Hunting down a cheap and central hotel in Paris can be a daunting challenge. It's not hard to find one and two-star hotels for under €75 (about $105) per night, but they're often less-than-inspiring places and frequently located in rather grim neighborhoods.

Fortunately, there are dozens of hotels in Paris' prime neighborhoods that offer rooms at budget rates. However, they can be tricky to find online, as many of them don't work with reservation agencies. This means that you'll never see them on websites like Hotels.com, Expedia or Kayak.

Most of these hotels want to keep it this way. They'd rather handle their own reservations. After all, the booking agencies usually charge hefty commissions, which drive up room rates for everyone.

For smaller hotels with a faithful clientele, they frequently fill up on their own. They don't need to pay for the service.

Reserving a room at one of these "offline" hotels requires a little more legwork for travelers. You'll have to check their website (if they have one), email them (if they have email), or call them (they'll have a telephone).

EuroCheapo put together a guide of cheap hotels in Paris, and here are five of their favorite one-star sleeps, none of which will ever show up on a booking website: