A four-star dreaming of being a two-star.
I am sure that, maybe in its heyday, Hotel de la Ville was a prime business.
Clearly, those days are long gone.
The rooms, the corridors, the building in general is clearly dating, but management resorts to one of the oldest tricks in the trade: keep a decent lobby, just to save face.
Quite large (50, 80 even 160 people) one-night groups from countries not known for their high sanitation standards travelling on low-low-cost tours along with very, very blue-collar guests, some of them carrying huge dogs, seem to be its market niche. Imagine.
In all fairness, Hotel de la Ville delivers the quality corresponding exactly to the price it charges, thus meaning: cheap is cheap and a four-stars, in reality, is a two-stars.
I should not complain either about a €3 breakfast even if it includes staled cornetti, runny scrambled eggs, expired milk, badly kept yoghurt, awful coffee and ¾ foam, rather cold capuccinos or a $80 room with bad housekeeping.
To add insult to injury, Hotel de la Ville is located in a tough neighborhood where strange, suspicious characters from a shelter next door continuously hover around the property, especially at night.