I’ve stayed at the Park Hyatt Vendome Paris about a dozen times over the past dozen years, taking a couple of years off during the pandemic. It’s an absolutely lovely hotel, but also a bit of a controversial one amongst frequent travelers.
- It’s expensive. Rates at the Park Hyatt Vendome Paris were around 1300 euros per night while I was there. That’s $1400 per night.
- It doesn’t seem worth that much! Twenty five years ago I remember being shocked by $600 – $800 room rates for overwater bungalows on Bora Bora. At that price, most people expect truly bespoke service. But service in French Polynesia isn’t really top notch. The same holds for top hotels in Paris. They command a lot of money, and guests often wonder what they’re paying for?
- It’s not one of the best hotels in Paris but it is about the best hotel that you can book on points with a major chain.
In other words, it is a very nice hotel made accessible by points. The cost during my stay was 40,000 points per night. And I was able to confirm a suite upgrade at the time of booking. That meant I was getting a ~$2,000 retail room, or around 5 cents per point.
To be sure, paying out of pocket I would never be spending so much so it’s not like I was actually displacing cash at 5 cents per point in value. But it got me a much nicer hotel than I’d have considered, making it very accessible, even if 40,000 Hyatt points per night is hardly cheap.
I also did something that some will find completely wasteful. Over the years I’ve had inconsistent luck at best checking in early, and we were going to reach the hotel before noon. So I reserved the night prior to arrival (another 40,000 points!). It’s one thing just with my six year old, though honestly even that makes it nice to ensure we have a room. But with a nine month old the last thing I wanted was to arrive and not be able to go to the room.
On this stay, we wound up with a two room suite. Most suites are really just larger rooms (even slightly ‘upgraded’ suites, a level above the base suite which is a low ceiling room). I only had this on one previous stay. While the room was probably just around 550 square feet, it had two bathrooms and two large closets and a (quite small) bedroom and separate living room. It felt much larger than it was, which was perfect.
I really like the bathrooms at this hotel. They’re large even in the small rooms. The closet was off the bathroom, which had separate shower and tub. And some find this strange, but most rooms have a sink and mirror in the shower. Some guests find that odd, but I kind of like it. It’s certainly good for shaving in the shower, if that’s your bag.
Here’s the other bath.
I always get an interior courtyard view. The only time I ever had a street view was on my first stay (not in a suite, from before points bookings could be confirmed in suites).
A highlight for Hyatt Globalists is breakfast, which can be taken in the restaurant (normally 60 eur per person) or via room service.
During the week restaurant breakfast ends at 10:30 a.m. On holiday, coming from the states with time change, the first morning that would be rough! But breakfast is offered via room service 24 hours a day, and regardless of when you order breakfast it is taken off of the bill (they do distinguish between breakfast and non-breakfast items for this). So there’s no rushing for a cut-off!
We ordered room service immediately when we got into our room (since we’d paid the night before, breakfast was included as basically lunch) and each morning thereafter of our stay. So that meant ordering as late as noon, and as early as 5 a.m. on our last morning.
On arrival they brought us champagne and two different kinds of cookies, plus balloons with my daughter’s name on them. They’d just taken her passport, so knew her name though perhaps they had it from a past visit as well. Along with a crib for my son, they brought bath and other items for him too.
Evening treats were brought twice out of five nights which was odd, another point for lack of consistency.
Service at the hotel is good but not consistent. Housekeeping service is twice daily and comes immediately when called, but they don’t remember preferences even when they say they will (e.g. promising regular extra water – this was delivered the first day but never automatically thereafter).
The lowest level of the hotel (“0”) features the spa, gym, and meeting facilities. All were usually empty during our stay.
The hotel’s concierge is very helpful, and I find it useful to have them make bookings for me in advance over email. Even for restaurants and activities with online functionality, that doesn’t always work and foreign credit cards aren’t always taken. Getting them to deal locally with things for me is nice and they’re good offering help and reminders during the stay.
