Paris Hotels Tell Guests to 'Pay What You Want'

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Five Paris hotels have launched a program that allows guests to “pay what you want” after completing your stay, according to AFP, per Yahoo! News.

The program, which will run until Aug. 10, features five three-star and four-star hotels located in the tourism hotspot’s 9^th and 11^th districts, including Hotel Tour d'Auvergne, Grand Hotel Francais, Plaza Opera Hotel, Hotel Villa Boheme and Hotel Villa Opera Lamartime. Guests can literally pay whatever they want based on their impressions of the hotel, from their rooms to the customer service. The offer may even be extended if everything goes smoothly for hoteliers.

Aldric Duval, head of Hotel Tour d’Auvergne, spurred the bold offer, which aims to alleviate concerns about sky-high accommodation prices in the city while also expecting guests not to abuse it.

"It's a fair price operation, one of confidence in the client," Duval said, via the AFP report.

Si Zyad Si Hocine, the owner of Grand Hotel Francais, said he was confident "guests will pay a fair price,” per the report.

The offer will be available only to those who make bookings through the official website, www.payezcequevousvoulez.net. Two to three rooms have been aside by each of the hotels for the offer/social experiment.

TravelPulse’s Take

Hey, it’s worth a shot.

The five hotels probably won’t make as much money as they normally would with a “normal” room rate in Paris, but it’s going to be interesting what guests are willing to pay.

For example, will guests consciously abuse the system? Will they research the going rate for a Paris hotel room and pay accordingly? Or will they take it as simply an invitation to book a (really) cheap rate for a hotel, regardless of the service?

One thing to point out is that this is a social experiment more than anything. If it doesn’t work out for these hotels, it’s not a huge loss, considering a) the offer only goes until Aug. 10, b) they are currently only featuring two to three rooms each under the program and c) it’s good publicity, which could boost bookings in the future based on the sheer idea of it.

It’s also important to note that the offer doesn’t have to end on Aug. 10. You guests out there have some say based on what you pay. So, if you want this offer to continue, pay accordingly.

FYI: The best available rate for a double room at Hotel Tour d’Auvergne as of this writing was 169 euros (so you guests have no excuse to pay less out of ignorance).

Some of the best hotels in the world (in fact, you could say most of them) have experimented to try to stand out from the competition. Sure, sometimes it goes sideways, but it’s important to try new things in the ever-evolving hospitality world (and ever-evolving world) more often than not.

And, again, it appears to be a smart experiment by these five Paris hotels, considering there isn’t a whole lot to lose and they could reap the benefits on publicity alone.

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