I accept that this isn’t a perfect photo, but I had taken two flights and a rather packed bus from Bucharest Băneasa airport to get here. This is the Accor operated Ibis Styles hotel, which is where I was spending my final night of my near two week trip around various bits of Europe.
There was a very friendly welcome from the team member at reception and he mentioned about the free breakfast. When I said that I’d be leaving too early, he said that the hotel can arrange something in these circumstances, which was much appreciated. He also mentioned that they had upgraded my room and I very much liked this as well.
Very comfortable. The design felt both a bit 1980s and also modern, it had a homely feel that I liked. Ibis Styles are known for their slight quirkiness and they brand their hotels around a theme, with this one being air travel which feels appropriate.
My welcome drink of beer and also my welcome gift of fruit. I’ll be honest and say that I prefer chocolates, crisps, beer or random souvenirs, but a gift is a gift and was much appreciated. I also love seeing a Nespresso machine in a room, so I indulged in coffees.
Some of the room decoration.
I like traffic noise, so I opened the window happily, although the double glazing is very effective at keeping the noise out, including from the next door airport.
With my breakfast collected, it was time for the early morning walk to the airport. And more on both of those in the next post….
But, overall, this was an excellent hotel, with friendly service, clean rooms and no noise issues. I felt very welcome and after two flights in one day, with another one early the following morning, I felt entirely rested by the time I woke up. This is a hotel that I’d certainly be happy to book again when I’m next in the Bucharest area.
My night’s accommodation in Rimini was in the Accor operated Mercure Rimini Lungomare (lungomare is Italian for seafront). I suspect that this is quite a busy hotel during the summer months, although I can’t imagine that the demand is quite as high in November. I noticed several hotels along the seafront just close up for the winter months.
My room was upgraded and I had a rather nice balcony.
After I had worked out how to open the door (I suspect it was a child lock, so that will of course defeat me for some time) this was the view from my balcony. I always think this is lovely, but then promptly never go back out onto the balcony.
My very nice private balcony, which I didn’t go back out onto after looking out here.
Very lovely.
I’m not sure exactly what they are, but they were very nice.
The staff member at reception was particularly friendly and personable when I checked-in, so I felt very welcome. He mentioned that I could have a free drink between 19:00 and 21:00 which I privately thought seemed a bit limited for the bar opening. He then explained that this was extra to my welcome drink, which I could have at any time, and it was a hotel’s way of welcoming guests with snacks and a drink. I very much liked this arrangement.
These were the free snacks offered in the evening and this is something I’d like to see in many other locations.
I went for white wine, which I thought was very Italian.
I then went off for my two hour long walk and decided to switch back to beer. Well, Peroni, which is similar. And some more snacks. I sat outside to be continental although I think it was about minus three.
Breakfast the next morning, which had a fine selection of meats, cheeses, breads and the like.
Delicious.
There was no shortage of Nutella.
My first course.
I liked my first croissant, so I had another one. This pistachio tart thing was also very delicious.
Richard would have liked this, make your own orange juice from, well, oranges. I had quite a few glasses of this.
Anyway, I really liked this hotel, with no noise disturbances either internally or externally. I liked the welcome gift, the welcome beer, the welcome wine and the welcome food, so I definitely felt welcome. The hotel was spotless, the staff were friendly and the nightly rate was very reasonable. The breakfast was delicious and this Accor Hotel certainly surprised and delighted me.
We were all staying in Accor’s Ibis Styles for the three nights that we were in Ljubljana, a conveniently located hotel just a short walk away from the bus stop and railway station.
The set-up here is a little different to the usual Ibis Styles arrangement, as they also have a hostel on the seventh floor which means more social areas are provided for the entire hotel. There is a rooftop bar, which I confess that we forgot to visit.
We were all on different floors, but I think that the rooms looked the same. The bathroom set-up is very Ibis Styles… My room felt functional and bare, but it was clean and I had what I needed. Well, other than a welcome gift….
