LONDON EUSTON-ST.PANCRAS - SEPT 2009

Been here a good few times before. Not bad value for this mid week stay . £69 GBP per night without breakfast.

Only new thing I noticed was the (pictured) booking form which allows guests to book their next stay in advance by filling in the form and leaving it at the desk on checkout.

I can recommend this hotel as a good, cheap, central London location. See previous posts for reviews, here, here, and here

BRISTOL CENTRE - JULY 2009

A stop over on a Sunday night on the way back from a festival in Dorset. This Ibis is one of two in Bristol (the other being nearer to Temple Meads station).

Its about 5/10 minutes walk from the newly regenerated floating harbour area of the city. It is in a very new development of apartments and bars/nightclubs. We stayed on a Sunday night and it was fine though I imagine due to its location it is a bit livelier on a Friday and Saturday nights.

Very friendly , almost entirely French, staff. Very helpful. A bit of a disaster when I ordered a pizza later in the evening which the kitchen "forgot", but to be fair I was offered a complementary drink and an apology and the situation was soon put right.

The hotel itself has no parking but is quite close to an underground car park which if you ask the hotel they will validate your ticket and you will get a discount. The full 24 hours costs £14 but we arrived at about 8pm and left at about 10 am the following morning and with the validated ticket it cost £9.

The hotel is right next to a museum called Explore@Bristol which is the huge globe in the picutres.

The pictures show the room, the bathroom (which is the shower/toilet pod type) and the view out of the window.

All in all a pleasant enough place and relatively cheap considering its central location, we paid 50GBP for a twin room.

LONDON EUSTON-ST.PANCRAS - MARCH 2009

Back to an oft visited Ibis. Arrived to check in about 5.30 pm and straight up to reception. No queue. Different story in the morning though. A queue of about 15 mins. OK if your'e not in a rush. Not if you are.

Should have used express checkout (see pic). Wanted to leave bag in store room to collect later so had to queue anyway.

Nice and clean. Friendly staff. Tea and coffee making facilities as standard these days. Cheap for central London. £67 GBP for a room for two.

Pics show room, new TV style and view from room.

BID FOR A BED?!!

This seems a crazy scheme but generally these Ibis people know what they are doing. Apparently you can pay what you want for a bed at the Ibis in Singapore. More details here. Don't really understand it but worth a look.

There is only one Ibis in Singapore so I assume this is the pic of it...

(pic from Ibis Hotel Website - www.ibishotel.com )

BLIMEY! - THAT'S A LOT OF HOTELS - JANUARY 2009

News story here about the amazing expansion of the Ibis hotel chain in China.

Earlier this year they opened 6 hotels in 10 days.

Here's the one in Shanghai (pic courtesy of Accor)

Suppose there are a lot of people though.

If embed link doesn't work try this

http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1133883.php

IBIS CARLISLE - JAN 2009

Sometimes I just pass by an Ibis or see an advert for one ( like the ad in this picture taken at Carlisle racecourse) and just momentarily wonder what it's like. I sometimes go to http://www.tripadvisor.com/ just to see what people are saying about it. Well if you go here you can see what 43 people (up to now) think of the only Ibis in Carlisle.

IBIS LONDON EARLS COURT- DEC 2008

A review sent to me by "Jimbo" of a stay at the above.

" A large hotel of over 250 rooms, the Ibis overlooks both imposing Earls Court exhibition centres.

A good breakfast although due to volume of people a good ten minute wait before you got a table.

Average bar on first floor, although prices reasonable, showing Sky Sports.

Quite a walk from tube station and in a bit of a roughish part of town."

OH DEAR! NOT GOOD.

This report from the Manchester Evening News in the UK gives a not too glowing report to two of the cities Ibis'.

This is the main extract regarding the Ibis hotels:

"Undercover inspectors from Which? Holiday checked into eight of the city's most visited budget spots - but their findings were less than spotless with reports of mould growing on a mattress in the Ibis, in Charles Street, and a suspected blood stain on a duvet in the chain's Portland Street hotel."

The full article is here:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1088651_hotels_for_a_dirty_weekend?rss=yes

Ironically, although I live in Manchester I have never visited either of these hotels so I can't make any comment from personal experience.