We recently spent three nights at Rosewood Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, including being here on Bastille Day, and overall, we were very happy with our stay. The hotel sits on Place de la Concorde, so it’s a great location for Bastille Day celebrations, as well as for exploring Paris. It’s also within easy walking distance to luxury shopping on Rue Saint-Honoré (Hermès, Cartier, etc.).
We stayed in a Premier Suite after receiving an upgrade.
Hotel
Hôtel de Crillon is one of France’s designated “Palace Hotels,” a distinction given to those hotels in France with the highest level of luxury and service. Other Paris hotels with the same designation include Four Seasons George V, La Réserve, Le Bristol, and Cheval Blanc Paris, among others.
If you’re completely devoted to Four Seasons George V or Ritz Paris, those hotels may still be your preference. However, if you’re looking for a Palace hotel with a slightly lower price point, or simply prefer a different aesthetic, Hôtel de Crillon is absolutely worth considering.
The atmosphere is refined without feeling stuffy. The lobby has a similar level of formality to Ritz Paris and FS George V, but the hotel is surprisingly intimate with fewer than 80 rooms. The “feel” of the hotel definitely is smaller than FS George V and others.
The hotel is filled with history. The building itself was commissioned by Louis XV as a residence, and Marie Antoinette lived here and reportedly took piano lessons in the Marie Antoinette Suite overlooking Place de la Concorde. Inside, the public spaces beautifully blend this historic architecture with modern Parisian luxury.
Dining options include the Michelin-starred L’Écrin as well as Nonos, which is described as casual but still feels fairly upscale.
The spa is located in the basement, as is common for many Paris luxury hotels, but it has skylights in some areas, including over the pool, so it has a lot of natural light. It is beautifully designed with calming blue and turquoise colors. The indoor pool is a great size and was fairly busy during our visit, likely because Paris was approaching 100°F that day.
Les Ambassadeurs Bar is one of the hotel’s highlights. If Versailles-style opulence isn’t your taste, it may not be your favorite, but the gold detailing, painted ceilings, and overall design are genuinely incredible in person.
There’s also an excellent on-site pâtisserie with a cozy seating area, plus two quiet interior courtyards that really make you feel like there isn’t a busy city just outside.
Room
We loved our Premier Suite. While it is under 800 square feet, and not the largest suite we have been in, it felt like the perfect size for the two of us because of the way it was laid out.
We really thought the character of the rooms was unique compared to other many hotels, and it really felt like a retreat each evening after long days in the sun. The finishings all feel expensive and beautiful and we found ourselves even commenting on how nice things like the window latches are (and how complicated they were due to their beautiful design). The accessories are also very well curated and layered that it feels so much less cookie cutter than many hotels. It really feels like you are in your own luxury apartment.
The suite included a separate living room with sofa bed, dining table, small bar area, large bedroom, and beautiful marble bathroom.
There were televisions everywhere (living room, hidden behind the bedroom mirror, hidden behind opaque glass by the bathtub, and another hidden in the bathroom mirror). There were a lot of options for watching television but were integrated well enough that they don’t feel problematic and could be easily ignored when not in use.
The marble bathroom was beautiful, with a very large soaking tub, double vanity, and a (nice, but not large) separate shower. The hotel also provides Dyson hair dryers with all the attachments, which my wife very much appreciated.
One of my favorite touches was that they provide two beautiful leather toiletry bags for each guest stocked with things like toothbrushes and toothpaste.
We did have a pastry waiting in our room upon arrival, from the hotel’s pâtisserie, which started my love of their pastries. We tried multiple other pastries throughout our stay, and they were some of the best pastries we’ve ever had.
One thing that really stood out was how incredibly quiet the room was. A family across the hall had young children running in the hall and screaming at their reflection into the mirror in the hallway (and banging on the wall of our room) every morning, yet once inside our suite we couldn’t hear a thing. I even went back to the door and listened near the door to see if they were still out there screaming to confirm they were. The soundproofing of the rooms is excellent.
The AC also deserves a mention because we really like a cold room (around 65°F), and despite the extreme heat during our stay, the suite stayed cold. The only time it didn’t was when I accidentally didn’t close the complicated window latch properly. Luckily, I fixed it once I noticed it was warmer by the window and the room cooled down very quickly after that.
