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Category: Accor

Cologne – Ibis Budget Koeln Messe

My home for three nights was the Accor operated Ibis Budget which was coming in at just over £30 per night which I thought was very reasonable. It’s a short walk from the city centre of around fifteen minutes, so is conveniently located.

The little shop fridge area near the reception desk. The team member who was checking me in was friendly, although he was chewing gum quite aggressively which added to the whole experience for everyone.

There’s a bit of an effort to add character to the corridors.

The room is basic, but it’s cheap, so I’m easily pleased.

And from the other side of the room. That shower arrangement has been controversial in Ibis Budget hotels for years, but it’s being phased out now and they’re building enclosed bathrooms.

This is the photo of the city that has been placed over where the television used to be. Not that I ever turn TVs on in a hotel room, but they’ve upgraded the size of the screen.

Now this I think is brilliant. Very often in Accor hotels they will offer 100 points if you don’t have the room cleaned, which I usually take. However, hotels sometimes forget and have to be reminded and it’s all quite awkward getting the points sometimes.

Anyway, they take a different approach here, if you don’t have the room cleaned, you get a free drink from the earlier mentioned fridge. I thought this might be a faff to claim, but they pop a little card under the door which is the voucher that guests can claim their drink with. The offer includes all drinks, so I was pleased to get a couple of different beers for free.

All told, I very much liked this hotel as it felt like decent value for money. There were no noise issues internally or externally, with the team members being friendly and engaging. The online reviews are a little mixed, but they are often people expecting a rather more decadent room than is actually offered. I think the word ‘budget’ might be a clue here…

One one star review noted:

“Hardly anyone has a decent level of english…is it because Germany is self-sufficient and is thus not in need of tourists… shame on you”

Although the team members I encountered here spoke perfect English, there is a level of arrogance in thinking it’s shameful when they don’t.

“This hotel is right next to another ibis and the staff isn’t trained to guide customers to the right ibis”

There is a subtle clue that one hotel has an enormous “Ibis” sign and the other one has “Ibis Budget”. It’s not clear how staff are really meant to help customers who go wrong other than point them towards the correct hotel…..

Anyway, I’d stay here again, although it’s clear that the prices are ramped up considerably when there are trade shows on in the neighbouring buildings and I would be displeased to pay a lot of money to stay here. But when it’s keenly priced, all feels well.

April 14, 2026
Łódź – Ibis Hotel

I’ve stayed at this Accor operated Ibis hotel twice before but that was over eight years ago and I was pleased that this hotel hasn’t bothered with the new Ibis rooms, as I’m one of those who prefers the old style. I suspect that there will be an investment soon, as I’m not sure that they’re had a renovation in a decade.

This design adds some character to the whole arrangement, I like it.

The room, and I was given a larger one which had three sets of windows. I feel that city noise adds to the authenticity of a night’s stay, so I opened all of those windows straight away.

The welcome gift, this was delicious. I like welcome gifts.

The hotel’s bar area.

I didn’t eat at the hotel’s restaurant, but for my hundreds (well, two) excited readers, here’s what I could have had.

My welcome drink was Żywiec Białe and I managed to confuse the very helpful member of staff. She didn’t speak much English, although they had nearby staff that could, so I ordered this beer in my bestest Polish. Unfortunately, their standard beer on draft is Żywiec and she thought I was trying to order that, but my beautiful Polish tripped off my tongue after the third go and all was well. On that note, the team members here were all very personable, it all adds to the atmosphere.

Cheeses, meats and the various salad type options. There were some hot breakfast options, but they looked a bit rustic for my liking.

The bread selection and the little croissants.

That’s a smoked cheese and I kept going back for that, it was unusually decent and went rather well with the tomatoes. I can definitely do healthy, especially with that mango smoothie thing at the side. The selection was quite broad and I liked that the breakfast area wasn’t that busy.

The Novotel is next door and is a bit too decadent for me, although Richard would have merrily booked in there. Although, I noted that it was actually full the night that I was staying, which made choosing that bit easier.

The hotel night cost £42 (actually less as I used reward points) including breakfast, which I thought was perfectly good value for money. I’ve missed this city, I’d like to come back sooner rather than later. And, as I mentioned, I don’t dislike that they haven’t modernised much recently.

March 30, 2026
Wrocław – Ibis Wrocław Centrum

And at just after 02:00, I arrived at Ibis Centrum in Wrocław, which is in the same building as the Novotel. The hotel had sorted out the payment earlier in the day (well, the previous day) for me and so the check-in was prompt and efficient. Accor in Poland, as I’ve mentioned several (hundred) times are operated by Orbis and they are a reliable option to stay at.

