Paris Accommodations

Have you considered renting an apartment? Some one-bedrooms will sleep four (double bed and pull-out sleeper sofa in living room). There are several agencies, like vrbo (vacation rental by owner) and new york habitat that specialize in Paris, among other cities. You'd have to fix your own breakfast but in a lot of Paris hotels you have to pay extra, anyway. And they don't have free refills on coffee....

Is breakfast a deal-breaker if the hotel doesn't include it? Typically, breakfast in Paris is not much more than bread or pastry and a coffee. Naturally, the bigger chain hotels (including those Euro chains like Ibis, Formule1, etc) may offer a full breakfast buffet, but usually at an additional charge (about 10-12euro per person). What neighborhoods are you considering? Have you thought about booking an apartment or a private ensuite "family room" in a hostel? You could have access to a kitchen to make your own breakfast and extra space in the form of a living room or a hostel lounge so you aren't all crammed in like sardines in a quad hotel room.

Hi Reese Have you had a look at the Rick Steves Paris book, or other guidebook? Have you ruled those out? Paris has loads of districts each with its own personality, as suggested in the guidebooks. Your request is a little vague both as to arrondisement and time.

Nigel, yes I've checked those. It's difficult finding the type rooms we want. Were going April 1-5, then to Nantes. St Germain area is 1st choice.

Reese - There is the Hotel Marignan (www.hotel-marignan.com/html/p1_a.htm) it is located in the 5th arr. I have not stayed at this hotel, but a friend has. His comment was "It met our families needs, but wasn't anything special". The cost of a quad is 125 - 140€ per night depending on when you will be there. When our family was in Paris we rented an apartment thru Vacation in Paris.

If you use the ETAP on Rue Babinski (St Ouen at the peripherique) each room is about fifty or sixty bucks per night. Others are about the same, but I like the area and the metro is handy. Breakfast is three or four euros, but not worth it. There's a bakery and grocery store two doors down. The hotel's machine coffee is pretty darn good.

These are great ideas. Breakfast included is not a deal breaker, just a convenience. Thanks to all!

The last 2 times I stayed in Paris I used hotels.com and was able to find decent rates at 4-star hotels The Warrick and Le Meridian Etiole.

We stayed here with a family of four summer 2009: Hôtel La Louisiane (www.hotel-lalouisiane.com/). It is in the Saint Germain area. I thought the hotel was fine but nothing special, but the room was perfect for us with two separate bedrooms and two bathrooms. According to their web site the quad rate is currently 150 euro/night. We were there in August and there was no breakfast served, but I think normally they do have breakfast available. At the time I was planning there was a list of Paris hotels with quad or family rooms that someone had posted on Trip Advisor; you might see if you could find that.

If you want to start from scratch, use venere.com. There's a quad checkbox. What I do I sort by price, then start scrolling until a find a rating above about a 7.7 with a bunch of reviewers. I've probably never used it for Paris, so I'm not sure if it will sort by area somehow. The Campanile chain, scattered all over town, also has quads. The Cluny-Sorbonne might also serve your needs - - handy area, but not especially fancy. But better than the ultra-clean, ultra-spartan ETAP.

Victoria apartment rentals, I've booked her a copley of times- great apts
http://www.victoria-parishomes.com/

I travel with my husband and 2 children and have had a very difficult time finding quad rooms in Paris. You might want to try an apartment rental, most rent for 3 nights or 7 night nights. So much more spacious, very nice to be able to eat breakfast whenevery YOU want to eat (ie not having to wait for others to wake up for breakfast), snacks, or just cook up an inexpensive meal of pasta-all for the same as a very tiny tiny hotel room. You will want to look carefully at the minimum # of nights (some apts will rent for just 1-2 nights, but most require more nights), and also what day of the week they prefer to start the rental period. We rented via vrbo.com (vacation rental by owner) in the Latin Quarter, a few blocks from Notre Dame and had a wonderful vacation. There are other apartment rental agencies that also rent apts. Do a search using Rick Steves helpline and/or look at this excellent article on TripAdvisor (includes names of agencies): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187147-c145475/Paris:France:How.To.Rent.An.Apartment.In.Paris.html Feel free to contact me if you want other suggestions on apartment rental in Paris.