My wife and I stayed at the Hotel Trocadero for three days in mid-April 2006. The hotel is in a very nice, upper-class residential neighborhood in the center of a shopping district. Within an easy five minute walk there are numerous small shops, an indoor mall with a supermarket, several cafes, bistros, and a McDonald's for homesick Americans. The metro stops for the #9 and the #6 lines are an easy five to seven minute walk from the hotel. The Eiffel Tower is probably a 20 minute walk down a hill and across the river.
The staff is helpful and for the most part speaks English. The elevator is small, very small. It is probably slightly bigger than a telephone booth. We used it only for our luggage. Breakfast is served in a small room. It consisted of fruit, juice, coffee, yogurt, and croissants. I think we paid an extra $10 US in our package to have breakfast for two, so for us the conveinence was worth it. However, as stated by others, there are several options nearby.
We stayed in room 21, which was similar in size to a room found in American hotels. The "double" bed was literally two twins pushed together. The bathroom was clean and had toilet, bidet, tub/shower, and hairdryer. The room decor was worn, maybe 20 years old, but I wouldn't call it dirty. We were in a no smoking room and didn't smell any smoke from adjoing rooms. However, it is Paris, so I think it is unrealistic to think you won't encounter it. The hotel and street seemed to come to life around 8:00 am and could easily wake a light sleeper wanting to sleep in.
My wife and I felt this hotel was fine for travelers looking for a safe, clean place to sleep after a day of sightseeing. I think it's fine for preteens and teens, but I don't know about toddlers. I also felt it was "off the beaten path". We were clearly in area that had more residents than tourists (which I counted as a plus). On a side note our taxi fare, one way, from CDG airport was 50 euro, which was in line with what our tour books estimated.

Negitives:
Ok here is the real deal, no matter what the pictures show on the internet the rooms are terrible. The carpet is old and looks to be infested, the beds were terribly uncomfortable and the shower went from hot to freezing the whole time. Although the location is good and it is in a nice part of town I would have paid more to stay somewhere with a nicer room. The paint is peeling off the walls the rooms smelled, the hotel really needs to be updated. The whole time that we were there they were doing construction on the room above us and all we heard was buzz saws the whole time. Also the elevator will only hold about two people no luggage it is pretty old as well.

Positives:
There was internet in the lobby although very over priced and the staff was very nice. But I would opt to stay somewhere with nicer rooms

My wife and I stayed 2 nights at the Hotel Trocadero La Tour on 10 and 11 March 2006. I agree with the other reviewers that the room we stayed in doesn't look like the picture on the Web site at all. Our room (Room 14) was very small, with a full-size bed.

The wall paper was stained in places and in general the room was very shabby. The carpeting and bedspread really needed to be replaced. Our room was on the first floor and the walls didn't block out sounds from adjacent rooms at all. At one point I heard someone in an adjoining room going through his/her mini-bar and it sounded like he/she was going through the mini-bar in my room!

The elevator, as mentioned in previous reviews, is very, very tiny. My wife and I took turns going up and down in it with our luggage. We only used the elevator when we checked in and when we checked out.

They served a continental-type breakfast in one small room every morning between 0645 and 1100 a.m. The breakfast consisted of coffee, plain yogurt, and two types of croissants. The food and service was excellent, but the small, overcrowded room made it hard to enjoy. On our second morning we walked down the Rue du Passy and found a small cafe where we had coffee and pastries in an uncrowded atmosphere.

The staff were excellent and spoke English very well and put up with our not-so-good French. On our first night there, after going out for our evening meal, my wife and I came back to the hotel and decided to have a cognac in the very comfortable lounge/lobby area. This area is nicely paneled and furnished with large leather furniture. Very comfortable. The person on duty brought us our cognac and told us that we were the first guests to take advantage of their new bar, one that he had created. Though the selection of beverages seemed kind of small, my wife and I did enjoy the cognac that night and the next.

Check-in and check-out went without problems.

I don't agree with those reviewers who say that the hotel isn't near the Eiffel Tower. La Tour Eiffel is only a short 10 or 15 minute walk from the hotel. And it's an enjoyable walk along through a very scenic Parisian neighborhood. There is no need to take the Metro, though one certainly can if one wants to. But why would you want to spend time in a dark tunnel when you can walk the beautiful Parisian streets?