Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Accor

  • London – Ibis Budget London City Airport

    London – Ibis Budget London City Airport

    I stayed at this hotel near to London City airport following my flight back with British Airways from Florence. For a time it looked like my flight would be cancelled, or at best, it would have arrived too late to land at London City and so would have been diverted to Southend Airport. I sent the hotel an e-mail asking if I could check-in late and they responded quickly saying that they’d do the check-in there and then on-line, so I could just pick up my keycard which they had put under the desk for the night porter. All very professional.

    I got there in good time in the end, thanks to British Airways, and the receptionist was the friendly and helpful staff member who had sent the e-mail to me. This is a relatively cheap hotel, but the welcome seemed authentic and I was pleased with the bargain price of £33 including breakfast. It’s only an eleven-minute walk from London City Airport, so convenient for these late arriving flights.

    The room was clean and to brand standard, perfectly sufficient for a one-night stay.

    I went down to breakfast and I was the only one there, so at least it was peaceful. There were cereals, pastries, yoghurts and a selection of meats. This was sufficient before my train journey back to Norwich, with the orange juice and coffee being helpful as well, particularly the coffee for that little energy burst. When I checked-out at around 09:00 the breakfast area had around thirty people in, so it was either a coach party or perhaps a flight load of passengers who were on one of the cancelled flights from the previous day from London City airport. I imagine that the breakfast experience for them wasn’t quite as relaxed as mine was.

    Anyway, I thought I’d have a little look at TripAdvisor to see what people thought about this 81-room hotel and the reviews are quite reasonable. I mentioned above that I walked this in eleven minutes, but some reviews complained it was a long walk, people managed to take 15, 20 and 35 minutes. I don’t know what the one taking 35 minutes was doing.

    One person didn’t like their toilet and must have been told to use the one on the ground floor, which isn’t ideal, although certainly isn’t illegal. I don’t like the comparison with easyHotel, which is one of the few hotel chains that I hold in entire contempt. Which might be unfair since I’ve never stayed with them….

    “Im sure prisoner’s get better service better breakfast. Rooms more then basic think easyhotel – class customer service. First room toilet didnt work fully booked normaly by law a hotel would have to reacomerdate u somewhere else at there cost. Not here so no toilet facility apart from going down three floors in lift.”

    Another guest was pleased:

    “One member of staff in particular was aggressive and combative”.

    I never manage to find aggressive staff in hotels (well, bar that one in Los Angeles a few years ago, which I must write about at some point), but it’d certainly liven the check-in experience up.

    “In my 36 years alive on this earth, this hotel has to be in the top 3 worst stays ever, in fact i would have rather have slept in my car and woke up and jumped in the Thames had i known it was that bad.”

    Hmmm, sounds like they didn’t find this their perfect stay….

    Another guest complained that the place was “full of builders” and there are lots of problems with noise, which I can imagine must be a problem at weekends. Having lived near to this hotel a few years ago, the area isn’t the most salubrious, but I thought that the staff did well to manage everything. To be honest, I was just pleased to be able to get back to London before the curfew at City Airport and get to the hotel.

  • Chesterfield – Ibis Chesterfield Centre

    Chesterfield – Ibis Chesterfield Centre

    Another one of my bookings from the Accor Black Friday sale in December, this was my stay in Chesterfield for three days in mid-March 2020.

    This is another Ibis which is struggling, indeed quite badly, on TripAdvisor and is rated as one of the worst hotels in the town. My room was sufficiently clean though, although the whole hotel is clearly in need of some modernisation and renovation.

    I had three days to enjoy this beautiful view. Being slightly abnormal, I do like the background noise of traffic though, so all is well. Although, on this point, some bloody idiot in the planning department has allowed this hotel to be built without a pedestrian crossing to the town centre, which is a three-minute walk away. This means that guests of the hotel have to try and cross a busy road and are reliant on cars slowing down to let them across. I can’t recall in all the hotels that I’ve visited in the UK such a dangerous situation and is perhaps a reminder to town planners that pedestrians do need to cross roads….

    A well stocked drinks tray, with the addition of chocolates being unusual.

    These were the sugars provided, note the Accor branding…..

