Review: the citizenM Paris Gare de Lyon hotel

This is our review of the citizenM Hotel Paris Gare de Lyon.

The citizenM brand is about as close as you will get to Japanese capsule-style hotels in Europe and the US.

Each hotel features identical shipping container-sized rooms – totally identical, because they are all prefabricated in the same factory in Poland or China before before being stacked on top of each other as part of a hotel development. This keeps both costs and construction time down.

As you will see below, rooms feature the same small shower and toilet suite, iPad controls and king-size bed. Whilst not particularly big, they are thoughtfully designed to maximise the space available, something that cannot always be said of ‘normal’ hotels where the building footprint dictates the shape of the rooms.

I spent two nights in Paris last week looking at different hotels – a review of Hilton’s new-ish Canopy will follow in a week or so. citizenM provided my room for review purposes but HfP paid all of its other costs including a crazily expensive Eurostar ticket ….

Our other citizenM reviews include:

• citizenM Tower of London review
• citizenM London Victoria Station review
• citizenM Shoreditch review

Following a growth spurt, you can now find them in Europe (Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Geneva, Glasgow, London, Paris, Rome, Rotterdam, Zurich), the US (Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington), Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.

The citizenM Paris Gare de Lyon website is here.

Where is citizenM Paris Gare de Lyon?

The name gives it away, doesn’t it? Crucially, the citizenM is right next to the station, opposite the beautiful clock tower in the 12th arondissement.

If you are coming from London via Eurostar then it is an easy 20 minute trip on the RER D Line from Gare du Nord. Otherwise, the station is connected to the Paris Metro by lines 1 and 14 as well as the wider SNCF rail network. Paris Austerlitz station is just across the Seine.

The hotel, which opened in 2017, is a 16-story tower sandwiched in between the Seine (and a multi-lane road) and Gare de Lyon. It’s not going to win any architecture awards but then none of the surrounding (office?) blocks will either.

Inside citizenM Paris Gare de Lyon

The entrance at ground level is fairly low-key with two elevators taking you up to the second floor, where you’ll find the hotel lobby and other areas.

You’re immediately greeted by a bank of self-check-in kiosks. Simply put in your surname and you’ll be taken through the check-in process and instructed how to create your own hotel keys. It’s very easy and intuitive.

As part of the check-in process you are able to add any extras such as breakfast or late check out, available for an extra charge. You can also choose a room type, with eight different options depending on the view and whether you pick a high or low floor. I asked the attendant what the best view was and she said a high-floor station view room so that’s what I picked!

Also on the second floor you’ll find a number of different living and work spaces, loosely divided into rooms:

and

A couple of iMacs were available as well.

At the very back is the hotel bar called ‘canteenM’ with a grab and go shop:

…. as well as a number of meeting rooms that you can book and a small outside courtyard / terrace:

Rooms at the citizenM Paris Gare de Lyon hotel

If you’ve stayed at a citizenM before then you’ll know exactly what to expect. There is only one room type. There are no rooms with two twin beds, no family rooms, no connecting rooms, no suites, no upgrades, nothing. The only other option is a disabled accessible room.

Each room is a skinny rectangle and you enter end on. I was lucky enough to have an extra window on the left as I was in the very end unit:

This did have a lovely view of the station:

The other window, at the end of the room, overlooks what appears to be an office building that went into bankruptcy during construction and has remained a concrete husk since.

First up is a small open hangar space, followed by a shower and toilet cubicle in frosted glass:

and

The shower features a body wash/shampoo dispenser and conditioner:

A small sink with fridge, hairdryer and towels is opposite:

A curtain lets you partition the ‘bathroom’ from the ‘bedroom’ but it’s all the same space. The XL king bed is wedged into the far end:

This does, of course, mean that one person needs to clamber over the other during the night if there are two of you.

Large, built-in storage drawers are underneath and big enough for wheeled bags. The right-hand bedside table morphs into a small desk:

…. whilst opposite is a small bench and wall mounted TV:

The entire room, including colourful lighting, air conditioning and the TV, is controlled via an iPad mini:

It’s very intuitive and works very well. There is no need to try and figure out confusing hotel thermostats here. You can connect to your own streaming services as well as watch live TV and radio.

Meanwhile, some personality has been injected with the typical citizenM balloon sculupture and some (intentionally?) wonky art:

There are plenty of mains sockets and USB charging ports all over the room – the desk even featured built-in EU, US and UK sockets.

Breakfast at citizenM Paris Gare de Lyon

Breakfast is served by the bar / grab-and-go section, which is reconfigured during breakfast service. If you’ve booked breakfast then you simply give your room number at the bar and they give you a tray, plate and take your coffee order.

Don’t expect the world from the citizenM breakfast. This is a capsule hotel, after all. That said, I was surprised at the variety on offer.

When it comes to hot food there are just three options in three red Le Creuset casserole dishes: scrambled eggs, sauteed mushrooms and potato.

The continental selection is substantially better. On the island are fresh (still warm) croissants and pain au chocolat, as well as bread and cereals:

In the fridge you’ll find cold cuts of ham, cheese, smoked salmon (very upmarket for a citizenM!) and halved boiled eggs as well as orange and grapefruit slices:

It’s not a huge selection but better than I was expecting and I went to town on a pain au chocolat and the grapefruit.

Conclusion

The genius of citizenM is that you always know what you are going to get, and that is:

• a convenient location
• smart but compact rooms
• a basic breakfast
• useful lobbies with lots of space for hot-desking or relaxing

As long as you don’t come with reams of luggage then it offers somewhere private and comfortable to stay for a fair price, especially in cities where you are spending 90% of your time out and about.

The smart features, such as light and temperature controls are simply so intuitive and removes all trial and error from trying to work out poorly designed thermostats or idiosyncratic light switches that plague so many ‘luxury’ hotels.

Pricing is all over the place due to the Olympics, but in September or October you’d typically pay €150 to €170 per night over a weekend.

You can find out more, and book, on the hotel website here.

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