Intercontinental Paris Le Grand By Ihg

“Classic hotel”

I can not remember how many times I have stayed at Le Grand Intercontinental Paris. The first time I stayed was well over 25 years ago. Located near the Opera House and intersection of many main streets, near the airport bus stop, department stores, the hotel location is excellent. Since the hotel… more

I can not remember how many times I have stayed at Le Grand Intercontinental Paris. The first time I stayed was well over 25 years ago. Located near the Opera House and intersection of many main streets, near the airport bus stop, department stores, the hotel location is excellent. Since the hotel is old, many rooms have different layouts. Some rooms even have odd layouts by today’s standard. This time my room has the toilet door facing right the room door, and the toilet has no sink in it. You have to walk through the room to wash your hands. Having said that, my superior room was considered spacious given a central Paris location. The room fitting is updated and has smart TV. The best part of the hotel is the breakfast at the restaurant Cafe de la pax. The food choice is wide and food is of good quality. Service people is helpful and polite. We did dine at Cafe de la pax for dinner for one night, but the food was average in dinner. It was not bad but there is much room for improvement. The escargot and the ravioli was good, but the scallop, which is pretty easy to cook, was below average. Front desk, concierge and house keeping staff are all efficient and have good smile.

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“Charming hotel with a few drawbacks”

The Le Grand is in most ways a pleasant stay. The location is great, the staff are very friendly and polite, and everything has an air of old fashioned luxury. That being said, there is room for improvement. The upgrade that comes with being Ambassador and diamond was to a classic room with balco… more

The Le Grand is in most ways a pleasant stay. The location is great, the staff are very friendly and polite, and everything has an air of old fashioned luxury. That being said, there is room for improvement. The upgrade that comes with being Ambassador and diamond was to a classic room with balcony. Balcony may be a bit of an overstatement, since it’s just a ledge with a locked door. However the light from the door is nice. A slightly better upgrade would have been nice, though, I haven’t really had a lees-than-junior-suite upgrade at any IC for the last year, but that’s me being spoiled, and I booked the cheapest room, so it’s fair enough. (This is one of the most expensive IC’s around, so it was still around 450 euro for the night). No the basics: The room layout is very strange. The TV is placed so as to be almost unusable, since it’s at a horrible angle from the bed. There IS actually room on the wall directly across from the bed, so it seems a rather strange choice. The coffee maker is placed on the desk - but mugs are hidden in a cupboard on the other side of the room…? The bathroom has separate shower/tub, which is nice and expected at a 5 star hotel, however you do kind of expect the toilet to actually… Well, you know, flush. This is an old building, so the plumbing is probably somewhat dated, but still… One major problem that is common in old hotels; the rooms aren’t soundproofed to any degree, so there’s noice from… Well, everywhere. But some of this could be fixed by making sure the door to the hallway at least was soundproofed slightly. Staff walking by with a cart sounds like they’ve basically rolled it straight into the room. There’s also a train running by - well, I assume it’s a train from the sound - which gives off a low rumble every ten minutes or so. In other words - if you sleep lightly, you may have issues. The lounge, accessed by my Club IC membership is quite nice, with a steady stream of (good) champagne and an extremely friendly staff. Food was pleasant as well, and almost makes up for a full meal in a pinch. The gym is good, and well equipped. All in all, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, however the overall charm and feel of the hotel is what still makes it worth a stay.

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“Good location, inconsistent service”

Our stay had its ups and downs but was overall decent. We stayed on points for 4 nights in early January 2025 in a “queen classic balcony” room. I’m platinum elite, in case that matters to anyone reading this. The hotel itself is beautiful on the inside. Location is great, 15-45 minutes walk from… more

Our stay had its ups and downs but was overall decent. We stayed on points for 4 nights in early January 2025 in a “queen classic balcony” room. I’m platinum elite, in case that matters to anyone reading this. The hotel itself is beautiful on the inside. Location is great, 15-45 minutes walk from virtually all the major sites. The Eiffel Tower was one of the farther walks we made at about 40 mins. Service at check in was friendly and quick, and we got a small upgrade from a queen classic to a queen classic balcony room with a slight view of the Eiffel Tower. The room itself was very nice as well. It had a very small balcony connected to the main room and another accessible through the bathroom. The bed was made up of two twin mattresses connected side by side, but we didn’t notice while sleeping on it. Pillows were nice and sheets were decent, but we’ve had nicer at other Intercontinental hotels. The bathroom was medium sized. Shower had low water pressure, and the door wasn’t large enough to consistently prevent water from being sprayed out (which seems to be common these days for some reason). Towels were a bit scratchy, but nothing too bad. Service during the rest of our stay following check in was inconsistent and overall not very good. Our Nespresso pods were replaced just once on our four night stay. We had to ask for them three times. The used pods were also never removed from the machine. I could be wrong, but I think there were even some left over from a prior guest. Our water (a bottle the hotel refills itself with purified water) was also inconsistently refilled. At turn down, pillows and blankets were placed at random different spots each time. Not a big deal, but just another example of inconsistent service. Finally, and most concerning, we came back to our room one evening to find our door open and unlocked. There was a “we’re servicing your room” sign on the door; however, no one was in the room and hours went by without anyone coming by to finish cleaning the room or even to retrieve the sign. It stayed there until the next morning. It seemed to us someone was cleaning the room, left, and just never came back. We have no clue how long our room was left open, leaving anyone who walked by with access to our valuables. Equally concerning, when I called housekeeping to let them know this had happened, the person who answered the phone was dismissive and not concerned at all. The response I received was “what do you want us to do?” Overall I would consider staying here again on points for the location, but it would not be my first choice and I would not pay the full cash price for a room.

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