Luxueux appartement Paris proche Tour Eiffel Champs Elysées La Défense

😢: The apartment itself is generally good, broadly consistent with the photographs, and located in an excellent area. Parking is advertised as available, but on arrival we were asked to pay an additional €30 per night. Access is through a vehicle lift to the basement. With our car I could not safely enter without someone guiding me from outside. This arrangement is clearly better suited to small cars. Street parking nearby is also difficult. Although our Booking.com reservation showed the price as including taxes and charges, we were later asked to pay €5 per person per night as tourist tax, including for our two minor children. Only after we referred to the applicable French and Puteaux rules, which exempt minors, was the charge for the children removed. We did not receive the access instructions until the additional charges had been resolved, so we waited in the car with the children for about an hour. The keys then had to be collected from a shop approximately 1.5 km from the apartment and returned there again at departure. We were also asked to leave between 10:30 and 11:00, although the listing states checkout until 11:00. Ventilation was poor. There are portable air-conditioning units, but with the windows and doors closed the bedrooms felt very stuffy at night. The most serious issue was ants. We had seen a previous review mentioning them and initially assumed it was an isolated problem. Unfortunately, there were ants throughout the apartment. A box of children’s cereal left on the table overnight was full of ants the next morning. We also found ants on the children and in their hair. The apartment otherwise matches the listing reasonably well, although there is noticeable wear and some maintenance issues. The property and location are good, but the management process, additional charges, inconvenient key arrangements, poor ventilation and especially the ant problem significantly reduced the quality of our stay..

😊: Good location, secure, new appliances, spacious.. 😢: The basic air conditioning - this apartment is south facing and has modern windows so gets VERY VERY hot. Despite the protestations of the owner on another review it is not clear (certainly not on the review we read on booking.com) that the air conditioning consists of 2 free standing units and one air cooler (which is not air con). The free standing units need venting outside and the extension wires were inadequate (and despite a promise that we would get one on our first day nothing arrived). One point to note is the WhatsApp based responsiveness was excellent in terms of time but this one action we requested was not carried out . Now it may well be the case that building regs don’t allow quiet built in air con units but it would be nice to know ahead of time as our days and nights were accompanied by the roaring noise (80-90 decibels I would guess) of air conditioning units which need external ventilation and in addition we had to resort to using towels to stop the mosquitoes from the ‘garden’ getting in as no proper external ventilation unit has been bought nor has the ‘garden’ been maintained. The other major issue is the main bedroom has mould next to its en suite bathroom and smells. This could be a hazard and needs looking at. In the main the apartment was clean although as there were 3 of us we could cherry pick from some of the pillows as a few had marks and hadn’t been washed properly. I have just reread the old reviews and unfortunately for us the only comment on air conditioning appeared last week as just being aware of this would have changed our perception and made us reconsider our original booking. I also note the owner seems to have catty responses to many criticisms. I think they should just focus on renovating this apartment and advertise it properly. If they want to service by WhatsApp that’s their prerogative but they should deliver on promises..