The view from the hotel over to Ljubljana Castle.
I had been fortunate to obtain a favourable rate that also included breakfast, although the others had booked room options without the breakfast. I didn’t intend to miss out though.
I didn’t bother with the hot options as the cold options were plentiful, but there were some eggs and sausages as well.
Bread, blue cheese, tomatoes, olives, cucumber, salami, croissant, bread and butter, all really rather lovely.
I always find it handy when they do this. I went down between 07:00 and 08:00 to fit in with the others and it was always quiet.
And my welcome drink, which I picked up on the final night. It’s not a beer that I’ve had before, but it was dark and interesting.
As an aside, I liked the lights outside the room which clearly indicated to the cleaning staff who wanted the room cleaned. I opted to just collect the 100 Accor points every night by not having the room cleaned, as every little helps…
I really rather liked this hotel, the staff were friendly, the room was clean, there were no internal or external noise, everything worked properly, there was a nice welcome drink and the breakfast was of a decent quality. I’d certainly stay here again if I come back to the city, which I likely will.
My first night in Genoa was at the keenly priced Novotel, around a twenty minute bus journey away from the airport (well, after a twenty minute walk as well).
I popped to the bar to get my welcome drink.
And after eight minutes I went back to reception as there were no bar staff. Incidentally, the reception desk were friendly and engaging, it was a very welcoming hotel.
The matter was promptly addressed and I got my Peroni, which tasted of metal and disappointment.
The bedroom. I didn’t turn either of them on, but this is the smaller of the two televisions in the apartment.
And the lounge area as well as the hotel had kindly upgraded me to their apartment suite. I did like having that desk and I had more than enough power points to plug devices into.
I didn’t really need a kitchen as well. The free welcome drinks were handy though.
Nor two huge drawers of plates, glasses and other assorted items.
The Nespresso machine with a kettle for teas.
And a microwave.
I had an entire room for a closet as well, I nearly put my one shirt up in the wardrobe to make the most of it.
The view from the room. The air conditioning in the rooms worked well, but I like having a bit of city noise and the windows opened wide which also helped fresh air get in as well.
Breakfast was suitably quiet at 07:15.
Croissants.
I usually skip hot items at breakfast, but the bacon was suitably burnt for my tastes and so I had some of that.
Hams and other items. Unfortunately, the allergens situation here was poorly handled, they were using shared tongs for cheeses, meats and olives. That meant that they had meat, dairy and all other allergens on numerous items, so I’m not sure that anyone with dietary issues would be entirely content here.
Very lovely.
And cake for breakfast is always lovely.
The online reviews for the hotel aren’t entirely positive, but I was pleased with everything. I think the car park charges are a bit high, but that’s hardly something that I need to bother myself with. I suspect that some elements of the hotel are due a refurbishment judging from the reviews, although the public areas looked shiny.
This hotel was very cheap as I was using rewards night, with the size of the upgrade being something of a pleasant surprise. There were a few minor cleanliness issues, but nothing of any concern, with the staff members always being friendly and helpful. I would stay here again if I was visiting Genoa again (well, obviously I won’t stay here if I don’t visit the city, but I digress).
This is the building that Ibis and Novotel share in Wrocław and I’ve stayed at the former before (it seems that’s something else that I have to write up). The standards here are high, there’s an efficiency with Accor Hotels in Poland that simply isn’t matched by great swathes of the rest of the chain.
The view from the hotel room overlooking central Wrocław and some construction work, although that didn’t cause any noise issues. The reception desk here is always full of enthusiasm, it’s a lovely first impression. I was upgraded as well which I decided not to turn down.
I had stayed at the Ibis a few weeks ago and there’s a shared bar, so I was aware of the rather excellent choice of welcome drinks from a local brewery. The team member was also knowledgeable about them all, this was a very good tropical tasting slightly sour wheat beer from Browar Prost.