The hotel has some themed rooms and I was in the Game Room for this visit.

The room decoration and they’ve put some considerable effort into this.

Not that I had time to play it, but there was a games console in the room.

And some board games.

Very nice.

There was also a welcome drink of a decadent apple juice and some ginger biscuits which were rather lovely. There were also teas and coffee, it all proved reasonable value at under £40 for the night. Given the relatively small amount of time that I had in the hotel, I opted against getting breakfast as I didn’t want to get up too early.

I’ve stayed at this hotel, both the lower floors which are Ibis and the higher floors which are Novotel, before and had views over both sides. This is looking out the front and they’re making progress on that building to the right as they were digging the foundations out when I was last here.

I didn’t have any noise disturbances either internally or externally, but the hotel is ready for the construction noise.

Anyway, this was a rather lovely stay once again with everything being trouble free and as expected. Arriving at 02:00 meant that the welcome drink wasn’t an option, as not unsurprisingly they don’t want to keep the bar open that late, and I wanted to get going to my next stop early the following morning. The team members were friendly and it’s just a slight shame that I didn’t have time to play on the games console or the city’s version of Monopoly.

March 25, 2026
Gothenburg Trip – Day 0 (Ibis Styles Heathrow)

I’ve written about the Ibis Styles Heathrow before, so I shall just briefly mention the highlights for my two loyal blog readers. We had arrived in style in Richard’s decadent Uber, an unusual way for me to get here.

I had a view of the runway from my room and I was pleased to discover that they had shoved Richard at the back of the hotel looking at the car park.

The room interior.

All very nice for £40 a night. I was pleased to also discover that Richard had been given a smaller room as I’m petty like that.

The welcome drink beer selection.

It took me a while to find a politician I wanted on the TV behind and there’s Richard in a relaxed mood. It took me an hour to drink that beer, it didn’t surprise and delight.

In the morning there was Watergate when Richard realised I had an extra water bottle than him. He decided against complaining to the hotel management, although that would have made for an interesting watch.

Back to the hotel though, the team members were friendly, the location was clean and there were no noise disturbances either internally or externally. It’s only a five minute bus journey to the airport, so it’s a convenient place to stay. I’m not keen on windows that can’t be opened, I would have liked the noise of the city, but the air conditioning worked so it wasn’t too stuffy.

All in, I’d merrily stay here again, especially after Watergate.

March 6, 2026
Burton upon Trent – Ibis Styles

Back to mid-January, when Richard and I decided that we needed a little adventure and we opted for Burton upon Trent and the Ibis Styles there.

The corridor arrangement is clever, as if someone stains it then it’s not really evident. I’m fairly confident that this was the actual reason for this design as I can’t see anyone picking this by choice.

Richard was very excited that the room he had booked came with a kitchenette. I was pleased that mine did too, but solely as I didn’t want him having a better room than me (I’m not petty). As an aside, I personally don’t like these kitchens in rooms, they’re a nightmare to clean properly for the staff and require substantial maintenance for something that many guests aren’t going to want. Keeping a microwave and every piece of cutlery and crockery clean isn’t an easy thing to do, I can’t really see why they want to burden themselves with this.

Someone rather unkindly used AI to put a bottle of wine in the fridge and pretended that it was a welcome gift. Actually, on that point, there was no welcome gift, but I won’t labour that matter. Anyway, Richard was stomping about the place as he didn’t get a gift of wine but luckily I was able to reassure him before the manager was called. It would be helpful for Richard’s stress levels if people didn’t do this, but at least I calmed the matter down before there was a diplomatic incident. It was a good job that I was there to be honest.

There was a modern looking bar area, all rather comfortable.

It’s quite a clever mix of retro and modern, although it hadn’t exactly inspired hundreds of people to come in.

I would have preferred a wider range of beers, but in fairness, they have Pedigree which is an important beer locally so at least they’ve made an effort to have a local option.

As for the hotel in general, it was all clean, welcoming and well maintained. Richard didn’t end up having an argument with the manager and there were no noise issues either internally or externally. It’s a relatively new hotel and it faces competition from an IHG hotel literally next door, but it all seemed well managed.

February 27, 2026
Timișoara – Ibis Hotel

I try and stay loyal to Accor Hotels and they handily had this Ibis in Timișoara where I stayed for two nights.

