The Hyatt Regency Etoile is a skyscraper hotel near Porte Maillot in the 17th arrondissement. It’s the largest hotel in Paris with 950 rooms and suites. The hotel tower is the third tallest building inside the city of Paris – which doesn’t include the La Défense business district. The hotel, which was completed in 1974, was most recently the Hotel Concorde La Fayette until Hyatt acquired it in 2013.

When I stayed there a couple of weeks ago, I arrived in Paris around 7am, and took the AirFrance bus (route 2) to the Hyatt. The bus stop is on the side of the Hyatt and across the street from the Le Méridien Etoile. I was a little hesitant to ask if I could check-in early, with a room upgrade, and a view of the Eiffel Tower. The agent said she could put me in a deluxe room, but without an Eiffel Tower view for the first night. I thought that was fair, and I was assigned a room on the 22nd floor.I thought things were going fairly well, until I was jarred by the decor in the hallway.  All the sudden I felt like I was on a cruise ship – a badly decorated cruise ship with dark mirrored corridors painted in navy and hot pink.
This made me nervous to insert the key into the door, as I was thinking that the room was going to have a similar decor as found in the hallway, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this …

The room itself was on the small side which is typical for hotels in Europe. It was almost a relief that the room was plain, light and airy.  The hotel provided me a small welcome amenity, and a note wishing me a pleasant stay.

The view from the first room was of the La Défense business district, seen thru the thin layer of smog that grew worse as the week went on.After seeing the hallway, and now the room, I really was unsure what the bathroom was going to look like. I peeked in and thought it looked okay.

For the second and third nights, I was moved to the exact same room, but on the opposite corner of the 23rd floor to my room with a view – a view of the Effiel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile – not pictured in my smoggy picture.

Based on my Hyatt Diamond status, I received Regency Club access, on the 30th floor.

The lounge itself seemed dated – decorated in mauve, maroon and orange.  It seemed like it was just 2 or 3 standard rooms rennovated into one larger, yet segmented room.

The lounge was open from 7am to 10:30am for breakfast and from 5pm to 9pm for wine and canapes.  They offered various red wines, white wines and champagne, as well as a cheeseboard, small sandwiches, a featured desert, and cookies including macaroons.

Breakfast was assorted bread, cereal, fruit, yogurt and a hot offering with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and hash browns potatoes.

Bottom Line:
I was able to get this hotel, a Hyatt Category 4, at short notice.  Considering how expensive Paris is, 15,000 points a night seemed like a reasonable deal.  I am also getting back 20% of the points as a Chase Hyatt Visa cardholder – so a 9,000 point refund makes this deal even better.  The Hyatt Paris Etiole also included a note in its key packet saying that the hotel was undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation starting early 2015, and construction is expected to last 18 months.  While the property is in need of a renovation, I wonder if it will also increase a category or two on the Hyatt reward chart.  Time will tell.  Has anyone else had a particularly good, or particularly bad stay here?