At a Glance
The hotel’s eccentric Napoleon III bordello design and central location has made Costes a perennial favorite with Paris’s fashion crowd for more than a decade.
Review
It’s no mean feat to have been the favorite of the fashion pack in Paris for more than a decade, so if you want a hotel with buzz and famous faces, the Costes is still your best bet. Jacques Garcia’s Napoléon III bordello design is risqué and a lot of fun, but rooms tend to be snug, dark and a bit musty. There’s a terrific fitness center and sexy indoor pool/spa in the basement; the location is convenient; and the see-and-be-seen quotient in the open-air restaurant and bar is high-voltage; if you can put up with the vexing attitude of the scatterbrained waitresses. Not suitable for families, Hotel Costes is one of the sexiest hotels in Paris and a more appropriate pick for couples or friends traveling together who don’t care if the staff is too busy preening and parading to deliver efficient service.
Who Should Stay
Couples looking for a romantic Parisian love nest or groups of friends who want to see-and-be-seen among the fashion crowd but don’t mind the too laid-back service.
Written by Sandy Flick