Best place to rent an apartment or larger place (i.e. airbnb?)

Sure, not my preference for various reasons, but an option. I prefer Booking.com, just better upfront information and saner policies.

But what are you looking for? A larger place where each family can make independent reservations? A place that will accommodate all under one reservation (for what number? 12? 20?)

Paris, in June, will be tough, finding a hotel room for 4 tougher. You likely will need to go the apartment route, but people finding apartments in roughly the same neighborhood.

Booking.com will let you put in the number of rooms needed, number of people, even ages of the children, and offer at least some choices. If you are not aware, you need to indicate the number of people, it is not like the US where you get a room for two and a family of 4 (or 5) can stay. As for hotels, you might look at the bigger chains you are familiar with, Holiday Inn, Marriot, Hilton, and then European based chains like Ibis, Mercure, Sofitel, Hotel F1. They do tend to have larger rooms that would allow children to stay in a room with parents.

Your search is probably being affected by the crackdown on short-term rentals in Paris, which began several years ago. I believe a lot of places available in the past are now off the market. Not having researched lodgings in Paris myself, I cannot comment on whether your budget is reasonable.

The suggestion to look at booking.com as well as other sources is a good one. You will get an actual address on booking.com (not on Airbnb), and the filters are helpful. The reviews are generally reliable, because you cannot leave a review on that website unless you've stayed at the property. You don't have to book through booking.com; you might find a lower rate elsewhere.

One way to keep costs more moderate is to stay in a less-central location (a topic often discussed here), but there are trade-offs to be considered, because that may mean more time and money devoted to transportation.

Be careful about air conditioning; you won't find it everywhere (especially in apartments), and you might run into a heat wave in June. Another potential issue is the elevator situation; they aren't available in all older buildings, and if present, they might not serve all the floors. This is something to think about if some of your travel party have mobility challenges.

Thank you so much @Paul and @acraven for the replies! Very helpful. I hadn't considered booking.com. I will explore that option. Great flag on the air conditioning, too. That would have been an unwelcome surprise. Appreciate the advice!

Personally I would be afraid of booking.com I've seen several "scams" reported on there and the support from booking makes the AirBnb non existent support look good.

AirBnb is problematic in Paris. They have really clamped down on it and owners can only rent for 90 days a year unless they meet a lot of regulatory requirements. Locals appear to be up in arms about what AirBnb is doing to Paris and are reporting things so...

My solution has been to go with reputable apartment rental agencies. I know from working with at least two of them if something does happen to make your apartment unavailable they will not just abandon you at the last minute. The two I have used are Guest Apartment Services and Vacation in Paris. Guest Apartment Services are much nicer but of course they cost more and they only rent for weekly periods starting Sat/Sun. There is an office that is available if you need help however. Vacation in Paris has more variety in the quality but even the cheaper places have been clean and safe. For some apartments a manager meets you to let you in and for others they just mail you the keys and instructions. There is a manager you can call if you have a problem (I have had to call them and the response was good)

There are several other agencies such as Paris Perfect or Cobblestone that I believe others on the forum have used.

Another suggestion is apartment hotels. Citidines has a nice one in 13th that's right by a metro, clean and very affordable for example.

We have used VRBO/HomeAway a lot for 2 decades for US & Europe travel with only one place not up to snuff. And VRBO took care of that fairly rapidly. Have used booking.com for a decade in US, Europe & Japan, also with only one glitch that was solved immediately.. We have friends that have sworn on using AirBnB that are now swearing at AirBnB. Stuff happens in travel. I suspect that ALL of the accommodation outfits staff to the bare minimum level, so are not well equipped to solve problems instantly. Since Paris introduced licensing, availability has dropped & costs have climbed. Suggest looking into suburbs adjacent to Paris and very near a train station. Not everybody that works in Paris, lives in Paris.

@Carol and @Larry42 - great insights! I'm somewhat new to travel planning and definitely outside my comfort zone with booking anything besides a regular hotel, so really appreciate the recommendations for different options.

definitely outside my comfort zone with booking anything besides a regular hotel,

Aparthotels will give you a 24-hour staff, the possibility of buying breakfast, but also a small kitchen and eating table, chairs, sofa, etc. Each family in your group could make their own reservations at the chosen Aparthotel. In French, it's Apparthotels. There are many different brands of hotels in addition to Citadines. We've stayed at several different Citadines in different cities and were happy with them.

€400/nt in Paris isn’t a lot, especially for 4 people. Normal hotel rooms are fine (115 sq ft) and almost never sleep more than 2. If they do, it’s on a sofa bed.

Apartments consider a sofabed in a room a “bedroom”, so if you want real beds or separate rooms, you need to look for a 3 bedroom. That’s really expensive in Paris.

You might look at Citadines St. Germain or Hotel Residences des Artes, if a sofabed works.

@acraven offers sound advice.

That said, I've gotten to the point that I am done with vacation rentals and otherwise stay entirely in hotels or with branded companies that offer apartment-style living.

Of course, there's the issue that they're taking liveable properties of the market for locals... And that's been discussed ad nauseum here...

But larger properties for family gatherings are so compelling. I get the appeal and have succumbed for trips with family and friends. But I'm tired of frequently getting less than what's promised. Even being a careful, experience traveler, I've been burned by property that wasn't truly what the listing represented. In Madrid and Barcelona... in Hawaii... in London... and most recently in Colombia. In Amsterdam, we dodged a scam listing, which I posted about on this site -- and heard from another Rick Steves contributer who wasn't as lucky. When we've turned to VRBO, AirBNB, and Booking, they merely say they "facilitate" the transaction.

At least with hotels, especially when booking directly, if there is a problem, we get a human who probably can help. We're assured of easy access and amenities as posted on the site.

Okay. Sorry for the rant... I'll see myself out...