HOTEL REVIEW: HOTEL 9CONFIDENTIAL PARIS
1920s glamour meets modern, minimal design at this four star Le Marais establishment
After nearly three weeks of wine-tastings, beach-hopping, and sight-seeing in Europe, my boyfriend and I decided to extend our trip by one more day. Can you blame us?
Here’s what we knew: we were going to fly out of Paris, we wanted to revisit Le Marais, and we didn’t want to stay at Experimental Marais again. So, I went to my favorite hotel-booking app, Hotels.com, and started looking for accommodations in the 3rd that were clean, modern, not too expensive, and had personality. The intersection of those filters led me to Hotel 9Confindential Paris. With a few clicks (or taps because I was on my phone), I secured a room.
Below I will go into an overview of the hotel, room review, service assessment, and value eval(uation). Finally, I will answer the question of whether I would stay at this hotel again.
HOTEL OVERVIEW
Hotel 9Confidential Paris is only one of the 9Hotel Group properties. With 11 hotels across Belgium, Italy, France, Switzerland and Portugal, the group aims to craft sustainable yet fashionable hospitality experiences. They source their products locally, work with eco-friendly vendors, provide seasonal buffet options, and are a Green Key labelled hotel group. Contrary to other green hotels, their devotion to sustainability doesn’t hinder the overall hotel aesthetic or comfort of your stay.
The lobby and common spaces of the 9Confidential demonstrate a neutral, restrained modern design style. They’re cozy, functional spaces. Nothing out of the ordinary, but well-executed. The rooms, however, speak in an entirely different voice. They’re feminine, quirky, and a touch phantasmal.
ROOM REVIEW
In lieu of room numbers, the chambers are marked by a retro name and a ghostly portrait of a woman with it. As we opened our door beside the photo of Dolores, I was pleasantly surprised by the attention to detail in the room. There were multiple design elements that felt imaginative, singular, and artisanal. The foyer was wrapped in a pink-hued mirror. The gilded towel hooks were hidden in a thin alcove that cleverly utilized an odd canal. The walls appeared to be hand-painted frescoes. All in all, its design achieves what the Experimental Marais's didn’t. It’s quirky and filled with personality, yet it is bright, clean, and freshly-remodeled.
One of the only things stopping this hotel from being the perfect place for a girly shopping retreat is the space (or lack thereof). My biggest concern when booking hotel rooms in Europe (yes, even bigger than AC), is space. For me to enjoy a trip, I need to be able to open a bifold check-in size suitcase in a room and still have space to comfortably walk around. This hotel, unfortunately, does not pass the BST (bifold suitcase test).
It does, however, provide a comfortable bed, a quiet room (we stayed above Rue du Roi de Sicile and didn’t hear a thing), and security. You are required to tap your key in the elevator whether you’re going up to your floor or down to the lobby. While it is a bit annoying and unusual to have to tap your card to take the elevator down, it did make me feel safer knowing that only people with active key cards could enter/leave the hotel.
SERVICE ASSESSMENT
Aside from the small rooms, I’d say the second biggest thing hurting this hotel is the quality of service. Only one person can be found on the ground floor of the hotel: the receptionist. There’s no concierge, door man, or bellhop. Even the bar right next to the check-in desk sat unmanned the whole time we were there.
My boyfriend and I entered the hotel with a(n embarrassingly) large amount of luggage. The receptionist made a very weak offer to help us after we had finished lugging everything over to the elevator. While I don’t expect the receptionist to handle baggage, I would appreciate someone being there to facilitate this, especially since the lobby is covered in a layer of thick carpet.
In short, if you require or appreciate good service, this is not the hotel for you.
VALUE EVAL
For our mid-June stay, I secured our 9Confidential room via Hotels.com 11 days before our scheduled check-in date. Below is the cost breakdown in USD:
Superior Double Room
1 night x 1 room - $392.71
Taxes - $39.27
Total - $424.35
Its location is certainly the biggest selling point; I can confirm it’s what made me book a night! Just around the corner from a myriad of trendy shops, boutiques, and art galleries, this is the perfect place for young visitors, devoted shoppers, and curious creatives.
Considering the unbeatable location, the room quality, the service, and the price, I’d say the value is quite fair. I wouldn’t want to spend that much more for the room we stayed in, but I’m happy we tried this hotel out.
WOULD I STAY THERE AGAIN?
It depends. This hotel is not an ideal place to stay if I’m going on a month-long tour of Europe with more than two suitcases. On the other hand, if I’m doing a weekend stint in Paris and want to be close to all of Le Marais’s fabulous offerings, it’s perfect!
Hotel 9Confidential is located at the following location:
58 Rue du Roi de Sicile, 75004 Paris, France
Contact details can be found below:
Phone: +33 01 86 90 23 33
info@9hotelconfidentiel.com