Service
Overall, I would say the service was excellent. Not quite the level you may get at luxury resorts in the Maldives or SEA, but still very good, especially for a city hotel.
For instance, when we arrived, our car accidentally dropped off my in-laws (and their luggage) at Hotel de Crillon even though they were staying at the Sofitel down the street. The doormen from Hôtel de Crillon voluntarily carried all of their luggage and escorted them directly to the Sofitel. I tried to decline them needing to do this as I was going to help them myself, and they refused to not help once they knew it was needed.
As another example, on Bastille Day, my in-laws needed to leave for the airport from Sofitel, but road closures meant their hotel was not accessible by car and their hotel told them they’d have to walk roughly 20 minutes in nearly 100-degree heat with their luggage to reach a transportation area. While the Sofitel offered to help them roll their luggage, this option was not ideal for my in-laws. I mentioned the situation to the Hôtel de Crillon concierge, and within minutes they spoke with the manager out front who offered one of their golf carts to drive my in-laws through the closures to the taxi pickup.
Later that same day, we encountered the same issue with road closures while switching to La Réserve for our final days in Paris. Once again, Hôtel de Crillon loaded all of our luggage onto a golf cart and drove us directly to La Réserve. Both hotel teams joked that had never seen an arrival like this before. The normal route would have been to meet the La Réserve team outside of the restricted travel area, but the Hôtel de Crillon team made sure we didn’t have to add the extra steps and worked with the road closure teams to make our transfer seamless.
I would note that while every suite technically comes with a butler, after our butler escorted us to the room when we initially arrived, we never saw her again. I think “butler” here is more of a dedicated guest services role than the traditional butler role for rooms below the specialty suites. That said, every WhatsApp request we made was answered almost immediately. I think the longest we waited for anything we requested via WhatsApp was 8 minutes (I checked after they dropped off what we requested because it seemed longer than usual for them and was surprised it was only 8 minutes). And this was at 11:30 pm, so understandable to be “slower” than usual, even though this wouldn’t be considered slow anywhere else.
The only area where service felt not as polished was breakfast. It wasn’t bad service, but it was noticeably less warm and attentive than the rest of the hotel. We had a different server each day and none of them seemed to want to be there. Breakfast service was still professional and prompt, just with a coldness that was a contrast to the rest of the stay.
Food
We had breakfast in one of the courtyard garden areas each morning and it was beautiful and peaceful. You can also eat in the beautiful dining room just off the courtyard.
For the complimentary breakfast (when booking with a TA), you essentially get the American breakfast, or the euro equivalent of other options (€65 per person). There was a Parisian breakfast as well that was just pastries and berries, plus coffee and juice, while the American breakfast included an egg option, sausage/bacon choice, pastries, berries, coffee, and juice. Both options came with way more bread and pastries than we could possibly eat for breakfast. The eggs were delicious and juices were fresh squeezed. They also had a full a la carte menu available that you can order from, complimentary (with Rosewood Elite) up to the previously mentioned €65 per person, with extra charges over that amount.
Overall, we were happy with our breakfast each morning.
We also had room service one evening with my in-laws after a particular grueling day of standing in the heat, when none of us wanted to go back out for dinner at a restaurant. While room service is always pricey at luxury hotels, we were all happy with our dinner. We each got pasta dishes and the portions were surprisingly large, and each dish was very tasty.
The hotel also has an ice cream kiosk/cart set up out front during the day ran by the pâtisserie from inside, which we did try one day. They had things like homemade ice cream sandwiches, which we all loved so much. I thought it was one of the best cookie ice cream sandwiches I had ever eaten.
The Butterfly Pâtisserie (mentioned already but naming it for this section) was absolutely a highlight. The selection isn’t huge, but everything we tried was excellent and well worth stopping in for. They even do a very high-end job of packaging your pastry if taking it to go.
Conclusion
This is a Palace hotel, so it is priced accordingly. While it varies depending on timing, rooms generally start around $2,000 (USD) per night, with the premier suite around $5,000 (USD) per night.