These rooms are fine for me on my own, but they are getting a little too small now for those couples who might want to spend a few days here. I liked that the large picture by the bed was actually just a painted wall with a frame around it. They don’t have any larger rooms for upgrades, but I was given my preferred top floor room.

The view from my window.

Some of the cold options and at the rear dish in the middle of the photo is ajvar, something which I’m overly obsessed by. The meat quality here wasn’t great, so I ignored that. The breakfast room was also really odd, it simply wasn’t large enough despite all of the space that they have here, it’s poorly laid out. I managed to come down at times that there were tables free, but many guests were struggling to find a space to sit.

The breads and apple pies.

A big dollop of ajvar. Those sausages were odd, they looked delicious but were chewy and lacking in any depth of flavour.

I suspect the hotel staff were wondering where one of their dips kept going.

The welcome drink of Timișoreana lager which tasted mostly of metal and disappointment. The croissant was mine, but there was a welcome gift of chocolates from the hotel.

The online reviews of the hotel are very positive, so they’re clearly surprising and delighting lots of people. I rather liked this hotel, although their restaurant and bar area was frequently dominated by private groups. On the first night, they had closed the restaurant for a private group and although I had no intentions of eating there, it’s a little sub-optimal for guests. Anyway, if I’m back in the city, I’d likely stay here again.

February 19, 2026
Ankara – Ibis Styles

Although I’ve completed my write-up of my trip to Turkey, Georgia and Armenia, there was quite a lot that I missed out and have meant to come back to. This is one of those posts, but the summary of the trip is at https://www.julianwhite.uk/turkey-georgia-and-armenia-final-thoughts/, with a link to all the blog posts that I wrote up telling the story of that little adventure.

We only had one night in Ankara, so whilst Jonathan opted for a basement room in a nearby hotel, I went for the Ibis Styles.

The rather nice lobby.

The beer selection from which I could choose my welcome drink.

The room, which was clean, cosy and warm. So I promptly opened the window to make it cold.

They made me a coffee during the check-in and there’s the welcome snack and bottled waters.

I went for the welcome beer of the Efes Malt, which was light, malty and really rather good.

The breakfast room in the morning, when I first realised that there was now quite a lot of snow outside.

The breakfast buffet.

Delicious and healthy.

The colourful corridor.

I’m not sure I’ve seen a warning of a fine for not returning the keycard.

Anyway, this was a really rather lovely hotel with friendly staff, fast wifi (this was important), a comfortable environment and clean rooms. The breakfast choice was extensive, the stay was reasonably priced and I’d stay here again.

February 10, 2026
Cardiff – Mercure Cardiff North

I didn’t get around at the time to writing about the Mercure Cardiff North hotel where we stayed for my birthday weekend in Cardiff in November. This is an Accor branded hotel and I had booked some time in advance, with the rates being very reasonable.

Firstly, there’s something unusual about their online reviews on Google as nearly every single one mentions a staff member by name. This isn’t usual on Google and doesn’t really help people get a fair understanding of what is happening here. If I read through the verified visits on Accor’s website, the situation is more as I would expect and staff members are rarely named, so that feels more reliable.

Instead of using my normal metric of Google Reviews, I’m going to use the Accor aggregated score, which shows that this hotel has a rating of 3.9 which is towards the lower end of the scale for the chain.

In fairness, the hotel was managing perfectly well at the accommodation element that was offered here. Liam and I had a twin room which was clean, at the appropriate temperature and everything worked as expected. There were no noise issues, either from inside or outside the hotel, so that all felt positive. The interior felt generally modern and so I suspect that there has been a refurbishment here recently.

I think my main negative about this hotel is I don’t know why they’re trying to be part of Accor. The hotel was playing fast and loose with the loyalty scheme offered by Accor and didn’t offer most of the benefits.

The situation with the welcome drink was downright awkward as the member of bar staff said that it was one drink a room. This isn’t right, this has never been right and it’s really not something I want to debate as it’s hard not to sound entitled about the matter. But holding Liam’s drink hostage whilst the staff members blamed each other is entirely sub-optimal. The reception desk resolved the matter, but the concept of the welcome drink was rather lost at this point.

It was partly a shame that the bar service was borderline rude as the drinks selection wasn’t unreasonable and although they’d made no effort getting local drinks in, at least they had a couple of options such as this Singha.

We had breakfast included in our room rates and on the first day it was poor, the second day it was better. it might not be relevant to me personally, but I like that they’re trying to do a gluten free area, but it could perhaps be a little more, er, exciting.

