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Review: the Maison Astor, Paris hotel (Curio Collection), part of the Hilton winter sale

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This is our review of the Maison Astor Paris hotel, part of Hilton’s Curio Collection.

Hilton is currently running its latest sale for hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

You can get up to 20% off participating properties for weekend stays up to 21st April 2025. You must book by 28th January 2025.  You can see full details on the Hilton website here.

To show you what sort of hotels you could book in the Hilton sale, the HfP team split up and visited three different properties in three different countries. Before Christmas we looked at the newly refurbished DoubleTree Amsterdam Centraal and last week we visited Lincoln Plaza in London’s Canary Wharf, part of Hilton’s Curio Collection.

Maison Astor Paris hotel exterior

For this final review my son and I headed to Paris to visit Maison Astor, which has been part of Curio Collection since it reopened in 2018 after a major upgrade. As one of Hilton’s ‘collection’ brands, Curio brings together independent boutique properties, letting you earn and spend Hilton Honors points and enjoy your Hilton Honors status perks.

Curio hotels are high quality but do not have to meet strict Hilton ‘brand standards’, allowing the operators to exercise their creativity. We’ve generally been very impressed by the Curio Collection hotels we’ve visited.

We booked for cash via hilton.com but we will be reimbursed by the company. Hilton has not seen or approved this review.

The Maison Astor website is here.

Where is Maison Astor Paris?

As long term HfP readers will know, our reviews from Paris tend to cover the bigger branded hotels. I love InterContinental Paris Le Grand, for example, and in the last year have also visited Park Hyatt Paris Vendome and Hotel Lutetia, soon to become a Mandarin Oriental.

These are all large scale properties, admittedly with facilities to match. Maison Astor positions itself as a boutique hotel although the modest frontage conceals the fact that it has 131 rooms. Most people would class ’boutique’ as under 100 rooms, but Maison Astor still retains the boutique look and feel.

My preferred Paris location is around Opera where InterContinental Paris Le Grand and Park Hyatt can be found. It is a modest walk downhill from the Eurostar terminal and you have easy access to the department stores on Boulevard Haussmann. The Louvre is a modest stroll away.

Maison Astor scores well here. It is positioned between rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and Boulevard Haussmann. It is a slightly longer walk from Eurostar than the hotels I mentioned above, but not by much.

Maison Astor hotel Paris location

The building was constructed in 1907 by John Jacob Astor IV, who owned the Waldorf-Astoria in New York at the time and later died on the Titanic.

It is on a quiet side street with little traffic. The only negative is that some of the street facing rooms face one of the very few modern office buildings in central Paris, so you lose some of the Parisienne vibe. Other rooms do not – actually ours was half and half, as you can see here:

Maison Astor Paris hotel view

Whilst my room overlooked the street, many overlook a large atrium (PR photo below). I never saw this myself because my room did not look into it and it isn’t used as public space:

Maison Astor Paris hotel atrium

You enter into a circular lobby. This was usually quiet but difficult to photograph due to the number of Christmas lights they had up, so again I’ve fallen back on a PR shot. The atmosphere was far more laid back than you’d find in a hotel with double or triple the room count.

It’s worth noting that the hotel is big enough to employ a dedicated concierge team which is based in the lobby.

Our room at Maison Astor Paris

It was dark when my son and I arrived which is reflected in the pictures. We had booked a Deluxe Twin and this seems to be what we got despite my Diamond status, although it was a busy Saturday just before Christmas. That said, the room was very large.

As a historic property there seems to be a wide mix of room sizes and types, including a duplex suite. Some rooms have terraces. As this was not an ‘official’ review trip I wasn’t able to see other rooms.

Maison Astor Paris hotel room

There is a lot of quirky artwork scattered around the hotel – you can see one of the pictures in our room in this shot:

Maison Astor Paris bedroom

I was impressed by the large desk, and it was good to have a Nespresso machine and a kettle along with a good selection of capsules and tea bags.

What you can’t easily see from the photo is the quality of what is there. This hotel was not refurbished on the cheap.

The bathroom was bizarrely small compared to the size of the sleeping area. On an (unreviewed) stay at Park Hyatt Paris Vendome this summer I felt the bathroom was far too big, leaving a tiny sleeping space. Maison Astor was the opposite, with the bathroom taking up only around 15% of the room.

Maison Astor Paris bathroom

The shower was an ‘over the bath’ type. Everything was spotless and looked very smart but I did wonder why it wasn’t twice as big.

It’s worth mentioning that rooms are served by just one old fashioned lift. It’s cute, but it’s also small and slow! We ended up taking the stairs most of the time to our first floor room. This photo also shows how smart the corridors look.

Maison Astor Paris hotel lift

Food and drink at Maison Astor

As with the rest of the hotel, this is a little eclectic.

Let’s start with ‘The Dining Room’ restaurant. This is a truly lovely space, far beyond what you would typically expect in a boutique hotel (PR photo):

Maison Astor Paris hotel The Dining Room

What’s odd is that the hotel does not serve dinner, despite having this space. Apart from breakfast, it is only open for lunch on weekdays.

Looking back at our 2018 story on the opening of the hotel, it talks about a fine dining restaurant called Salle à Manger. The hotel has clearly tried, and not succeeded, to make formal evening meals work.