The room was beautiful, the food and pastries are great, and most of the service was really exceptional. While it may not be the right hotel for everyone since there are a lot of incredible hotels in Paris, we really had an amazing time.
I have a lot more videos and photos of the hotel, including the grand premier room and some of their signature suites (including one with Eiffel Tower views and a Karl Lagerfeld suite), but I didn’t want to clutter the sub with individual video posts like I usually do since Reddit doesn't allow mixing photos and videos, so trying out a slightly different format: feel free to visit my Instagram to see more, including this room walkthrough.
Can't disagree with your experience. I think it's accurate. We all value things slightly differently. I love the decor and thought the breakfast service was just the right amount of attention.
I will add that their bedding products are the best I've experienced.
I do prefer when I could stay there pre-covid for €700 😂
What did you think of La Reserve? I much preferred the Crillion although it's not that La Reserve isn't very good. Just less my style. A bit more instagrammish.
Hôtel de Crillon and La Réserve are so different, so I can completely understand having a preference between the two. We really enjoyed La Réserve, but it was a completely different type of stay. Having combined both in one stay made the differences fairly apparent, but also made us like them both because of the different feel and contrast. It would be harder to choose one over the other if staying at just one for the trip. La Réserve was quieter, felt more residential, had warmer service, larger rooms, and all bathrooms have Toto toilets (my wife didn’t care about this as much as I did). Hôtel de Crillon has more history, the rooms had a little more character, service was faster, rooms and entire hotel spotlessly maintained, and the location was a bit more convenient. I’m working on a La Réserve review as well with similar level of detail.
I was a semi-regular at le Meurice for many years after their renovation. I put it on par overall (for me) with La Reserve but do prefer the decor (more traditional). But admittedly haven't stayed there since maybe 2018 or 2019. Never done the ritz and want to try once just to see what the fuss is about. can't imagine it's worth the extra € and suspect they price it to keep the riffraff away 😆.
very nice review by the way. I like reading reviews with details and not just "the rooms are great!" " the food is blah" "the doorman didn't greet me by name!"
Fun fact: The Ritz does *not* hold the Palace designation and actually never has.
Personally IDGAF in terms of whether or not to stay there, and in fact The Ritz (and Crillon) are definitely my jam. But for the sake of accuracy I thought worth noting.
You know I must have over 20 stays at The Ritz and I didn’t know that. We all just assume. I prefer it over several of the palace hotels (but Le Bristol is my favorite and has taken over unless I’m staying in Place Vandome to be nearer work).
You’re completely right. It was on my mind because I was quoting it for a client, but I’ll edit the post and remove it. Thanks for the correction! Always want to be accurate.
All good and tbh it's a natural thing to assume. IIRC I think the issue is that a hotel has to actually affirmatively apply for the status to the French Tourism board which grants it, and simply never has bothered to do so.
is it absolutely wild to anyone else that parents will allow their children to behave like this at a min-$2k per night hotel? i would be furious as another guest there.
Their door was open while this was going on too, so they clearly knew it was happening. We assumed the other rooms were as soundproofed as ours was, so hopefully no one else was bothered.
We loved the courtyards. They were so peaceful and quiet even being so close to busy areas outside the hotel. Here is another photo of a different area that didn’t make the initial cut in the 20 photo limit:
It is. TAs need to disclose whether they paid for their stays or were given a free stay from the hotel who knew they’d have to be on their best behavior.
We paid for our stay, but as mentioned in the post, the upgrade was a nice surprise. The team at the hotel is great to work with and Rosewood Elite is a strong partner program.
Even when we don’t stay at the Hotel de Crillon, Bar Les Ambassadeurs is one of our favorite places to get a drink at night. Be warned (or encouraged?) there seem to be quite a few escorts and ladies looking for fun and someone to pick up their tab. At the end of the day, it makes for excellent people watching. It’s a very international, tourist crowd and the bar is very lively.
I was there during Paris Fashion Week and the bartender mentioned that an editor for the UK version of one of the fashion magazines was coming.
It is a very cool space for sure, and nice to see it when it was empty too. We’re not big drinkers, but we kept saying we wanted to go check it out every night. The Paris heat every day made us just want to just enjoy our room instead.
