Arena Hotel la Defense

Biggest badest thing...3/4 flights of stairs to reception. Not good However. The room was clean, the bed was excellent, the bathroom was great. We hung the do no disturb on the door and housekeeping opened our door 3 times....my daughter has autism and was scared. I had to tell reception to askbggem not to clean our room for the duration of our stay. The hotel is in Nanterre. But all was very quiet. Near to the RER. Small supermarket, great bakery, which sadly was shut on Saturday and Sunday, shame because the bread and macarons were do tasty. Receptionist, the lady. Was lovely and helpful. No problems there. Would not stay again, due to stairs and proximity. Just a little too far from central Paris.

My main complaint is that the air conditioning was off during our whole stay. We dreaded getting back to the hotel because we knew it would be hot and uncomfortable. The woman in the lobby was incredibly unfriendly and said that the AC was turned off to save on costs and that it wouldn't be turned on until April 28. April 29 came around (when we gladly checked out), and the AC was still off. The website advertises that all rooms have AC, which they do, but the hotel turns it off to cut costs. We asked if they at least had a fan, and she just said they didn't have fans. And the windows don't have screens on them, so if you open them to get some cool air in your room, you basically have an open hole to the outdoors. That was great when we opened ours, and the first thing we saw was a huge spiderweb with a spider on it by the corner. Also, the lobby is on the third floor of a building, and there is no elevator or escalator, so good luck getting there with disabilities or heavy luggage. Furthermore, the shower drain clogged the first night. The night staff spoke very little English, but we were able to work with them, and they moved us to a different room with a working drain. Since they seemed more friendly than the daytime woman, we also told them about the AC, but all they said was to wait 30 minutes for the AC to work. Obviously, it never worked. Lastly, this hotel is very near a train station, but keep in mind that it is an RER station outside of the Paris area (it's not a metro station), so if you get the Navigo card, that won't get you as far as you need to go. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone visiting the area, nor would I stay there ever again.