Hotels with connecting rooms compared with the alternatives
Four people travelling together to Paris usually face three options, and only one of them keeps everyone both together and apart. The first is a single large room, where four people share one space and one bathroom. The second is two ordinary rooms booked side by side, without any guarantee that they will be on the same floor or even in the same corridor. The third is what hotels with connecting rooms offer: two rooms joined by an inner door, booked together under a single name.
The first option works for one night. After two or three, a single bathroom shared by four people turns every morning into a queue, and nobody can read while the others sleep. The second gives privacy, but a child on the third floor and parents on the fifth is rarely what a family has in mind. Friends who booked two rooms separately often meet in the corridor more than in either room.
At the Hôtel Pas de Calais, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the third option is called the Family Room. Its room description sets out exactly what you get: two comfortable, spacious rooms, each with its own bathroom, over 35 square metres in all. The first room has a double bed of 160 by 200 cm, the second two single beds of 90 by 200 cm. Up to four guests sleep there, under one booking. The hotel itself stands at 59 rue des Saints-Pères, in a street set back from the main thoroughfares of the sixth arrondissement, which means quiet nights on both sides of the door. Booking one category instead of two also keeps things simple: one confirmation, one arrival time and one set of requests passed to the team, rather than two reservations to align. The room is non-smoking, and complimentary mineral water waits in it on the day you arrive.
The three options at a glance:
- One large room, one space and one bathroom for everyone
- Two separate rooms, privacy but no shared door
- Two interconnecting rooms, a door between and a bathroom each
Bed sizes and bathrooms are set out before you book here, because a door between connecting rooms is only useful if both rooms are worth sleeping in.
Who shares the door: friends, couples and families
The inner door makes the room flexible. Open, it turns two rooms into one shared space for an evening of planning the next day. Closed, it gives each side its own lights, its own alarm clock and its own bathroom. The hotel describes the Family Room as the ideal solution for travelling with children or with friends, and the second half of that sentence matters as much as the first. That flexibility is the real argument for hotels with connecting rooms in Paris, where a trip often mixes late dinners for some and early starts for others.
Two friends travelling with a couple is a classic case. The couple takes the double bed, the friends the two single beds, and nobody has to negotiate the bathroom at 8am. Parents with teenagers find the same balance: close enough to hear, far enough to let everyone breathe. A grandparent travelling with a grandchild or three adults on a cultural weekend use the room in yet another way. Our answers to frequent questions note that the hotel has four interconnecting rooms, which is what makes such combinations possible.
Each of the two rooms is fully equipped, with luxury bedding, double glazing, air conditioning, a safe, a minibar, an LCD television with international channels and free wifi. Bathrooms come with Clarins products, a hairdryer, bathrobes and slippers. A desk sits in the room for anyone who needs an hour of work between two visits. The photo gallery shows the furniture, fabrics and volumes of the house.
What a group of four gains at the Hôtel Pas de Calais is a base that works for very different days. One half can spend the morning at the museums while the other sleeps in, then everyone meets at breakfast, served in the room until 11am. For friends with only a weekend, our route through 48 hours in Saint-Germain-des-Prés gives a shared programme. The lounge under the glass roof, beside the green wall of orchids, is where the two halves of the group meet in the morning, with breakfast served there from 7am to 10.30am. From this hotel with connecting rooms, the cafés, bookshops and galleries of the quarter are a few minutes away on foot.
Making sure the two rooms are yours when you book
On any booking site, a request for connecting rooms travels as a note that may or may not be honoured. Here, the question does not arise: the Family Room is the only category that sleeps more than two guests, every other room taking two at most. Selecting it is what guarantees the pair of rooms with the inner door between them. The rooms and suites page lists all eight categories if part of the group prefers a room of its own.
One limit is worth knowing before you plan: no extra bed can be added to any room, the Family Room included. A group of five therefore books a second room alongside it, and reception can say what is possible for your dates. With only four interconnecting rooms in the house, popular dates are worth securing early. The building cannot receive guests with reduced mobility, which a group planning together should know from the start. Reservations are taken online, by email or by phone; a valid credit card secures them, and the rates shown on our own site are the best we publish. Travel advisors will find the practical details on our page for travel agents.
When you book direct:
- Check in from 3pm, check out until noon
- Luggage storage, before arrival and after departure
- Airport shuttle and private drivers, arranged by reception
- Reception open 24 hours, for late arrivals
Arriving as four with luggage is easier with a plan, and our guide to reaching Saint-Germain from the airports compares the options. Dogs are welcome at the hotel, should one member of the group have four legs. For longer stays, the Hôtel Pas de Calais also handles laundry, keeps the morning newspapers on hand and books massages with a spa in the quarter. The bar beside the green wall serves champagne, wine and whiskies when the group gathers again in the evening. Among Paris hotels with connecting rooms, this one is family-run, as it has been for four generations. Any request, from an early arrival to a second room nearby, is easiest settled when you write to reception before you travel, so the rooms are ready when the four of you walk in.
