Hotel Bienvenue review - has the trend for hipster hotels reached its limits?

It’s getting difficult to keep track with all the new Paris hotel openings! Hotel Bienvenue is a brand new one, which opened on June 29. I was going for a quick stopover so decided to check it out.

A refurbished hotel in a convenient location

Hotel Bienvenue is another of Adrien Gloagen’s outposts after Hotel Panache and Hotel Paradis. This one is a lower price option with single rooms starting at 114 euros.

It’s an easy 15 min walk from Gare du Nord (all downhill!) and another 15 min from the Opera and the big department stores.

I really liked that they kept the former hotel architecture and antique features such as huge mirrors, tiles and the reception and breakfast bars. They even kept the staff and the hotel keys which still bear the name of villa Fenelon the former hotel.

More work need to be done to deserve the “welcome” in the name

As a result one can’t say that the staff makes an effort to welcome you or being friendly. There is also no info in the room at all. So this is all quite ironic as “bienvenue” means welcome in French.

The common areas are nice and airy.

The courtyard in particular should be lovely on a nice day with all the planted trees.

Unfortunately it was pissing rain when I went despite being end of June.

The breakfast room was bright and spacious. And I really liked the colourful chairs and the blush pink “banquette”.

Breakfast was good value for the price with cold meat, cheese, cereal, fruits, bread and pastries. The coffee and hot water are in a hot jar, which again adds to the sense of not specially paying attention to service.

Not quite convinced by the refurbishment

The room I had was the entry level double bedroom. Decor was fine, the lampshades in particular had charm and the black mirror in the bathroom was different. However you really get the sense that apart from these couple of touches the refurbishing has been done on quite a basic level.

I also found it cheap to have towels that have been used for years, clearly the ones from the former hotel again.

Hotel Bienvenue verdict – not sure!

Now, it was only day 2 of this hotel’s life so maybe they rushed to open and all these touches that make a hotel a bit more special and one you want to return to will come.

At the moment I cant help thinking that it’s more of an opportunity to quickly bank on the trend for hipster decorated hotels rather than for a desire to really create a hotel experience. Hotel du Temps had much more of that individual style and approach.

That being said this is an easy option for a short stay in Paris.