LONDON EUSTON-ST.PANCRAS - SEPT 2010

Back here again. The queues at check in are becoming a real problem and checking in and checking out can take 15/20 mins.

If you use the express check out its OK but if you want to leave your bag in storage you still have to queue.

Tempers were getting a little frayed when I was there this time. Rest of it the usual. Paid £109.00 GBP this time.

View from room 235 wasn't great but the free drink voucher they gave me at check in was nice. Don't know why they gave it me but they did. Didn't ask questions!!

BRUSSELS CENTRE STE. CATHERINE BELGIUM - OCTOBER 2009

Was back in Brussels working last October. The hotel is still good value though like most hotels the prices seem to have crept up in the last couple of years. the best thing about this hotel is its location. It is next to the Ste. Catherine Metro stop and is close to an area of really good fish restaurants. When I first went to Brussels the area around this hotel was pretty shabby but it has certainly improved in recent years. Ideal for the Grand Place. Its about a 10 minute walk. If you are staying in Brussels in conncetion with the European Commission the Ste. Catherine metro stop (about 100 yards from the hotel) is about 4 stops (about 15mins max) from the Schuman metro stop which is at the heart of the Commission district.

COMPETITION TIME!!

Bit of an odd competition from Ibis to celebrate the opening of their 50th hotel in Brazil. (Good news if you are going to the football World Cup in 2014 or the Olympics in 2016. It really does look like Brazil's decade doesn't it?)



The news story is here



The competition website is here

LONDON EUSTON-ST.PANCRAS - JAN 2010

Back in London again.

Not much more to report on this one since the last visit.

Its still good value although the price is creeping up I find. Maybe its just the dates I go.

A couple of pics show the room.

Clean, good value, great location.

Bar getting better I think. Friendly staff, few more people using it as a place to actually have a drink rather than a meeting place before going somewhere else.

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.

IBIS LEEDS CENTRE - DECEMBER 2008

In Leeds (city in West Yorkshire , UK) for a concert Saturday night.
Stayed at the Ibis Leeds Centre.

Very big hotel (168 rooms on 12 floors) about 15 mins walk from the heart of Leeds centre.

Be aware that if they put you above the 10th floor it's probably a smoking room.

The hotel has no car park but there is a pay and display car park across the (very busy) road. It is normally 5 GBP for overnight but at weekends its 1 GBP.

There is an "in house" cab firm who are very efficent and very cheap (3.50 GBP to Leeds centre).

The staff were very friendly and efficient although they did initially put us in a smoking room which we didn't fancy. They changed it quick enough but it meant another 10 minute wait at the reception.

We did have something to eat in the restaurant/bar and it was the worst meal I have had all year.

We had an Aberdeen Angus Steak Burger (with fries and salad) at 8.95 GBP. The chips were cold, the burger was burnt, the bun was stale and the salad was limp. Altogether the worst experience I have ever had in an Ibis. We had to leave in a hurry so no time to complain and didn't fancy another wait at reception to do so..

Rooms have shower but no bath (or at least ours did).

The best thing about it was the price. I don't know the rack rate for rooms but I paid 39 GBP but then I did book it 6 months in advance.

Overall OK and would stay there again. Got the impression it is a favourite stay over for stag and hen parties judging by the large numbers of groups of young men and young women in the bar. Suspect it could get a bit noisy if you get unlucky. We had no problems with our room though.

The concert was great though. Here's the ticket:

IBIS LONDON EUSTON ST.PANCRAS- DECEMBER 2008

Back in London again working I stayed at this Ibis near Euston. Stayed here before and its OK. Its probably the most expensive Ibis I have stayed in (120 GBP for one night, breakfast extra (about 7 GBP). This is quite expensive for an Ibis but probably very competitve for a hotel so centrally located in London. Its literally about 2 minutes walk from Euston station and about 15 mins walk from the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras.

It's quite a busy hotel so expect to queue to check in and out. (see pic)

Had a meal in the restaurant. It was OK. Two course for 12.50 GBP. Soup and roll starter with a choice of main course. I had roast beef and potatoes and vegetable. Excellent roast beef.

Rooms are clean and modern. Mine was a bit cold during the night and couldn't find any source of heating. My colleague who stayed in another part of the hotel said he was too hot in the night so its a bit hit and miss though.

My room had bath with shower over bath.

Friendly staff. Nice quiet bar area for a drink with sports on big TV screens. Room has nice big TV but not many channels though.