    There was a welcome gift of bottled water, a nice little touch, a choice between still or sparkling.

    The drinks voucher for the welcome drink.

    The selection of drinks was, as usual, weak, although I can tolerate Boddingtons as a last resort and especially when it’s free. The pint was fuller than this when served, but I drank some so I didn’t spill it when walking to the table.

    The bar and restaurant area, which is also used for breakfast. I don’t like the pool table there, this seems to be a concept rolled out by Accor to make the public areas feel more accessible. In the case of this hotel, the brand needs to sort out the restaurant and bar options if they want this area to be better used. There was a menu of what sounded like uninspiring microwave based meals, it didn’t sound entirely appealing and I’m not sure why Accor persist with this. I noted the review:

    “When staff asked about my meal, I said it was awful. She apologised and wished me a good evening! Not sure why she bothered to ask.”

    Which amused me when picturing the scene in my mind. Perhaps I need to get out more. Another person seemed pleased with their experience:

    “The food in the “restaurant” was disgusting.the chicken fillet burger came with half cooked, greasy chips, over cooked chicken smothered in horrible greasy cheese, and a stale bun, no salad or garnish. probably the worst meal I have ever tried to eat in my entire life. I would rather kill myself than spend another night in this s******e”.

    The lift in the hotel also slightly scared me when I used it, which was rarely as I prefer to use the stairs. Guests excitedly get into the lift to go to their floor and press the button and are seamlessly taken up in an elegant and smooth journey. Well, that’s the theory. This lift clunks about, seems to think about what it’s going to do, then judders up, keeps the door shut, jolts sharply and then opens the door to disgorge the slightly confused occupants.

    I was again moderately amused at the review on TripAdvisor:

    “Partner got stuck in lift for over ten minutes, staff weren’t bothered.”

    I’ve been picturing this scene with some amusement, although I’m sure it wasn’t funny at the time. I also liked the review of the angry guest who was too hot, so the hotel gave him a fan and then one of the blades fell off.

    This review also moderately surprised me:

    “Stayed one night after a friends funeral in Chesterfield, the room at £69 was over priced plus there using duvets on the bed which the wife wasn’t happy with. And there wasn’t a spoon with the team making facilities which was probably down to the cleaning staff.”

    I suspect the hotel was equally surprised that someone left a 1/5 review because of a missing tea-spoon and that there was a duvet. They replied:

    “I apologise if the housekeeping staff accidentally failed to leave a teaspoon in your room, however, this could have been corrected immediately if reported. With regards to the room having a duvet on the bed, this is the generally the case in most modern hotels.”

    The cold options at breakfast.

    The hot options and I very much approve of the quality of the sausages and bacon, which I perhaps over-indulged in. There was the provision of disposable cups for those wanting to take their hot drinks away, with some interesting teas also available for guests. The quality of the breakfast was fine, the staff were also pro-active in ensuring that everything was kept topped up. I can’t say that a large number of guests opted for breakfast though, I suspect the nearby Wetherspoons and other outlets might have tempted some away.

    Overall, since this cost around £30 per night including breakfast, it’s hard to complain too much about the hotel. So I won’t, especially as the staff were all friendly and the house-keeping staff were efficient and restocked everything. It feels slightly dated, but I liked the hotel and I’d stay here again if I fancy coming back to Chesterfield to look at their wonky church.

  • York – Ibis York Centre

    York – Ibis York Centre

    I booked this hotel as part of the Black Friday offer from Accor, all the way back in December. It was the last of the 50 or so room nights that I’d booked in this offer across January, February and March, all fortunately taken before the virus has limited my travel somewhat.

    The Ibis York Centre isn’t in the heart of York, but it’s a short walk to the railway station and was convenient enough for me. It’s rated badly, TripAdvisor put it at 46th out of 47 hotels in York, so there’s clearly some work to do.

    This was the room that I was given, although it transpired that the lock didn’t work and so I couldn’t lock the room. Two staff members came to resolve it before the maintenance man was called, although it transpired that he had gone home. I was given another room promptly enough though, it was all handled well. The room was basic, no welcome amenity, but it was all clean and comfortable. Reading some reviews of the hotel, the door locks do seem to be a problem, and some guests can only resolve that by slamming the doors, which might be their only option, but still disturbing for others.