The welcome gift which came with another free beer. Those are chocolates and they’re very moreish.
And the mini-bar was free, fortunately there was a sign on it stating that. This was very generous, part of the free room upgrade that they offered.
The hot drinks arrangement.
The room was light, spacious and comfortable. And spotlessly clean.
I didn’t get breakfast as I was going to the airport relatively early, but this was a quite lovely stay. The room has blackout curtains which are very effective, there were no noise issues internally or externally and everything just worked.
I keep writing this, but it’s true and so I will keep on doing it, but Accor hotels in Poland are run as well as any other chain that I can think of. They continue to surprise and delight. The hotel is a ten to fifteen minute walk from the city centre, but there is a tram stop outside which whisks passengers to the heart of Wrocław in just a few minutes.
This was a cheap hotel to stay at on a Sunday night but was convenient for my planned flight from Bournemouth Airport. I genuinely have no idea why they’re trying to be part of Accor though, they need to leave or they’re perhaps likely to be thrown out soon enough.
There was a lot of noise from neighbouring rooms even at check-in, which reception could hear. I should have really upgraded as Platinum Accor and I say that not out of privilege, but because they didn’t really seem to care about anything. I’m also not sure why they’re trying to be part of Ibis Styles, there’s not really much here that fits into that brand.
There was a welcome drink which they didn’t pro-actively mention but I claimed anyway. There was no welcome gift, but I could be asked about does it matter? Well, it sort of does, because most hotels in the Accor chain are complying with the standards they request and the Polish hotels operated by Orbis are offering ridiculously high standards. They’re upgrading, giving welcome gifts and almost going too far in meeting their obligations. It must be galling to the decent hotels to know that some other locations are not interested in committing in the way that they should.
There was no-one else in the bar area, which is actually reasonably pleasant. They don’t offer food, but the bar is open throughout the evening. This feels sub-optimal really, some considerable money has evidently been spent here in providing a decent and nice environment, although the marketing is all over the place.
I like this, it feels like a better way to contact the hotel.
In what might sound illogical, I’ll rate the breakfast as a disgrace to Accor even though I liked it. There was no hot food other than bacon, sausage and mozzarella rolls. I had the very last sausage roll and it was terrible, just junk food. Other guests didn’t get anything hot.
The reason I mention that I might not be being fair is that I liked the breakfast as I didn’t want any hot options. I had a lot of chorizo, indeed, I had all of it. The muffins were OK, but the fruit was absolutely fine. The yoghurts were adequate and the juices, when they refilled them, were generic but OK.
My complaint is that integrity is important. Don’t advertise a hot breakfast when there isn’t a hot breakfast. The reality that the hotel happened to stray into what I wanted isn’t perhaps the point. The online reviews are also very poor, there are clearly substantial issues here where guests continue to be disappointed.
The breakfast room was large and clean, this is clearly what the hotel used to have as a restaurant area. Again, someone has pumped money in here and so an effort has been made at some staff.
The rooms next to me came back at around 03:00 banging about. I’m oblivious to noise generally, but there should have been someone at reception dealing with this.
If this wasn’t an Accor hotel and I stayed here, I would have been content for the money. But, they’ve signed up to certain standards by being part of Accor and they’re playing fast and loose with it as far as I’m concerned. I think it’s important that managed hotels understand that they represent their brand they’ve signed up to and not just their own venue.
The final night of our European trip a few weeks ago was to Friedrichshafen and so the first port of call was the Accor operated Ibis Styles. I had rather expected it to be a little more centrally located, but if I had looked at a map before booking it that might have been helpful. Fortunately, it was still walkable, even for Richard, so we were happy with the location.
We were greeted at reception with this mention that we could phone someone for attention. I am most certainly not calling anyone, as I’m quite millennial, I’d rather have a nice WhatsApp link to chat away using text. Anyway, Richard then came clattering into the hotel with his big executive bag and so the receptionist heard us so that avoided that problem.