OVER TO YOU

As well as the reviews I will publish I have decided to let you have a go. If you have stayed at an Ibis recently anywhere in the world you can send me a short (50-100 words) review, preferably with a pic (though don't worry if not) and I will consider it for publication on this blog. No fees and the terms and conditions are whatever I decide them to be. Nothing actionable please.
Reviews to ibisblog@hotmail.co.uk

MILANO CENTRO - JULY 2008

A couple of friends just back from here.

Here's a review of the hotel from one of my friends.

"Just got back from spending 5 nights at the IBIS CENTRO Milan.Generally it was good - very comfy bed & thick curtains - so slept well.

Breakfast is usual unhealthy northern European breakfast - ham, salami Cheese croissants - some cereal but limited fruit but the coffee is good. Bar was good with limited reasonably priced food however be warned the restaurant is very expensive - on arrival we paid 55 euro for a basic lunch (for two).

The hotel emphasises closeness to Republica Metro station (right outside front entrance) but there is nothing there apart from the Metro. Far better is to go the other way (left via a choice of three roads) to Porta Venezia metro which is at the end of Via Buenos Aries a major shopping street.

The streets between the hotel and Porta Venezia have loads of restaurants and bars, some African.

The hotel is also within 10-15 easy walk of Central station which makes it easy for days out.

One disappointment - the reception staff were unable to sell me a stamp for a postcard and post it. This is a basic requirement in an unfamiliar city not knowing where to get stamps from."

CAEN CENTRE NORMANDY- AUG 2005

Unintentional stay here. On route from one camp site in Normandy to another campsite in another part of Normandy the petrol tank began to run low. Drove past a couple of closed petrol stations then a closed supermarket. No worries. On to Deauville. Bound to be a petrol station there . It's a major town after all. Well there was a petrol station and it was closed. What was going on? Why would all the petrol stations, along with everything else be closed on the 15th August. Because its the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary thats why!

Of course France is a secular republic. You know! Secular in the way that all the shops close on religious holidays along with all the factories and offices and airports and petrol stations.

The only thing we could do was to limp in to Caen, put up in the Ibis and wait for the morning. Unexpected pleasures though are often the best. This is a nice little town which we wouldn't even have driven through. As it was we had a nice walk around the medieval castle followed by a lovely meal outside in the medieval square in the shadow of the castle.

BRUSSELS CENTRE STE CATHERINE BELGIUM - MAY 2006/JUNE 2007

This Ibis is in a really good location. There are actually 8 Ibis' in Brussels but for me this is the best location. 6 of them are either near the airport or in the suburbs around the Parliament. The other 1 is virtually on the Grand Place and although I have never stayed there it always seems well noisy and far too near the action for a restful nights sleep. The Ste Catherine Ibis is 10 mins walk from the Grand Place and is in an up and coming district which has a new Metro station (Ste Catherine) and is near to a rapidly improving restaurant and market area. 2 mins walk from some excellent fish restaurants and far enough away from the hustle and bustle for a bit of peace and quiet.

The hotel itself, which I have stayed at twice (once for pleasure and once for work), is fine. Normal Ibis rooms. Decent sized bar with big screen for football and so forth. Good restaurant area for evening meals and breakfast and very friendly staff. I have never had a problem at this hotel on the couple of occasions I have stayed there. Would recommend it to anyone. 'Cheap as chips' as well if you book plenty in advance and go at the right time. You would be hard pushed to get a better deal so close to the centre in Brussels, which is a notoriously expensive city. If you know Brussels it's about 5 minutes walk from the Bourse.

RENNES CENTRE GARE SUD FRANCE - JULY 2006

Stopped off here for a night on the way back from a week in Brittany watching the Tour De France. This is a very big Ibis. Located right next to the main station in Rennes its well located. There is a nice old medieval bit of Rennes which is worth looking out. A couple of nice bars there and some interesting Moroccan and Algerian restaurants. Steer clear of the Algerian wine though. Definitely an acquired taste.

The Ibis has all the usual facilities plus a restaurant. I liked this one. No bath though just a shower.

PARIS GRANDS BOULEVARDS OPERA - DEC 2006/JAN 2007

Went to Paris for New Year. This Ibis was 20 mins walking distance from the Champs Elysees. Its just below the Monmarte district. The area has loads of interesting restaurants. The best one we found was a Lebanese place about 50 yards from the hotel. Went there New Years Eve before joining half a million other people outside the Arc de Triomphe.

Pics show view from hotel window. Lebanese restaurant is left out of the hotel entrance on the same side of the road.