Woman wanting affordable accommodations in central Paris

What would be the maximum per night she could afford?

It occurs to me that you could check the Campanile chain of hotels in Paris. They are inexpensive but not knowing what your friend can pay makes it hard to advise. The Campaniles are certainly not fancy but they are perfectly fine., "safe and clean." Trying to find what she needs close to or in the 5th complicates the matter. She may have to settle for what she can afford no matter the arrondissement.

The cheap chains on the periphery e.g. there are several like Mr. Bed and Ibis near the end of the 3 line at Gallieni have been as low as 75 a night when I have checked in the past. In the 5th the Hotel Marignan is a one star that has cheap rates and a fairly good reputation. I haven't stayed there but have seen it recommended several times.

The Adveniat Paris (run by priests) has a hostel affiliated with it, but rooms are not private, they are shared dorm rooms between 2 and 6 guests, but they are not co-ed. They only cost about 35 Euro a night and that includes breakfast. They are located not far from Champs Elysee. They do have rules about daytime lock-outs (you need to be out of the room by 10AM), so tell her she should read through those rules carefully before booking so there are no surprises.

There is also the Ephrem Guesthouse which is run by the convent affiliated with Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. Very cheap, but they have a lot of rules. Among them is getting out of your room by a certain time in the morning and a 10PM curfew, and they don't operate 7 days a week, so depending what days she plans to be in Paris, they may or may not even be accepting guests. Also, you mentioned she is a senior and Montmartre has a lot of hilly parts to it (like San Francisco) which might be challenging if she has any sort of mobility issues. Montmartre is also certainly not going to be as central as where you are staying, but if she's short on funds, it's not likely she'll be able to afford much, if anything, in Saint Germain.

She should read through reviews of hostels on hostelworld.com and see if there is something she might consider (St. Christopher's usually gets good reviews and has several locations around the 10e but she'd need to be willing to take the bus or metro more as she gets out into the double digit arrondissements). In addition to dorm rooms, many hostels also offer private rooms with ensuite bathroom, but the cost is close to the price of a budget hotel. She can pay much less by booking a bed in a twin or quad hostel room. Some hostel dorm rooms are co-ed but others have separate rooms for women only.

Other options would be to search in her price range on a site like booking.com to see what hotels she can afford, and then check the hotel's website to see if she can get a better rate by booking direct, pre-paying her lodging, or taking a non-refundable rate if she's extremely sure she's not going to change her plans between now and April. She can also search Airbnb for a private room rental inside someone else's home (filter search results by entering in the maximum amount per night she's willing to pay).

A lot of mentioned options are not near you at all.

First off.. are you in St Germain, which is the 6th.. or are you in the 5th.. which is Latin Quarter.. stop being vague. where is apartment??

Also , what is her budget per night in euros.

Lastly, trip is in April.. so some deal places may be full by now.

I have stayed solo in cheap hotels in both areas.. but cheap is a relative term.. and time of year has price variances.

I

We still don't know what "woman wanting affordable accommodation" considers affordable so further suggestions cannot be useful.

Lois B's friend asked specifically about "convent stays" in Paris and said she's "short on funds". She's not going to find cheap convent lodging in Saint Germain, so her choices would be Montmartre or over by Champs Elysees. Of course it's not near Lois, but her friend can look at a map and figure that out for herself. And Champs Elysees does fit the "somewhere central" criteria. When someone says they are short on funds and willing to consider convent lodging (which is known to be pretty spartan), then I figure that person is very likely seeking something that costs under 75 Euro a night so that's what I am going to recommend unless further clarification is given. No need to tell the poster to stop being so vague just because they didn't give the maximum per night spend up front.

I also felt, regardless of where the religious lodging was located, that Lois B. should be letting her friend know that often those are the types of places that have all sorts of rules and regulations about staying there. A room lock out during the middle of the day might be completely ok for someone my age who will be gone all day, but for a senior citizen, they may want the ability to go back to their room in the middle of the afternoon if they need to take a break and rest. And if there is a curfew, that's important to know ahead of time, too. Most Europeans eat much later than North Americans so if one isn't eating dinner until 8PM and curfew is at 9 or 10PM, that's something to consider.

I want to thank those who were so helpful in sharing their ideas with me. It is hard to offer advice without a budget so I spoke to my friend after reading all of the posts and we decided to start by researching rooms in houses/apartments near the center of Paris on airbnb and vrbo, which we will do this weekend (many thanks for suggesting that, Ceidleh). In my request I mentioned that we were looking for something central and not too far from where we are staying, in the St. Germain area (St. Germain Blvd. which runs straight through the 5th, Pat). I never mentioned that we were looking for a place for her next door to our apartment. She and I will get together with a map and figure this out together with the helpful hints provided in this forum. I do agree that from my reading today that a convent or even a hostel might be too restrictive for our friend, who could pass for someone quite younger than her age. And although the rooms can be more affordable, a place in the outskirts of Paris would not work because of location and safety for a woman staying alone.

The edges of Paris proper are not dangerous for a woman staying alone. As long as she is within the peripherique and on the metro she is fine.

Hotel st Pierre. Close to you. Single rooms are small, but often cheap( relative to area)
On Rue de Ecole du Medicine. Immediatly off Boulevard St Michel , quiet street. Clean and nice staff.

Agree about St Pierre -- double rooms are pretty small, too, but safe and central location. Some rooms have an Eiffel Tower view (if you lean out the window and look right.)