It was all bright and spacious in the hotel reception, the whole arrangement felt modern. The welcome at reception was also friendly which is always a positive start to any visit.
The seating area by the reception desk.
The walk to the room was along long corridors which took a little longer than ideal to actually light up as the sensors seemed to be rather sluggish.
I reached my room first and noticed the lack of welcome gift, but I was reassured when a few minutes later Richard confirmed to me that he hadn’t got one either. I wasn’t surprised, Accor hotels in Germany aren’t as consistently excellent as the ones in Poland. But I don’t go on about that. I would have gone to reception to complain if Richard had a gift and I didn’t though, as I’m like that….
I couldn’t understand why Richard left this when he got his coffee in McDonald’s earlier on in the day, but waste not, want not. So I had it as my own little welcome gift to myself.
We had our welcome drink after returning back in the evening and the set-up here is that they have a joint reception and bar. The staff member was friendly, engaging and welcoming, with the service always being personable during our visit.
I was surprised and delighted at the choice of beers that I could have as the welcome drink, I opted for the Benediktiner Weissbier Dunkel which is a dark wheat beer. This was decent, it was robust with the wheat beer banana notes and I’m genuinely not sure I’ve had this exact beer style before. Richard opted for some wine and he enchanted the receptionist with his grape chat.
We then sat for hours trying to work out how to get the missing images from this blog sorted. That’s nearly resolved now. This blog is sometimes something of a headache, but I have to persist for my two loyal blog readers. And my own memory actually, I like to be reminded where I’ve been.
We opted to have breakfast at the hotel and there was a decent selection available. He’s Richard getting ready for his coffee and Coco Pops.
The bread selection.
I liked those little edible containers (well, I ate them) for the honey and jams.
And the butter machine.
The cold meats and salad items. Sometimes the ham served at breakfast isn’t entirely appetising, but the ham here was so delicious that I might have had about a kilo of it. I exaggerate, but only slightly….
One of my several plates as I’m quite greedy. The Germans do breakfast perhaps as well as anyone in the world, so I was entirely happy with this whole offering. The breakfast area is also spacious and stress-free, so that helped with the calm and laid-back start to the day.
I really quite liked this hotel, although it felt a little soulless for an Ibis Styles and I’m not sure why they picked that branding for this Accor hotel. But, the rooms were clean, the staff were friendly, the welcome drink selection was generous, the prices were reasonable and so I could forgive the lack of a welcome gift. And if Richard is reading this, he’s probably still wondering how he missed his wafer with his McDonald’s coffee and I couldn’t possibly comment.
[I originally posted this in August 2018 about a visit from March 2016, but I’ve reposted it to fix the broken image links]
One of the problems of visiting Geneva is that it’s very expensive, and so, since I had visited the city before I made the decision to go and explore some of nearby France. Annemasse is a town on the French/Swiss border and the prices are much cheaper. It’s about a ninety-minute walk or a thirty-minute bus journey (I walked, obviously) from Geneva to Annemasse, so it was a convenient place to stay on my first evening.
The Ibis hotel (I pinched the above photo from the hotel) is towards the Geneva side of Annemasse, although it’s only a short walk into the town centre. It was a relatively cheap option and although it wasn’t particularly exceptional, it was clean and comfortable.
I stayed in the hotel twice during the week, once on the evening my flight landed and another time the night before my flight departed Geneva. I’m rather risk averse, so I like to be as near to the airport as possible, to minimise the possibility of any little disasters taking place….
As can be seen from the photos, I had the same exciting view on both of my stays since they gave me similarly located rooms during my two visits.
Not the best of photos, but it doesn’t really matter with Ibis, as all the rooms look pretty much the same across the chain. Clean and comfortable, and I didn’t experience the construction noise that some people were complaining about when I visited.