To be fair, I suspect guests would have worked out the labelling error here.

The hot food options, although this isn’t perhaps the best way to keep the food hot. As with the drinks at the bar, there was no effort to source food locally which is a shame as numerous Accor hotels are keen to do at least something.

The first day’s breakfast options were broadly dreadful. The bacon was dripping with grease, the cold cuts were of a very low quality, the cheese was already sweating in the displays and the whole arrangement looked sub-optimal.

I do agree with Richard’s comment that it’s a shame that there isn’t any fresh bread available here. But, to be fair to the hotel, this isn’t as common in the UK as it is on the European mainland.

They actually had fried eggs on the second day and the presentation of the food was much better. That bacon isn’t cooked anywhere as much as I’d like it, but I accept that’s a personal preference. The egg was cooked to my tastes and everything tasted as expected.

Overall, I thought that the stay was fine as the room was clean, the team members were generally friendly and there were no noise issues. Certainly breakfast could have been better on the first day, but we got there just as service started and it’s easy to be critical. My main comment about the hotel is that they should perhaps either embrace (or at least accept) the rules that Accor set them, or just go independent and be free of those guardrails.

December 31, 2025
Warsaw – Novotel Warszawa Centrum

I would show a photo of the clear exterior of the Novotel, but it was too foggy to see it, but it is to the right hand side of the photo.

I’ve written about this hotel numerous times before, it’s one of my favourites. It’s a towering great affair near to the Palace of Science and Culture and a short walk away from the railway station.

One downside about the incredible growth of Poland’s economy is that hotel prices are routinely much higher than they were, so it’s rare that this hotel is an affordable option now. Luckily, Sunday rates are much lower and there was a friendly welcome at the front desk and they’d kindly upgraded me. They also mentioned it was a while since I’d visited, so I was secretly pleased that their computer hadn’t entirely forgotten about me.

My welcome gifts, local apple juice and chocolate biscuit things.

I arrived at the hotel just five minutes before the bar closed, which had the advantage that I was able to get my welcome drink. Żywiec Porter is always a favourite of mine, malty and rich, certainly good to eat the welcome chocolates with.

The view from the window over Warsaw and the Palace of Science and Culture is sort of visible on the right. I find watching the trams going through the roundabout quite peaceful and relaxing, I always get Sim City vibes sitting up here.

This might not have been the longest of stays, but the room was clean and there were no internal noise issues. I like traffic noise so I opened the window and the sounds of the city didn’t disappoint, Warsaw always feels like a vibrant place. And I use vibrant here in the positive sense, I sometimes refer to pubs as vibrant, by which I mean I feel that they’re close to having a riot.

I had initially intended to stay in Warsaw for a few days, but I accidentally booked a return flight to Madeira. This meant that my intended relaxing stay in the Novotel was rather cut short as I had to leave the hotel at 08:00 to get the train back to the airport. It was foggy, slightly cold and nicely refreshing.

December 19, 2025
Venice – Novotel Venezia Mestre Castellana

Another day, another Accor hotel…. This one is the Novotel, around a thirty minute walk from Venice Mestre railway station.

I was pleased to get an upgrade to an executive room, so I felt like a proper business professional….. Or something like that.

I hate connecting rooms, but fortunately, there were no issues with noise or light on this one. The hotel had themselves put a little barricade up, which saved me doing it.

There were some free drinks in the fridge, along with a Nespresso machine.

The view from the window. The old city is off to the left in the distance.

It took 11 minutes to be served at the bar, which felt a little sub-optimal, although I was collecting a free welcome drink so it’s hard to be too annoyed. There was a very large group in the restaurant that was taking up the staff’s time, but they probably could have been more aware of the customers starting to queue at the bar. The team members were all friendly and helpful, just heavily overworked when I was there.

This was an anti-climax, a small glass of Peroni, which tasted chemical, metallic and bland. It felt a slight shame that the hotel didn’t have something similar to the nearby Mercure hotel.

The restaurant in the back might have been at capacity, but the bar wasn’t….. Here we are after the team members had served the customers at the bar.

The old part of Venice was visible by zooming in…..

Anyway, I liked this hotel as the team members were friendly, the room was clean, I got an upgrade and there were no noise issues. The hotel was dealing with a very large group of customers when I was there and that impacts service somewhat, but I was happy with my room at the end of the corridor on the top floor, away from all that frivolity. If they could just upgrade their bar options though, that would be lovely.

December 16, 2025