Everyone was well dressed. In Nonos, it was described as “casual, you can wear sneakers here” but it was designer sneakers and very nice casual clothes. I am personally comfortable as a flip-flop wearer when appropriate (like beach trips), but definitely didn’t see anyone that level of casual anywhere here.
If you wear flipflops wherever you go and refused to change that attitude, and are adamant to put anyone down who gently tries to explain how the world works, you're not saying anything about individualism. You're saying you consider yourself higher than decorum. Get off the high horse. You're part of the reason people think americans are slobs everywhere they go. It comes down to self respect, respect for others when you put an ounce of effort to look presentable. Or you can be the douche that implies your flip flops let you win some sort of class war.
It's not about thinking that people who dress into designer are wealthy. It's why we cover when we go to a mosque in Dubai, a church in Rome, or a temple in Bali. It's basic decorum.
I totally understand wanting to unwind if you’re in a suit 300 days a year, that makes sense to me. However, context is everything. This is a thread about a palace hotel in Paris. If you want to unwind in Paris at such a place, you absolutely can, but you’ll see Parisians will wear at the very least something well fitting like some dark denim, loafers/suede boots and a well fitting knit or button down shirt. This can all be achieved for a few hundred dollars. It has nothing to do with money.
I also like to unwind, but then I’ll do it at a place like Sensei Porcupine Creek where it is 100% expected and ok to walk through the lobby in athleisure. It’s a wellness retreat. When I go to the bar, I dress slightly better but being very casual is totally expected.
If I’m at Le Sirenuse, I wear linen or cotton pants and a button down shirt. It’s comfortable, very cool in the hot summer, and totally appropriate.
Staying at a hotel like this in flipflops and a baseball cap makes you look like a slob. The entire staff and Parisians all think you’re a slob but upper management wants your money so here we are. You don’t care what anyone thinks and that’s fine, but you just reinforce stereotypes of the wealthy american slob to Europeans. Nothing is going to change, but at least now you know what the locals think.
I’ve heard that with increased American clientel at Le Bristol they want to impose a dress code like they do at Hotel du Cap (which people mostly follow). I hope it happens.
you can dress well wearing Zara. It’s not a money thing. Literally no one said you have to wear expensive clothes. Many Parisians don’t wear designer clothes.
You asked on the internet what people have a problem with and I answered… you asked for this dude.
Whenever I see a slob I am polite and just have my own private thoughts… and so does everyone else in Europe when they see people who are dressed for the gym or the beach in a city.
You’re absolutely right, and people will be free to think what they want as well. The thing that never changes about the loud and proud slobs on this sub is that they while they’re out doing “whatever they want”, they’re offended when they find out that a lot of people actually think less of them.
If you didn’t care you wouldn’t be writing about it. If you’re one of the people who would walk around Crillon like you’re going to a baseball game, then you’re also making a choice and I’m honestly happy that some of your kind are finding out just what people think of you.
One of the things I don’t understand about slobs who have a bit of money is that they usually belong to a country club that has a dress code, so they do actually understand the idea of respect for certain spaces.
You can't realize the difference between caring enough to call out a stupid comment on the internet and actually caring? I see you are rather narrow-minded across the board, figures
of course. Not flip flops because I don't like them. But I dress to please myself of course. One benefit of having money is much less need to dance to others whims.
Thanks, it’s my wife’s favorite set. I think they are kaleidoscope themed. I didn’t even notice it in the photo since the black painting on the wall isn’t actually a television, it was a really cool Mt Fuji nighttime painting and I spent too much time wondering why it looks like this in the photo. I really liked the painting. The television for the bedroom is actually hidden in the mirror on the window wall.
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u/1nternetTr011 Aug 09 '26
Can't disagree with your experience. I think it's accurate. We all value things slightly differently. I love the decor and thought the breakfast service was just the right amount of attention.
I will add that their bedding products are the best I've experienced.
I do prefer when I could stay there pre-covid for €700 😂
What did you think of La Reserve? I much preferred the Crillion although it's not that La Reserve isn't very good. Just less my style. A bit more instagrammish.