The breakfast, which rather unusually I didn’t take photos of, was adequate, although again, wasn’t exceptional. For visitors to Geneva though who want to save some money, this is a perfectly viable hotel and it’s within relatively easy distance of the Swiss city.
I’d just got off the bus from the airport and thought I’d take this photo with the beautiful light. Clearly so shaken by the bus journey, I managed to mess that up.
To make up for it, here’s a replacement shot from the following morning when I was marginally more awake and less traumatised by public transport.
The bar area of this Accor hotel.
The welcome drink and it was another smooth and generic European lager, but I like free things and it was refreshing in the extreme heat.
The room and they only had twins available. To my slight annoyance, this had a connecting door to the neighbouring room, which I hate anyway (and have to pile up furniture to prevent any access), and it was also not properly sound protected. They’ve only just built this hotel, so this just seems like a pointless small saving for the annoyance it’s already caused judging from the reviews. Anyway, I opened my window and the road noise drowned out any conversation from the neighbouring room. Fortunately, I very much like road noise, so all was well.
The view from the window.
If there’s a fire at the hotel, the general manager will get called out on this as the emergency plan is complete nonsense. Which means in the event of an actual emergency a guest might probably wander off in the wrong direction and for a brand new hotel, that’s a rather impressive oversight. They’ve been told about this in reviews and haven’t corrected it. Being quite dull, I always already know where the lifts and stairs are in nearly every hotel as I check in advance, but they’d be better to take these down and have nothing than to have widely incorrect plans. In this plan, the room highlighted is at the rear of the hotel, but I was at the very front.
Breakfast was very peaceful as the dining room was large and quiet, with the staff being attentive and plentiful. The filter coffee was a little drab, but that cherry jam was formidable. It’s one of the punchiest cheeses that I’ve had, but there were plenty of juices to temper the flavour a little. All absolutely fine though with plenty of choice and numerous breads and croissants.
I liked this hotel and would stay again, but they really do need to sort out the sound protection between the rooms as it shouldn’t be like that in a new build. Most people don’t want to open the windows to hear road noise to resolve the issue, I accept that I’m odd in that regard. The air conditioning seemed temperamental, some reviews have suggested it’s because they’re turning it off and on at reception. Either way, the room was tolerable in terms of heat and I set the bar quite high on that, so I suspect most guests would have been entirely happy. The highlight was the breakfast, but as for the fire plan, let’s just say don’t rely on it unless you’re keen on a spontaneous tour of the wrong part of the building.
The hotel is around a one hour walk from the city centre, so I decided that’s what I would do in the extreme heat, although there are buses and taxis available for those who don’t feel the need to walk everywhere.
This is the second time that I’ve stayed at this Accor operated hotel, located halfway between the airport and the Old Town of Faro. This was ideal for me as it put within walking distance of the airport, but I suppose it’s also handy if you’re the sort of person who can’t decide whether you want to be near planes or actual civilisation.
Check-in took nearly fifteen minutes because of two guests in front faffing about with their reservation, it felt like that they were negotiating some UN peace agreement.
My welcome drink of Sagres, a generic tasting beer which did meet the key requirement of being refreshing, although the brewery haven’t burdened themselves with what I consider a key requirement of it actually tasting of anything. The staff member, with commendable honesty, told me it was “only available in small” which somehow felt both welcoming and not. I wasn’t exactly planning a major session at the bar with my free drink, but it does feel like the sort of policy that saves the hotel about £10 a year while just very mildly irritating everyone.
The standard Ibis set-up with a desk, which is how I like it.
There was a welcome gift of pasteis de nata and bottled water and it’s hard not to feel welcomed when someone provides me with free custard tarts.
The view from the window over the sun scorched land.
The view from the side window of the corridor and the hotel’s main draw (although not to me) is the swimming pool.
All told, I rather liked this hotel and there were no noise issues, although I had my favourite room location of the top floor far away from the lift. The team members were friendly, the room was clean and I liked the custard tarts.