    The beer selection was very weak, although that’s not surprising for a hotel bar which isn’t even in the very centre of a city. I asked for a Bud, to which the staff member said they didn’t have any. I could see the bottle, so I tried again and thought he’d misheard me, he then said they don’t sell Bud. I asked for a Budweiser, and got my Bud. Although the barman decided that he wouldn’t offer me a glass with my exciting bottle of Bud.

    The breakfast was fine, to the side there was a hot selection of bacon, sausages and hash browns, with cereals, muffins and other standard Ibis fare in the central section. It took the staff some time to replenish empty items, but that was more down to how busy they were than any lack of effort. My breakfast came included with the room price, otherwise I’d have probably passed over it and walked into York to get something a bit more exciting.

    The hotel has a newer wing to it, which is badly built and gives limited sound protection between floors, so Ibis are always going to have problems here. I suspect they’d probably be better off giving up with this building as I can’t see that they’ll ever shift off near bottom spot with the noise problems in the hotel, although having written that, I didn’t personally get too disturbed.

    If they are committed to the building, it does need a modernisation of the rooms as well, they’re feeling a bit battered and the bathrooms certainly need some attention to bring them up the standard of Ibis hotels, which frankly isn’t that high a bar to reach. The manager responded in one review written by a disgruntled guest that the hotel is formed of three separate historic buildings, but that a modernisation programme is being considered.

    The staffing in the hotel was generally pretty good, although I wonder whether the hotel management should just leave Accor and run this as an independent budget hotel, or switch to being an Ibis Budget. The hotel was around £40 including breakfast, which I thought was perfectly acceptable, although usually the hotel is more expensive then this.

  • Bucharest – Hotel ibis Bucharest Gare De Nord

    Bucharest – Hotel ibis Bucharest Gare De Nord

    Located near to the railway station which it takes its name from, this is a large Accor hotel and it’s ideal for the metro which is about 50 feet away. The check-in process was smooth and the staff member was pleasant and helpful, so all positive first impressions.

    Very kindly, the hotel had upgraded me to a suite. I liked this.

    The welcome gift. There were also around six tea bags, but these never got replaced during the week. I’m never sure of the logic of giving a few tea bags and then not replacing them, but I asked at breakfast if I could take a few, and I think they were happy if I took the entire box. But I didn’t, I have enough to carry.

    The drinks voucher.

    Frankly, the beer choice were dreadful and the Ursus had no discernible flavour, taste, aftertaste or indeed anything positive about it at all. A completely pointless product. It’s fair to say that I don’t like Ursus.

    The breakfast selection, with a decent amount of choice. The staff did struggle some mornings keeping this stocked though, especially when larger groups all came down at once.

    And here’s one of my random selection of items….

    Incidentally, on that day I went back for something else leaving the tray above on the table. A staff member decided that it must be finished with, and I only just salvaged the tray back before everything on it was thrown away. I’m not quite sure why she thought someone was abandoning that much food, but there we go….

    OK, as to the hotel. There were serious noise issues from the rear of the building, namely the glass recycling bin which created problematic levels of noise throughout the night. The worst problem though was the temperature in the hotel, which was set to be permanently too hot, a complete waste of the hotel’s resources in my view. I left my window open the entire time, and that only mitigated the problem with the temperature rather than completely solving it. Unfortunately, the seating area room of the suite didn’t have a window, so I didn’t spend that long in there. It’s hard to complain that I had a room in the suite that was too hot, since I didn’t pay for that extra space, but it was a shame. The hotel needs better air conditioning, but it’s clear that the building is due for a refurbishment, so perhaps it’ll be added at that point.

    Anyway, cleanliness was excellent throughout and the staff were always helpful and friendly. For the price, which was around £25 per night including breakfast as part of the Black Friday offer, I was suitably impressed. All rather lovely.

  • Heathrow – Ibis Heathrow

    Heathrow – Ibis Heathrow

    This is what I think is my seventh visit to this hotel, and also the third time that I’ve posted about it. I might need to switch to a different Accor hotel for future visits to give me something else to write and moan about….

