Which area to stay in Paris for 3 nights

Your budget is rather low for Paris and you don't have a lot of time as most of the good places will be booked by now. You need to think in terms of euros, which would make your budget somewhere between 60 and 80 euros. I have three suggestions, however. 1) check out the suggestions in Rick's Paris book - he probably has some recommendations within your budget. 2) Ibis Hotels is a budget hotel chain in France with several locations in Paris. It is an Accor Hotel and you can book through their website. 3) Use a website such as booking.com to check for availability.

Since you will enjoy there only three days, you will want to be a close to the river as your budget will allow (in the single digit arrondissiments) for ease in getting around. Keep in mind, though, that just about every place in Paris is 30 or less minutes away by Metro, so being close to a Metro station in the outer arrondissements is workable as well. Good luck.

Agree, that budget is a bit low for Paris.

I love the Rue Clerc neighborhood that I learned about from Rick Steves. I have stayed there several times. Not only is it on the metro, but also there are good bus routes nearby making it convenient to get to major tourist sites--and it is a short walk to the Eiffel Tower and Seine. Highly recommend you get RS books section on Paris, also recommends restaurants in the neighborhood. As Rue Clerc is a market street, there are eating alternatives and a Carrefour grocery. From CDG we took the airport bus that took us to the center of Paris and grabbed a short bus ride from there to our hotel. I might recommend the airport bus to Paris, then a taxi from there if you feel the need to taxi.

Your budget is a bit unrealistic for Paris, and probably puts you in hostel territory. This well reviewed 2 star is in the Marais, with an easy walk to Notre Dame, Louvre, Pompidou, and close to the metro at Hotel de Ville.
http://www.dwinhotel.com/

Check Hotel Diana in the Latin Quarter very centrally located & @ €126/ night.
A great deal for this location!

Taxis in Paris currently have fixed rates -- 50 euros for up to four people to the Right Bank and 55 to the Left Bank. Saying near the airport is not advisable -- it will take you at least 45 minutes to get into Paris every day and there is the commuting cost. Glad to see that you are not renting a car because that would be a total pain for a stay in Paris. As others have said, your budget is low for Paris, even in August when occupancy rates are lower than June, July and September. I think that you will have a very hard time finding a hotel room for two people for 70 to 90 euros per night near the river. I suggesting looking in some areas that have good transit connections and have some good budget choices like the areas around Gare de Lyon and Place de la Nation and parts of the 11th or the 14 arrondissements. Take a look at the Lux Hotel Picpus which is pretty well reviewed (they may be sold out for August), the Ibis Bastille Faubourg Saint Antoine and the Ibis Gare de Lyon properties.

You may be interested in these Apps to help you navigate around Paris;
RATP & Next Stop Paris.
I found these Apps indispensable on my recent visit to Paris.

Our first day there, we walked, then we took the Metro to get to our desired destinations quickly, then my knee started to bother me, so we relied on buses to take us everywhere.

If you plan to travel by train, while in France, check the SNCF App too, very helpful.

Enjoy your trip!

You might find a budget hotel like Mr. Bed or an Ibis at the end of Metro line 3 in Gallieni for that price. That is just too low for central Paris where you should be staying with so very little time there. Take a look at Hotel Delambre in the 14th near Montparnasse. More Central than Gallieni and we paid about 100 Euro for a double there. There was a room safe, a good shower, decent wifi and AC and it was clean and the area is very nice and not super touristy. Lots of cafes, a famous crepe street (several well known crepe restaurants on Rue Montparnasse and this is a low cost meal) and very good transport connections. Plus you can easily walk to the center via the Luxembourg Gardens from there. We often metroed to wherever in the center and then strolled back to this area. There are a lot of small decent hotels in Paris for around 100 Euro -- for your budget of 60-80 you are looking at the fringes or hostels. The good news is that August has lower hotel rates than either July or September although it is late to be locking something down.

You could also look at AirBNB where you might find a studio for that which would also mean you could eat breakfast in at least and save big bucks on that.

I am curious about where in the US you are from. Here in Chicago you won't be finding a central decent hotel for $100 or in NYC or DC or San Francisco or Seattle. Paris is probably the most popular tourist big city in the world and rents are sky high.

