paris Opera was built in 1889 as the Hotel
Terminus in order to accommodate international visitors to the Exposition
Universelle. The hotel was managed by the Concorde group until the Hilton chain
refurbished and reopened it in 2015. The hotel originally contained 500 rooms;
however, today, it offers only 268 rooms (including 29 suites). The property
offers a fitness center, elegant soaring-ceilinged lobby bar/lounge Le Grand
Salon, Le Petit Lobby Bar, sidewalk café Le Pain Quotidien, second-floor breakfast
restaurant, and executive lounge. We ate breakfast in the executive lounge one
morning, and in the breakfast restaurant on another. The lounge was
well-outfitted for a simpler and faster meal than the extensive selections in
the restaurant. We visited the lounge for happy hour each day, enjoying the hot
and cold snacks and complimentary alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. At
other times of the day, only non-alcoholic options are available in the lounge,
along with some kind of small snack, in addition to the candy buffet that was
always available. (We have seen this type of serve-yourself candy display table
at weddings and other events, but never at a hotel!) The lounge is located on a
sort of half-floor between the ground floor/lobby and the second floor; no
guest rooms are on this floor. It offers seating options including tables and
chairs, banquettes, and a front lounge area with a sofa, chairs, and a TV.
The Hilton Paris Opera offers rooms in many categories,
including superior, deluxe, executive, and suite. Room sizes in square
feet/meters are not noted online, partly because room sizes vary slightly and
also because rooms are small! Superior and deluxe rooms can accommodate only
two guests; there is no room for a rollaway bed, which you could have in a
slightly larger executive room (plus then you would have lounge privileges). When
we arrived, the room we had checked into electronically was not available, so the
desk manager assigned us an even better unit: a 2-room suite. Our living room
contained a sofa, armchair, coffee table, and side table, along with a TV
console that held the minibar. To enter the bedroom (and beyond it, the
bathroom), we walked down a short hallway that contained an open closet unit,
including an electronic safe. The bedroom was compact but held a bed with a
small nightstand on each side, lounge chair and small table, and desk and chair
above which was a wall-mounted TV. (If it were up to us, we would move the desk
and chair to the living room, where it would be more useful for working as well
as make the bedroom less cramped. The black-and-white tile bathroom held a
single sink, toilet, and shower (no bathtub). All three rooms had windows that
opened onto the interior courtyard. Décor features grey, white, and yellow
colors. In the bedroom, a Paris-themed wall accent formed a sort of headboard/frame.
We enjoyed our stay at the Hilton Paris Opera; the hotel
location was great, our suite was comfortable, and staff was pleasant.
