"I have stayed once every month at the M Social in Paris for a couple of years now, primarily due to its proximity to my office over there. I generally consider it to be ok, although the experience does differ significantly sometimes from stay to stay and the luck of the draw on the room. I would summarise the pros and cons as follows;
Pros:
Nice lobby area
Generally decent rooms (notwithstanding the bathrooms - see below)
Breakfast is ok, both in terms of choice and setting where there is lots of room and seating options
Cons:
Very changeable staff experience, some are great, some seem inexperienced / uninterested
The bathrooms are a standout low point. They are generally small and poorly laid out, with below par showers and poor quality toiletries (they seem to water down the shower gel, which is just bizarre)
In-room dining is a very slimmed down menu, slow, and I've generally not had a good experience using it
As mentioned, I have been staying here regularly for some time because it's convenient and I try to concentrate my spend for loyalty bonuses. However, my experience this month has led me to write this review, and ultimately decide to give myself a break from the M Social and try another hotel, of which there are many in the area.
My stay this month started with the typical inconsistent check-in experience, where the person asked if it was my first time staying there and then asked to take a deposit, when my card is held on file (and the stay was already paid). The room was fine, but as usual, the bathroom was as described above. In this one, the toilet was off-centre, close to the wall. I can deal with the lack of man spread, but some genius had taken the decision to fit the toilet roll holder on the wall which the toilet was close to, meaning it literally poked you in the side as you sat on the toilet, and was super awkward to get to....why??
The final straw(s) however came from the indifference showed by staff towards the behaviour of other guests. In the evening, the two rooms opposite mine were clearly occupied by family / friends (including kids) who lacked the awareness of any sort of social norms and spent the evening slamming doors and talking/screaming/playing loudly in the corridor until 1am. At some point, I decided I'd had enough and called downstairs to complain. I was told someone would come along and request them to quieten down, but this never happened. Then at breakfast, another guest decided it was the appropriate time and place to conduct a loud video chat with her friend. Myself and other guests looked on incredulously as the staff just seemingly tuned it out and carried on with their duties. It shouldn't be down to other guests to confront such inconsiderate behaviour, and any establishment with a sense of self worth would of policed both incidents.
The cherry on the cake was that when I checked out, I didn't even get the usual cursory "how was your stay" enquiry, presumably as nobody cares.
So, it's been ok while it lasted, but you can't expect to retain long term loyalty if you deliver such a below par experience to regular guests, or any guests for that matter.
My quest for a decent hotel in Paris near work continues..."
