The Playce - Paris
Boutique hostel-hotel hybrid with a games room at the foot of Montmartre
The Playce sits at 66 Boulevard Barbès on the southern edge of the 18th, a 10-minute walk from Sacré-Coeur via the Rue des Martyrs climb. Run by the Happyculture boutique-hotel group, it blends hotel-quality private rooms with a ground-floor games room that includes an arcade machine, table football and board games. Good pick for groups and couples who want private ensuites, not dorms.
The Playce opened in 2022 as Happyculture's budget-boutique answer to the Paris youth-hostel market. It's housed in a converted mid-century office on Boulevard Barbès, a working-class multicultural stretch at the southern foot of Montmartre. The street itself is noisy and busy with the Barbès-Rochechouart metro hub (Lines 2 and 4) nearby — but the building is set back from the boulevard with good glazing and the rooms are genuinely quiet.
The fit-out is closer to a design hotel than a hostel: private rooms only (double, twin, triple, family), all with ensuite bathrooms, quality mattresses, desk, TV and proper curtains. No dorms — this is one of the few 'hostel-branded' properties in Paris that skips them entirely. The ground floor is the social heart: a games room with an arcade cabinet, table football, a PlayStation zone and shelves of board games, plus a lobby with 24-hour self-serve coffee machine.
Breakfast is an add-on (€9 buffet, fresh viennoiserie and hot eggs on request), served in a sunny ground-floor room with big windows onto Boulevard Barbès. A small bar-lounge runs in the evenings with wines and local beers.
Location is the trade-off: Barbès is a 10-minute walk from Sacré-Coeur via the steep Rue des Martyrs climb, but you pass through a market-stall stretch that's lively by day and can feel exposed late at night. Better-rated Montmartre approaches are from Lamarck-Caulaincourt (12 min) or Anvers (9 min). For nightlife, Pigalle is 6 minutes south and the canal-side bars of the 10th are two metro stops east.
- 01Private rooms only, all with ensuite bathrooms and hotel-quality beds
- 02Ground-floor games room with arcade, table football and PlayStation
- 03Free 24-hour lobby coffee machine, rare in this price band
- 0410-minute walk to Sacré-Coeur without the Rue Lepic tourist crowds
- 8.1 rating across 2003 Booking reviews, top-rated boutique-hostel in the 18th
- 4-min walk to Barbès-Rochechouart (Metro 2 and 4)
- Privates-only configuration, no dorms, hotel-quality fit-out
- Games room and ground-floor lounge bar
“Location, outlook, everything you need. Very helpful staff and the coffee machine in the lobby was a nice touch.”
“All good. Nice touch was the coffee machine in the lobby. Room was small but modern, clean and quiet.”
“Close to Gare du Nord and good transport links. Warm, had kettle in room and was quiet at night. Breakfast was worth the add-on.”
- Barbès-Rochechouart (Metro 2, 4)4 min walk
- Sacré-Coeur Basilica10 min walk via Rue des Martyrs
- Pigalle nightlife6 min walk
- Gare du Nord10 min metro (2 stops)
- Moulin Rouge8 min walk
- Canal Saint-Martin2 stops on Metro 2
