Had to pick a hotel on my long-awaited return trip to Paris. Obviously was gonna go with something…read morenicer in the Marriott collection, and the Renaissance Paris Republique Hotel was the cheapest option of the bunch that was in the Renaissance-level tier.
When I booked this originally, I got an upgrade to a Bobo room with a king bed instead of the original Paris Style with a queen bed. Well, I'm not sure what the hell happened, but after checking in on the app, their system moved my reservation to an entire month later. Which could have posed a major problem since I knew the hotel was completely sold out. Thankfully, Ines at the front desk managed to salvage the situation and get us the same Bobo room, albeit only with a queen. Regardless, considering the hotel was sold out, I wasn't about to complain. Thanks to Ines for fixing everything!
Aside from that, the room itself was fairly modern and fairly spacious for European standards. You can't take for granted how big a hotel room is in Europe, which is why I would only ever stay at an American-branded hotel. Don't get me wrong, the room was still small, but not cramped to the point that there wasn't room to maneuver around. Had a nice view of the courtyard from the bedroom as well as the bathroom. Curiously though, the bathroom had clear windows, so you would have needed to put the blinds down if you wanted privacy. Did appreciate the huge walk-in shower though! And the A/C works perfectly well.
Staff here are extremely friendly! They obviously know a significant portion of their clientele only speak English, and everyone working the lobby area speak English very well. Wanted to also give a shoutout to Fabien at the concierge for helping me sort out how to get a Ile-de-France weekly train pass from the Paris Metro booth! Only issue is that I only had some of my housekeeping requests fulfilled, as I called a few times for some extra tissue boxes but they either took too long or were never sent up.
As far as location, I liked it, but it really depends where you want to situate yourself. I personally like being next to a train station that has a lot of lines passing through it, and the Republique station that's literally right next to the hotel has five lines going through it. Plus for quick food options, there was a McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC all right next to each other. It is next to the Monument à la République. Le Marais is walkable from here. But if you want to be closer to the tourist attractions, probably not the best place for you. This is definitely more of a hipster location. Paris is a big city though, so I was fine with it.
I did check out the gym to see what it looked like. Fairly small and nondescript. Didn't check out the spa though.
Despite the hotel room mishap, I enjoyed my stay here. Very nice location and well-kept hotel.