Some will disagree but I love the scent of the hotel. I like the neighborhood as well, with plenty of walkable restaurants. It is not directly on any metros but an easy walk to three.
I thought this was an important note to keep in mind, from a casual dinner our first evening.
Corporate rates here are 300 eur a night which is the real cost of this property. Not many are paying full price to stay here so it’s not a 2000 eur suite when you can get a real 5* property for that price. Even 40k pts is a ripoff unless it’s peak summer months.
It’s way past its prime.
Had you confirmed a two room suite beforehand, without paying a cash copay? Or did you roll the dice?
I realy don’t like the low ceiling suites.
I’ve visited Paris many times, stayed at many of the Marriott and Hilton options in the city center, and I prefer this Park Hyatt over them.
Most recently stayed at the Park Hyatt in October 2024–was very pleased. Paid 45K/night for a $1,600 room, so a little more than Gary described, but still felt it was good value (+3 cents per point redemption). Had room 633, which had decent views of the skyline. Was only a Hyatt ‘Explorist’ at the time, so no ‘free breakfast,’ but the team there was generous enough to provide early check-in, which is always nice after a redeye from the States. The hotel and rooms are showing some age, but the bones are still good. A highlight is the newly renovated one-star Michelin restaurant, Pur. You’ll want reservations for that one.
I’m not even going to bother with Marriott, because they’ve changed/devalued so much since I’ve stayed with them there. However, with Hilton, if you have the points or an expiring free-night certificate, the Hilton Paris Opera (somewhat nearby this Park Hyatt), or even the Waldorf Astoria Trianon Palace at Versailles (a bit farther from the city), may be worthwhile, but you want to make sure you breakeven on the redemptions. These days, Hilton points seem to be worth 0.5 cents per point, and the annual fee for that Aspire credit card (which earns the certificates) is $550. Always good to keep in mind.
Paris has gotten trickier the past decade as the smaller hotels/apartment rentals have gotten much more expensive. That said it’s flat out stupid to use this many points to stay at this hotel. Who even has this many points to burn? Save them for a resort . As with any city, the name of the game is location. You won’t be spending that much time at your hotel — especially in a big city like Paris. Once you get decent comfort (3 star is fine), pick a good location at a good price.
Read somewhere that this hotel has a really high award booking %, which pushes the cash rates up, as most are not paying it and point users feel they are getting a good value. I would think this is really a $700/night property tops, so you’re getting 1.7cpp, too low in my opinion.
@Peteco — That’s a fascinating idea. It really depends on what you are comparing.
By location, for instance, the Park Hyatt is mere blocks from the Ritz Paris (you know, the hotel where Diana, Princess of Wales stayed just before she died–not to be confused with Ritz-Carlton), entry-level rooms there go for at least $3,000/night.
By category, five-stars, many call themselves this, but few reach that standard in-practice. So, is Park Hyatt actually ‘five-stars’? Do you get assigned a ‘butler’ like at a St. Regis or a Raffles? No. Ok, well then, which hotels are the actual competition?
Let’s consider cash price: Other than the Park Hyatt, for ‘branded’ hotels in the +$1,500/night range include: Shangri-La, Rosewood, Mandarin Oriental, Barriere Foquets, The Peninsula, and Four Seasons. Nearly all of which you cannot use points on. Then, there’s the next category up (+$2,500/night), like Cheval Blanc and the Ritz Paris.
So, maybe you are correct: Park Hyatt is absolutely over-priced if paying cash, and artificially high, maybe because everyone just uses points. So, who are the ‘suckers’ paying cash, then?
So jealous. Had this booked last year for our 10 year anniversary but wife changed her mind. Maybe next time around.
For this price, I expect to have the ability to light a cigarette while in my room. It’s Paris. Gauloises are a symbol of freedom and, yes, I have the Gallic attitude of not caring one bit about “second-hand smoke”. This is why I have a lot of status in Wyndham and Choice and a decent number of points in Motel 6’s frequent stayer program. To hell with Hilton Honors, Bonvoy, and World of Hyatt. Give me my nicotine and I’ll give you my custom.
