La Réserve Paris Review

We stayed at La Réserve Paris this past July after staying at Rosewood Hôtel de Crillon as well during this stay. These two Palace hotels were both beautiful in their own ways, but they are very different experiences.

Hôtel de Crillon feels larger, glamorous, and a bit more opulent, which makes sense with its history as a residence for King Louis XV. La Réserve is much more intimate, quiet, private, and elegant. It feels less like a hotel and more like staying in an incredibly beautiful Parisian mansion. This was the vision of the owner and developer who wanted the hotel to feel more like a home.

We were fortunate enough to be upgraded to the Eiffel Suite at La Réserve, which made the stay especially memorable.

Property

La Réserve is tucked away on a beautiful quiet street with a distinctive red entrance door. Despite being on a quiet street, it is also in a great location, close to Avenue Montaigne and Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré for shopping, and is also very close to Champs-Élysées. The hotel is also near Prime Minister Macron’s residence, so there’s a significant security presence in the area which adds to the feeling of privacy and security, but never really impacted us moving around in any way.

The hotel is French-owned by Michel Reybier and really leans into the idea of being a Parisian mansion rather than a traditional hotel. That description feels very accurate once you’re there as the hotel even has photos of the owner’s family throughout to add to this feeling. This hotel is known for privacy, which is one of the reasons it attracts celebrities and VIP luxury travelers.

The signature color throughout the hotel is red. It’s more prominent in some areas, particularly the lobby and entrance, while other spaces use it more subtly as an accent. I thought it was all done very tastefully.

While the hotel is small for a luxury hotel with 40 rooms (25 suites and 15 rooms), it is staffed with 200 people. Our stay felt personalized and we felt service was very good.

The hotel is home to three-Michelin-starred Le Gabriel, and the same culinary team oversees the other dining venues. Despite the small size of the hotel, there are surprisingly several different places to eat, each with its own menu and atmosphere. For instance, one seating area has all lobster dishes. You can have a meal or just tea/coffee in The Duc de Morny Library any time during the day. The books are for guest use and you’re welcome to grab and read any of them if you would like.

The spa is in the basement, as is fairly common with Paris hotels. It’s relatively small but done well, with the same signature red aesthetic. The pool is a very nice size considering the size of the hotel, and every time we went down it was completely empty even with the intense heat wave during our stay.

The fitness area is fairly small but has all the basic equipment you would need.

Room

We were upgraded to the Eiffel Suite, which was an amazing surprise. The suite is about 850 square feet, and every window gives you some combination of views toward the Eiffel Tower and Grand Palais.

The whole suite felt like staying in someone’s beautiful Parisian home with all of the furniture and additional touches down to providing charging cables for your phone like your family might do if you stayed at their home. The living/dining area is huge and has a large dining table with four chairs, a sizable bar area, and a large desk separating the dining and living space that had a very comfortable couch. There are 1.5 bathrooms, although we didn’t discover the half bath until several hours after checking in because it’s tucked behind a somewhat hidden door near the entrance. Both bathrooms have Toto toilets which was a nice touch.

One of my favorite things about the suite was how much natural light came through the windows. Combined with the size of the room, it made the entire space feel incredibly bright and airy.

There’s also a small balcony off the dining area with a little table and two chairs. The view of the Eiffel Tower is partially obstructed by trees but sitting outside and watching it sparkle at night was still pretty magical. The railings were cast iron, which looked nice, but made the space unusable during the day with the heat wave and the sun hitting the rails all day. This is likely different when Paris isn’t 95°F+ like it was for our stay.

The bedroom was a very good size and led into an incredible marble bathroom. It has a silver soaking tub, huge shower, Toto toilet and double vanity. The floors were heated, as were the towel racks.

The closet space is very plentiful and beautifully done. They also include some workout equipment in the closet: yoga mat, dumbbells, and bands, which is a nice extra to have available if desired.

The furniture throughout was elegant and luxurious without feeling overly formal. It was hard not to find ourselves looking at the Eiffel Tower whenever we were sitting on the couch. It is one of those hotel-room views that you don’t get tired of, especially at night during the sparkle.

Another thing I really like at La Réserve is the complimentary minibar. Almost everything was included, with alcohol being the exception. It was significantly more extensive than most minibars I’ve encountered with bottled juices, energy drinks, sparkling water, sodas, beer, etc.

And the welcome amenities were exceptional. I’m usually the one who pays attention to these, while my wife doesn’t (I love a good chocolate or pastry), but even she could not get over how incredible it all was: among other things, they had made a chocolate version of the hotel’s iconic red door, along with a little chocolate fighter jet decorated with the French flag for Bastille Day. I don’t usually mention welcome amenities in hotel reviews, but the spread they gave us was genuinely memorable.

Service

We didn’t have any major requests during our stay, but the service was consistently prompt and warm.

One thing I really like is the pre-arrival questionnaire. They ask about things like your preferred room temperature and favorite flowers. My wife’s favorite flowers are peonies, and there were peonies waiting for us on the dining table when we arrived.

We also like our room very cold, around 65°F. Despite it being around 95°F outside during our stay, the room was always cool for us, so we were impressed with the air conditioning.

They also offered to unpack and repack our luggage both on the pre-arrival questionnaire and when checking us in. This is something you can find at some top luxury hotels but isn’t always proactively offered like it was here.

We only had breakfast at the hotel because we were busy during the days, but the service there was excellent and very warm. Breakfast service here was the best restaurant service we had across our entire trip.

One morning I ordered an omelet, but the chef accidentally made scrambled eggs (my wife ordered scrambled eggs). The server immediately noticed and offered to have the chef remake it. I said it was totally fine because I’d actually been debating between the two anyway. They brought me an omelet anyway a few minutes later. While it was totally unnecessary, I appreciate that they went out of their way to make sure I was happy.

Food

We only had breakfast, so I can’t really comment on the rest of the hotel’s dining from personal experience, unfortunately.

Breakfast is served in the beautiful, peaceful courtyard or in the library. You can order anything from the menu with the Virtuoso benefit’s complimentary breakfast, and everything we had was very good. They also bring out an assortment of pastries, which were all excellent.

Overall

La Réserve Paris is a very special hotel, but I think it’s important to understand what you’re getting.

If you’re looking for a large, glamorous, lively Palace hotel, La Réserve probably isn’t it. And if you want something ultra-modern and contemporary, I’d also look elsewhere. But if you value privacy, quiet luxury, personalized service and an intimate Parisian home-like atmosphere, I think La Réserve Paris is hard to beat.

For me, the biggest difference between La Réserve and Hôtel de Crillon was that Crillon felt like staying in a spectacular Parisian Palace, while La Réserve felt like someone had given us the keys to an incredibly beautiful Parisian mansion (with a very full staff).

Rooms at La Réserve Paris generally start around €2,000-3,000 per night depending on season or special events (like fashion week) and can be booked with Virtuoso benefits which currently include private airport transfers in a Mercedes-Benz E-class for stays of two or more nights.