Here’s a photo I took:

Maison Astor Paris restaurant

In the evening, and all day at the weekend, you need to eat in the bar or – far more likely – eat out. Given the number of venues on your doorstep, you’re not going to starve.

Breakfast is served in ‘The Dining Room’ which makes it a great way to start the day. There is an ante room to the right of the photo above where a large buffet is laid out. This is about a third of it:

Maison Astor Paris hotel breakfast

What impressed me was the variety. Madelines, muffins, doughnuts, cookies, oranges, bananas, lemons, a large range of pastries and breads, pancakes, crepes, french toast, scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, honeycomb, cereals, a wide range of juices …. it was well done.

There was a card on our table with a list of chargeable add-ons – smoked salmon for €9, freshly squeezed orange juice for €8, a mimosa for €14 and champagne for €18. I would have expected the first two to be free on the buffet, to be honest.

Bar ‘Le Club’ at Maison Astor

If you want a meal in the evenings, or anytime at weekends, you will need to use ‘Le Club’, the restaurant that is part of the hotel bar. This is off the left of reception and is open from 4pm until midnight.

It’s not an ambitious menu – burgers, fish and chips, steak, sea bream, pasta, steak tartare, chicken breast etc – but did the job. Mains are in the €22 to €30 range.

Here’s a burrata I had as an appetiser:

Maison Astor hotel paris bar

Again, it was a well designed and cosy space:

Maison Astor Paris hotel bar

The gym

It’s worth mentioning that there is a small fitness room on the ground floor. As you can see from the wallpaper, it’s not your usual looking gym!

Maison Astor Paris hotel gym

To get to this you pass two meeting spaces. The largest, ‘The Kitty Library’, is off ‘The Dining Room’ and looks impressive. The website says it can host 40 but that would be for a standing event – the table was set up for a board meeting of 16.

Conclusion

I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by Maison Astor.

I knew the location would be perfect for my favourite haunts, but what I didn’t know before I walked in was how much money and effort had been spent on the refurbishment before it joined Hilton.

If you’re in Paris for a quiet romantic weekend then this is a good option. Whilst bigger than it looks from the street, the hotel feels cosy inside and you don’t feel that you are in a business or chain hotel – which, of course, is what Hilton’s ‘Curio Collection’ is all about.

Rooms are currently available from €250 or 67,000 points for a weekend night in February. Cash rates double by June, making Hilton Honors reward nights at 80,000 – 85,000 points look good value.

Remember that the current Hilton weekends sale runs until 28th January for stays until 21st April.

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

Looking for a hotel in Paris?

We’ve reviewed a number of hotels in the City of Lights, including (click to read):


How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (February 2025)

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There are two dedicated Hilton Honors debit cards. These are especially attractive when spending abroad due to the 0% or 0.5% FX fee, depending on card.

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We reviewed the Hilton Honors Plus Debit Card here and the Hilton Honors Debit Card here.

You can apply for either card here.

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There is another way of getting Hilton Honors status, and earning Hilton Honors points, from a payment card.

Holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.

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You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points.

Comments (13)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • ZeroMiles says:

    I’ve stayed in some terrible hotels in Paris when it comes to bathroom sizes! There was one where my legs hit the wall when sitting on the toilet and I’m not exactly tall at 5’10!

  • Can says:

    My experience at Maison Astor was rather orthogonal.
    – We had a similar room as a diamond, facing the atrium. And it was dark during the day, receiving very little sun light.
    – We found the breakfast rather uninspiring and disappointing for the price tag.
    – In Paris, it is location, location, location. And this hotel is oddly positioned. It is not far from Champs Elysee but, who goes there in this time and age? For us, it was off from interesting stuff. We ended up taking the bus a lot.
    In conclusion, we won’t be coming back.

    • meta says:

      And from above picture the breakfast looks totally uninspiring despite Rob’s claim. Half cookie anyone? May I tempt you with an empty juice dispenser?

      • Nick G says:

        It does look like there’s hardly anything left I agree….maybe it was end of breakfast and they couldn’t be bothered to restock?

        OT with the new dining credit every six months don’t think I’ll be in a position to use the abroad one much as the list is limited. Any recommendations for something French but not fancy as well be with our son in Paris if I bagged a cheap overnighter?

      • Chris W says:

        Who is eating a chocolate cookie or a pink donut for breakfast in Paris

        • Rob says:

          American Hilton members.

          Hilton Venice had to add Diet Coke to their breakfast menu (at a €5 upsell) due to pressure from US Hilton members who were demanding it.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          Food is food. Some would say sweet treats are best at the start of the day.

          Never dunked a biscuit in a morning brew?

  • Michael C says:

    Didn’t find a reason not to go back to Hilton Opera instead of trying this.

    • Rob says:

      If you like Hilton Paris Opera you probably won’t like this – two different beasts. If your partner tells you that Opera is too big and impersonal, then you move.

      • Michael C says:

        Good point, @Rob – as we tend to travel as a threesome, we do indeed tend to
        go for the larger, more spacious option with the spread-.out lobby.
        Maybe the priorities will change in our Saga tour childfree days!

  • Bobby says:

    This is a really good and fair review. Thanks for sharing.

    From the hotel availability did you get the sense the hotel was genuinely out of higher category rooms, or they simply elect not to proactively upgrade?

    • Rob says:

      When you book a twin room you always reduce your options massively. It may even have been a Premium Twin given how big it was and they just never told me.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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