    No welcome gift, which is mildly irritating since I’m trying to compile a list and it’s constantly this hotel that fails to deliver one. It’s not important at all in the scale of things, although Accor themselves said that customers should rate the hotel down on review sites for this, which is probably not what the hotel franchise holder wants to hear. On more important matters, the room was spotlessly clean and was well provisioned, so no complaints there.

    For the second time this year, the hotel didn’t offer me a drinks vouchers. I had to query it, at which point the staff member discovered that it should have been given out.

    Service at the bar was polite, but the staff were serving customers out of turn. Since I wasn’t buying anything, just getting a free drink, I’m happy for them to serve their paying customers first, but the staff didn’t know at that point that I wasn’t buying anything…. The drink is again under-measured and the staff member slid it across the bar at me. That requires some confidence, as if a staff member gets it wrong then the drink will go crashing into a customer.

    The free drink is though generous, it’s any drink other than champagne, so I went with the reliable if unexciting London Pride. What more interested me though is that another customer asked if they had any craft beer. This was a very good question, and one I haven’t bothered to ask as I knew the answer. The hotel doesn’t have any incidentally, although it really should….

    The hotel doesn’t have any information in the room about, well, the hotel. So I had to go and take a photo of the breakfast sign I had noticed by the lift to get the times. I’m not sure why the hotel can’t provide this information in the room on an information sheet that nearly every other Ibis does. Anyway, the room was quiet and I didn’t experience any issues with noise either internally or externally. The wi-fi was also fast, efficient and easy to connect to.

    I hadn’t noticed this book corner in the hotel before, looks good.

    Well it looked good until I saw what they had done with this book. Grrrrr….

    I went down for breakfast at 06:29, a precise time as they were serving the hot food from 06:30. I had a yoghurt and fruit selection whilst waiting and the hot food was brought out pretty much exactly on time at 06:35 or thereabouts.

    The hot options are fine, although the sausages are of an unexceptional quality. The bacon was what I’d consider part-cooked as the bacon wasn’t rendered enough for me so I was left cutting bits of fat off. But, I’m irritating like that, I’m sure most customers were entirely content with the bacon. I don’t usually eat scrambled eggs, but another customer asked for fried eggs and a polite member of staff said that the kitchen couldn’t offer those.

    These pastries really aren’t great, although I still suspect that they’re sourced from a central supplier agreed by Accor, so it’s hard to blame the hotel. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if these are from Brakes. The staff were all efficient at the breakfast area including one who was using customer’s first names, which is unusual, but adds a bit of personality to the event.

    Overall, the hotel came in at just over £30 as part of the Black Friday offer from Accor, so given that includes breakfast is a very reasonable price. There’s some tidying up needed on how they deal with the ALL (Accor’s new loyalty scheme) as they’re well behind most other Ibis hotels, but their reception staff are helpful and efficient. The bar staff, as I’ve noticed on my previous visits, verge between helpful and hopeless, but there we go. Still recommended, although I saw people using the Hoppa service again when they could have just got on any TFL bus free of charge to the airport….

  • Warsaw – Ibis Warszawa Ostrobramska

    Warsaw – Ibis Warszawa Ostrobramska

    I stayed at this hotel twice over the last month, once for one night and once for four nights. I also had to delay writing this review until I spoke to Accor customer services, as the hotel’s manager entirely confused me. Although the hotel has given the blog a new tag-line.

    My first visit was mildly confused as the room they gave me wasn’t ready, although fortunately a cleaner stopped me en route and helpfully referred me back to reception. She was very polite, but I was in no hurry so I walked back to reception and thought that I’d enjoy the welcome drink. Little did I know incidentally about the later welcome drink debacle.

    The only beer available was Zywiec and this was under-poured. But, since it’s Zywiec, I wasn’t too bothered. The staff member was very apologetic about the room mix-up and I was offered the food menu, which I decided against, but I thought that the staff had been so polite that I’d dine here on my return visit.

    The bottled water and a chocolate. I wasn’t sure whether this was in every room or it was a welcome gift, but either way, it was all very nice.

