Hotel La Serre Paris

I've traveled all over the world but I've never seen such a terrible hotel as the La Serre. It's small but that is not why I am telling you not to stay there. The place is filthy. I have pictures up on a website I created showing the filth oozing from the plumbing behind the toilet -- the mold on the walls -- the shower "repair" that consisted of sticking some contact paper over the moldy tiles -- the carpet outside the bathroom with matted filth on it -- the street noise that ends at 2 AM and starts up with the garbage trucks at 5 AM -- the non-functional TV -- and the drunks that live in the hotel entryway. I have pictures of all of that and you can see them here: http://sites.google.com/site/hotellaserreparis/

The location is good but there are other hotels in the neighborhood that would be much nicer.

We chose this hotel was for its great central location. The rest were forgiveable.

Hotel La Serre has friendly, helpful staff and that can be easily told by the way they handled my reservation on the phone. There was even a validation when I met them in person.

We were right about the hotel's strategic location being just minutes away from the Eiffel Tower and the metro nearby (Ecole Militar). What I love about the location was Rue Cler itself: cobbled stones and all sorts of specialty shops: from fine wines and cheese, fruits, books, chocolates and souvenir shops. And of course, the fact that you can find an open cafes at 2 or 3 am.

So there we were, after the warm reception at the hotel lobby. We got squeezed inside what i call the 'solovator' (elevator for one).
The halls were dark and narrow, the floor was making rat squeaky sound as we walk gently to find our room. While inside, finally, my disappointment was not that huge. It was not really bad. There was just an old bed, but with crisp fresh linens at least (which is important). So I guess, it should be okay.

The room was warm, and though everything else feels old, luckily the room we have has new windowsills and newly-renovated toilet & bath. It sparkled in contrast with the room ambience in general.

It's easy to know that the building is really old due to poor insulation of the room. You can practically hear people next door laughing (thank goodness, they're happy) and talking. And thank heavens we were really tired to bother about anything.

We paid Euro100 (no breakfast) a night and my Parisian friend told me it was expensive for this hotel, which I agree. Normally their rate is 70-75. It was a peak-season and there was scarcity for hotel rooms at that time, so we had no choice.

Nonetheless, if improvements planned anytime soon, im sure this hotel can be made nicer.