@ Gary — A suite at the fully renovated InterContinental Le Grand is better with an outstanding Club InterContinental, including champagne all day and complimentary breakfast in the restaurant and/or lounge. We typically pay ~$525 + tax or ~75,000 points per night and receive a complimentary RA suite upgrade which is pretty similar to 40,000 points + Globalist suite upgrade at the Park Hyatt. However, with no club lounge and lots of snootiness and gaudy decor, I doubt we will stay at the Vendome again. What are those creepy dead people on the walls and did DJT order all the gold fixtures?
@Gene — That’s a decent recommendation! I’ve got IHG points to burn and Platinum status with their Chase Premier card, so why not for next time. One certainly doesn’t need to spend $1,500-3,000/night to have a nice stay, even in Paris.
@gene; grest for RA,s but the I C grand has the tiniest entry level rooms II e seen for points. Some are only 17sqm.
Hyatt’s suite upgrades can be confirmed in advance.
@Gary – You mention that the concierge helps you with reservations and activities. I, for one, would be highly interested in those. Nothing as elaborate as a full review but some bullet points with a few sentences worth of description would be helpful for those like me who haven’t visited Paris in a great many years. I suspect other readers might feel similarly.
@1990 – upthread it’s noted corporate contracts are paying closer to 300 euros a night. So that’s probably a decent chunk.
Similar at some Four Seasons properties…big banks/law firms/consulting have contracted rates well below the public price.
Kind of like long haul biz class…you’d be surprised at how low some of the last seat available premium cabin rates are for really big customers of an airline on heavy biz routes like NYC-LHR.
@1990 – Peteco is absolutely right. These chain hotels, especially Hyatt, are overinflating the hell out of those cash prices in hotels where the majority of stays are award stays. I remember the first time that I mentioned this on Reddit people thought that I was some crazy conspiracy theorist.
Then Frequent Miler published their article on this subject for the Alila Ventana Big Sur, another favorite of the Hyatt fanbois, and they confirmed with a manager that like 70% of all bookings there were award stays. And that was 2 years ago; it would not surprise me if that percentage is much higher today. I would imagine the Park Hyatt Vendome is not very far off.
As for who are the “suckers” paying the inflated cash rates, it is mostly high-end business travelers whose employer either pays directly for them or refunds their trip. From a business traveler point of view, you either stay at a nicer property at a lower rate or at an inflated property that refunds you points and status benefits later on during your personal travel. If your employer is reimbursing 100% of the bill, which one are you taking?
As far as Paris goes, I stayed recently at Hyatt’s Hotel du Louvre and felt it was pretty good. Much cheaper than the Park Hyatt and in my opinion, a better location. I was also granted early check-in for 2 rooms and I have zero status with Hyatt. That was a life-saver for my parents. Gene is also correct, IHG has a few sweetspots too depending on your preferences.
@Greg — Thank you for your insights on this. Have not been as involved with the backend of corporate travel, so it’s fascinating to hear. I imagine those hotels and airlines do enough business with those firms that it makes sense in the end—like, overall, they net big profits anyways, even if the per room/seat rate is lower. I mean, after all, these are businesses, not charities.
40k points is a bit steep when you have so many other more reasonable options in Paris. 40k is what you pay at Allia Big Sur because you have no other options <$2k.
I splurged here 3 nights and happy I did. The hotel accommodated the conference room so I could taste wines with my supplier.
The kosher breakfast was amazing and although not the same level as not kosher, it’s a whole new level to get amazing kosher food in room .
Best was concierge, I mentioned that I had an early flight and I didn’t like the coffee in the hotel and they sent somebody to the nearby coffee shop and got me coffee which was brought to my room in the morning and they only charged me the cost of the coffee