Stay: April 2023

Paid: 25,000 points per room per night (total 100,000 points for two nights, two rooms)

Status: Discoverist, but booked as Guest of Honor by a Globalist

Rooms: King bed (room 1), two twins (room 2)

Would I stay again: Yes, absolutely

Would I recommend to friends: Yes

If you’re looking for a really nice, luxurious stay in central Paris but don’t want to pony up alllllll the points necessary for the Park Hyatt – Paris Vendôme, may I interest you in the Hyatt Paris Madeleine? It’ll give you that luxury, boutique-hotel vibe, provide a great location for a Paris base, and save you some points. The cash price for these rooms in April is usually around $600 and up, so spending 25,000 points is a deal by comparison.

The Hyatt Paris Madeleine is in a posh neighborhood on the right bank, within walking distance to pretty much everything in central Paris.

Check-in/service: The front-desk staff was very welcoming and made our check-in process quick and seamless. We were also served welcome drinks and invited to relax in the lounge area for a few moments before we went up to our rooms.

We were shown to our rooms and our bags were brought up for us. (That’s always a nice gesture, but I usually prefer just handling my own bag, so it usually feels really unnecessary. But if you do need help with your bags, the hotel has you covered.)

When we got to our rooms, we found containers of drinking water, some honey-flavored sparkling waters, and a little treat that was perfectly fitting with the hotel: madeleines.

Rooms: Our rooms were good-sized and everything was clean, comfortable, and in good condition. The rooms had all the things you’d expect at a four- or five-star hotel, including bathrobes, slippers, a hairdryer, tons of toiletries (all Clarins-branded), and a pretty blingy bathroom.

Others will probably not have the same reasoning, but one of the reasons why we chose this Hyatt property instead of splurging on the Park Hyatt was because all the photos I’ve seen of the Park Hyatt rooms make it seem really masculine and dark, and the Hyatt Madeleine felt much lighter and brighter. I love dark, moody rooms in the right setting, but I always feel like hotel rooms should be airy and cheerful. So your perspective may differ, but that’s mine, for what it’s worth.

Hotel amenities: The hotel’s on-site café, Café M, serves breakfast and lunch, and there is also the Chinoiserie Lounge, which serves cocktails and small plates. Room service is also available.

As World of Hyatt members, we had access to free wifi.

The hotel also includes a sauna and fitness room, as well as fresh towels and drinks for those using the wellness facilities.

The hotel makes coffee available in the mornings and flavored water and madeleines available in the afternoons and evenings in the lobby on your way to the elevators, so it’s easy to stop by on your way in or out for the day.

Parking/transportation: There are paid parking options near the hotel if you want to arrange that through the hotel, but there’s absolutely no reason anyone visiting Paris would need to have a car and worry about and pay for parking. Take the Métro! There are Métro stops very close by, and it’s quick and easy to get pretty much anywhere in Paris in no time. I think I remember learning in high school French class that there’s nowhere inside the Périphérique where you can be more than a nine-minute walk from a Métro station, and if I’ve somehow gotten that exact statistic wrong, I will say it feels true. Much more so than London, in any event, where finding a Tube station can be a little bit of a hike from certain spots.

Taxis are also plentiful if you aren’t a Métro fan.

Food/drink: The breakfast buffet. Oh, boy. This was 100% a real highlight of our stay. Our breakfast was complimentary because we were booked as a Guest of Honor booking, but I’ll also include a photo of the menu below so you can see prices.

One of my favorite indulgences in the world is a luxurious breakfast buffet at a fancy hotel in Southeast Asia, and this wasn’t quite that, but it came pretty close to meeting that dream just because of the sheer decadence of all the pastries, fruit, and dairy. I had no idea that “plain” vanilla yogurt could taste that great. (Who am I, even, raving about vanilla yogurt of all things?)

The breakfast area was fairly crowded both mornings we were there, so I wasn’t able to get photos of the entire spread that was available, but it was extensive and everything was very high quality.

My take: The Hyatt Paris Madeleine is a great way to get a luxurious stay in the middle of Paris without spending the same kind of points you’d have to spend to stay at the Park Hyatt. It’s also in a more convenient location for walking than the Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile, which is all the way out on the western side of the city, close to the Périphérique. (Though I will point out that the Étoile rooms go for way fewer points and many rooms also offer an Eiffel Tower view. It’s a huge high-rise property and has a totally different feel from the luxurious, boutiquey Hyatt Paris Madeleine. So which property is better for you all depends on what you’re looking for.)

How you can stay here: The Hyatt Paris Madeleine is a Hyatt Award Category 7 property and award nights range from 25,000 points per night (off-peak) to 35,000 points per night for their standard rooms.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio, so just 25,000 Ultimate Rewards points could get you a night at this beautiful property in the center of Paris.

Options to earn Hyatt points or transferable-to-Hyatt points:

Chase Ink Business Preferred: 100,000-point welcome bonus after a recently lowered spending requirement ($8,000 instead of $15,000), $95 annual fee

Chase Sapphire Preferred: 60,000-point welcome bonus after $4,000 in spending, $95 annual fee

Chase World of Hyatt: 30,000-point or 60,000-point welcome bonus after either $3,000 or $15,000 in spending, depending on what you want to do, $95 annual fee, annual Category 1-4 award night after first year

Chase World of Hyatt business card: 60,000-point welcome bonus after $5,000 in spending, $199 annual fee, no free award nights