Just got back two weeks ago....glad everyone else here is doing so well, but we were on roughly the same budget. Stayed at the Hotel Prince, just around the corner from the Rue Cler...it's mentioned in Rick's book...perhaps a little rough around the edges for the more well-heeled, but we found it clean and comfortable...and best of all a short walk to the Eiffel Tower, Napoleon's Tomb, and the Seine....we ended up walking much further, but we like walking, and with record floods, the buildup to the Eurocup, (IMO completely justified) Labor Strikes, and the President of South Korea in town there was lots to see. I just punched the 2nd week of August into booking.com, they show a little bit over your budget at $320 for 3 nights...you're in peak season, we just missed it...but Rick says book with them direct to get a better price, and supposedly they give a discount to folks who flash their RickBook, though they don't if you book on-line. There's also a grocery store around the corner, you can save tons of dough by eating like the French...a Baguette, some nice cheese, some fresh fruit, and a little cured meat...and a REALLY great bottle of wine for less than $5.

We took the RER and Metro to the hotel from CDG (very inexpensive), but on the way back strikes and a flooded Seine made that less than reliable, the hotel desk recommended a shuttle bus....36 Euros for two of us, plus tip...I gave 5...one of the few places in Paris where they expect them.

CDG is really quite far from the center of things, don't think it'd be much fun to stay there...and FWIW our last 4 nights in Paris were the last of a 2 week trip, we started with a rental car at CDG and drove to Reims-Bastogne-Bruges-Rouen-then camped out at Omaha beach in Normandy-then Chartres and back to CDG to drop off the car...actually enjoyed that part more than Paris. Have a great trip!

I recommend the 7th arr., esp the Rue Cler area. Safe, clean, and 10 minutes to Eiffel Tower.

Skip the cab, take Metro instead. Very easy and much much cheaper!

If you're going to book though, do it soon. I don't think you'll find much now, let alone with that budget. I like Grand Hotel Leveque. Its simple, but clean and friendly and very affordable. Some rooms share the bathroom and the elevator is miniscule. But you wake up right on the Rue Cler and have tons of amazing little shops to browse through.

The Leveque must have come up in the world in the last 20 years since we stayed there long ago for 5 nights. It was hands down the worst hotel we have ever stayed in in Europe and we travel pretty close to the ground. I can only assume it has been renovated since then and restaffed. (they told our baby sitter we were not at that hotel when they called although by that point we had been there for 4 nights already) With only 3 days I would also not choose something so out of the way as this area -- it is near the Eiffel Tower which itself is quite distant from almost everything else you would want to do in Paris in only 3 days.

Thanks to each one of you who responded to my post. Got a good understanding of the area.

If you are willing to stay a little outside Paris, I can unreservedly recommend La Maison Bancana which is right across from the RER C line in Vitry Sur Seine. My family and I stayed there last week. For two guests it is 90 euros a night which includes breakfast. Fred who runs it is such a fun person and a great help. From there it takes 12 minutes on the RER to get to Notre Dame. This was our compromise so that we could afford everything we wanted to to in Paris. Whatever you decide, have a great time!

Being central is obviously the very best, but since we were on a budget, we ended up staying in the 10th arrondissement near the Gare de l'Est, and it actually worked out to be very convenient. We were only a three minute walk from the major metro/train station, which meant that we could easily be connected via metro to pretty much anywhere in Paris as well as Versailles and the airport. The place we stayed was called the Est Hotel. I am a little hesitant to recommend it wholeheartedly because I think we got lucky - they were in the process of remodeling, and we got one of the newly remodeled rooms away from the street noise, and found it to be more than adequate for a budget room. However, when we did see some of the unrenovated rooms, they were a little scruffier looking, so I bet one's experience could vary depending on which room you get/how comfortably you are used to traveling. Also, there was a neighborhood a few blocks over that seemed to be mostly immigrants, which we thought was neat but I'm not sure how that plays into the current security concerns in Paris (I want to say that one of the attacks might have been somewhat near there). That being said, the hotel was within the price range you are talking about, and we'd consider staying there again next time we're in Paris.

Overall, if you can't afford to stay right in the heart of things, the key is to be near a metro stop (ideally, a big metro station), but with Paris' awesome metro, I wouldn't be too worried about getting around as long as you are within the boundaries of central Paris (I wouldn't recommend staying outside of central Paris, meaning the ring that you see on the map, in order to save money).

you are on a tight budget.. so do not stay outside of central paris.. you end up spending more money and time on commuting.. you do not have an abundance of either.

Check out Hotel Marignan..
www.hotel-marignan.com/
if you are lucky and get a vacancy.. take it.. the area is more central then Rue Cler or the 7th..
you will save money by walking everywhere ( Almost.. you will need to take metro a few times for outlying sights)
you will also save money as this hotel does offer you options of shared bathrooms ( but still have private too) and a KITCHEN so you can make lunches or warm up take out for dinners.. and includes a basic breakfast.

luckily you are going in August when hotel rates can dip a bit..

Good luck