Hotel des Deux Iles

Another Charming Ile St. Louis Hotel

We reserved a double room since September 2005 and six months in advance to reserve a room is actually not unusual for the Ile St. Louis hotels of which the Des Deux Iles is one of. We stayed at their related hotel, the Hotel de Lutece, which is located up the street. So we got a chance to compare and contrast the two hotels.

All in all the Deux Iles is another small, homey hotel with unpretentious room furnishings. In fact, one could say that the furnishings are basic yet the rate of 170 euro for a double room is anything but basic. You pay for location as the Ile St. Louis which is very busy in the daytime gets quiet during nighttime around 8 p.m. So if you stay on the island it's sort of like your private island so to speak.

Anyway, the staff were polite and efficient but not as friendly as the Hotel de Lutece's staff. The senior receptionist made a mistake in noting down that our bus pickup for Brugge would be at 6:15 a.m. However, it was 30 minutes too soon. As such we hurried down to find a darkened lobby. We even awoke the night clerk and he mumbled in French/English something like it was not allowed to turn on the lobby lights that early. That sounded stupid to us as we are paying guests and to let guests sit in a darkened lobby is not hospitable. Luckily there was a hallway light otherwise we would be in total darkness. The breakfast staff were polite and efficient also but not friendly as the Hotel de Lutece's breakfast attendant.

Unique Quality: The double room (#332) was one of four rooms facing the street. The room itself was very small with a foyer, closet, TV on a floor stand, and a desk and chair beyond the TV in a corner opposite from the bed. There were two small glass end tables also. The bath was equipped with a shower and had a large pedestal sink and a regular hair dryer not the vacuum cleaner type so that was good. The shower needs to be renovated as it's pretty old and is showing signs of mildew. Otherwise the faucet is modernized-maybe five years old or so. It's weird as the shower points towards the sliding shower door so you have to make sure to close the door partly (it folds up in 3 sections) or you risk wetting up the floor and toilet. The walls, as is typical, are too thin. One early morning another guest woke me up with his booming voice which sounded as though he were standing in the room. You can hear everything!

Breakfast is downstairs in the stone cellar which is not laid out properly-a bit chaotic-as there are two sofas and a coffee table near the fireplace or three round glass tables with chairs. You just select whichever is unoccupied to eat your 11 euro Continental breakfast (one each croissant and baguette), fresh o.j., and coffee/tea/chocolat chaud, butter, jam, and milk.

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Hotel des Deux Iles Photo: Lobby

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