[Hotel Review] Paris Marriott Opera Ambassador

On By Satu KosongIn Executive Club Lounge, France, Holiday, Marriott, Marriott Bonvoy, Paris

Again, over-researching led me to this property for its offering of location, an Executive Lounge, and decently new rooms. After a somewhat underwhelming Eurostar experience, I couldn’t wait to settle in soonest to check out the city as I only had 2 full days in the city..

Address – 16 Boulevard Haussmann Paris, France 75009. Website.

Contact – Tel: +33 1 4483-4040. Email: ambassador@parismarriottopera.com.

Location – The property is actually quite well ;located, 5mins walk from the ever-popular Galeries Lafayette and its surrounding shops, a 7mins walk to the nearest Big Bus Tour stop, and kind of next to the metro (but I didn’t take). But the hotel is not sheltered to anything so tough luck if it rains.

Price – 373EUR ++ per night booked for a Superior King Room under the Marriott Bonvoy Escapes Member rate which seemed reasonable given I’d get breakfast and dinner covered at the Executive Lounge.

Pre-arrival – there was no pre-arrival email email but I reached out via the chat to ask if I can be accorded an Executive King room as my SNA did not clear. Boo.

Getting There – I arrived on a pre-booked G7 to its walkway (there is no dedicated driveway for the hotel) and was attended to at the Bonvoy Elite sit down desk which I thought was quite nice touch. The public areas of the lobby were actually quite nice!

Check In – Rather efficiently given that I had already pre-paid my room rate and I was informed that indeed, I got the Executive King room which was really appreciated.

Room – My Executive King room, sized at 30SqM on the website but felt bigger, was a tremendous space for 1pax. Plus, I liked the fact that its not cut-out and I can see everything at one glance. I can’t actually find pics that tally with this room on their website but I shall just assume it is what they told me the room type is.

It was also nice that the space starts with a little space for shoes and mirror to check your attire at the doorway.

What you get after this is a rectangular layout with everything in sight – a living area with a sofa + single seater, a work desk + chair, the (small) TV, and the mini bar. A welcome amenity of sweets, chocolates, and a mini bottle of red wine was great too.

The bedroom section is a firm king bed (the kind I like!) with comfortable bedside table space, and an ottoman at the end. This is the first hotel of this trip which sees USB ports at the bedside so yays!

The bathroom is spacious, with a single sink and plenty countertop space, an open concept toilet, and a generous standing shower space. Toiletries were thisworks branded which I last saw at New York Marriott Marquis. I also loved the heated towel rods which I always feel is so thoughtful, and liked the fact that they have a warning note about the sudden temperature changes in the shower.

Executive Lounge – located the top floor (8th floor), the lounge is a pretty spacious plot of land which I never saw too crowded during my stay. They also offer breakfast as early as 6am which is very useful for people like me who struggle with sleeping well on travels sometimes.

Seating arrangement is spread out over a rectangular layout, with the private nooks a more popular choice for couples or solos.

Food and beverages are laid out on a middle island with both sides accessible to spread out the crowd which worked well.

5:30pm-7:30pm (lounge bar until 8:30pm) Evening Snacks – this session saw a decent buffet spread of hot options (meats, veg), cheeses, cold cuts, yoghurts, desserts I only wished they had place tag to indicate what is on offer. Quality was decent too which was a treat after a busy touristy day. Across the 3 evenings, there were rotations of the offerings which was great.

Drinks on offer during this session were decent wines, with beer on tap.

6:00am – 11:00am Breakfast – this did not see any rotation and sadly quality of offering were quite meh – I only liked the mushrooms to be honest. But strong coffee always works.

It was also on the last day that I asked and found out that I can opt to have breakfast at the main restaurant, Sixtine, and so I made my way on my last morning to check out the offerings.

Food on offer was more or less similar except there is an egg station where I had my one and only Parisan omelet which was delicious by the way.

Facilities – the property has no pool so I went by the Fitness Centre to check it out – it was quite basic with choices for cardio more than anything.

Service – this trip seems to incur the wrath of the housekeeping gods because guess what, I had issues again!

So after unpacking my stuff on check-in day, I discovered to my absolute horror that there was a crumpled piece of brown clothing nestled quietly in a corner of the wardrobe. I asked for help to come take it away, and both the staff and me were mortified when we saw that it was a lady’s undergarment. UGH!

The offending piece was taken away quickly enough but later in the day after I’ve finished evening drinks, I was still feeling yucky about it and went down to the front desk and requested for housekeeping to disinfect the wardrobe. They said okay and……I waited for 45mins. In this time, I couldn’t wash up or wind down as I didn’t want to be in the shower when they come right?

(well, actually if I’d known they’ll take 45mins, I would have washed up first).

So at the 45mins mark, I reached out via the in-app chat and asked for updates. No response. So I picked up the phone and called – only to have to repeat myself again and almost pleadingly asked them to come as quick as possible. Another 15mins and a staff came to carry out the task.

So it was a total of 1 hour just sitting around waiting. And what happened to my first request made in person? No idea. I was honestly surprised that the hotel also did not offer any service recovery because I think both matters added up to be what I considered a very frustrating experience.

Check Out – Settled painlessly enough but when asked how was my stay, I gave feedback about the 2 issues which marred what would have been a great stay experience.

In summary,

Still a decent property and a nice room with a good location. I guess I would still recommend this as a spot to stay in Paris but watch out for those nasty surprises!

[Post-stay]

I filed a case via the Titanium hotline after my return, and the property promptly responded with apologies and an offer of 20,000 points which I accepted. Still a better experience than St Pancras in my opinion.

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