    The room, which I’m entirely content with. On the Ibis room matter I posted excessively about, I’ve been moderately relieved to hear from Accor that their plans are being tempered, so we’ll have to see what happens with the future of Ibis rooms and their modernisation programme.

    The breakfast room, which is also where meals are served in the afternoon and evening.

    The breakfast selection, cold meats, cheeses and there are some hot items available as well.

    Right, but now onto the second visit, which started fine and all was well.

    About once a year, I get bad service at a pub, restaurant or hotel. It’s incredibly rare for me to experience, something like 1 every 150 visits or so. And, I try and be sympathetic as I don’t know why I’ve received poor service, it could be that the staff member has received some bad news, they’re tired from working hard or something which is entirely relatable. I’ve never previously poor service in Poland, on all my tens of trips, this was the first.

    I’ve also spent the last 31 days non-stop in Accor hotels, so I thought it’d be interesting to try the food at an Ibis hotel, and as mentioned above, I had intended to eat here as the staff member had been friendly on the previous occasion. I was also conscious that the Accor member of staff I had spoken to at their Head Office had said they’d monitor my experiences, which is almost certainly something said to shut me up, but I like to please. Ibis run with the same menu across Poland, but I haven’t had anything from it for a couple of years and it’s nice to see how things develop.

    On a different note, I was pleased to receive this drinks voucher which is new marketing as part of Accor’s switch to the ALL loyalty programme. This differed from the previous voucher I had received at this hotel and, experienced as I might be with Accor vouchers, I hadn’t seen this one.

    Just as an aside on this, there are plenty of drinks vouchers out there and hotels vary in what they offer. They don’t have to be really generous and offer nearly any drink, but some do and they’d use the voucher on the right. Some are more limited, they put on the voucher to check the drinks at the bar, it’s a more limited list. They’re equally common and both are used in Poland. I don’t much care which is used, it’s a little gesture, I don’t assume that I’m going to get the most delicious craft beer.

    Anyway, back to being pleased with Accor’s drinks voucher for this hotel. I thought I’d opt for a Zywiec Porter and a burger from the main menu, perhaps buying another drink later on. This plan was all going swimmingly, until I got to the bar.

    The barman ignores me and my hello in Polish, but I put that down to the translation issue that I can’t speak the local language very well and clearly they can. Sometimes I get that a staff member can’t speak English and it’s no doubt frustrating for them. Anyway, he clearly doesn’t want to serve any customers, offering someone else before me a less than polite service, and by this stage he seemed entirely irate at me and ignored me for a little while before serving me. Unfortunately, the barman decided that I must be stupid and he made that very clear. His behaviour didn’t credit his hotel, but we’ll put that down to factors that I have no knowledge of. But, staff sneering at customers isn’t a good look.

    A relatively large number of my friends don’t like going to restaurants or bars on their own, they find it difficult. I’ve long stopped since caring about these matters for me, but I do always ponder how it would affected friends that would have built up confidence to order at a bar. Conscious that customer service staff are on the receiving end of all manner of abuse, I’ll assume that this barman was having a bad day, but it was some of the worst customer service that I’ve seen and exceptionally rare for Poland.

    But, I’m not going to deal with anyone who sneers at customers so I opted for a Pepsi to take to my room, and abandoned my plan to order food. However, I did e-mail the hotel from upstairs (how very British of me, although I did this as I didn’t want any service recovery, I thought that I was being helpful) and query their bloody voucher as without that, I’d have probably never encountered the poor service and I’d have instead happily ordered food. To cut a very long story short, they are defining “any drink other than champagne or spirits” as “any small beer, wine or soft drink”. So, it’s not any drink other than champagne or spirits, indeed, it’s a tiny choice from what they offer paying customers. And, really, the hotel management is blaming Orbis (the company who run Accor hotels in Poland) for giving them the voucher to give out. The management seemed to think it was fine to just hand the voucher out, not mention any limitations, let customers sit down in the restaurant and then mention at this stage the voucher isn’t being honoured. Why on earth try and turn the positivity of a free welcome drink into a negative, I’m unsure.

    This situation confused me, and I decided that I must be an idiot and that the hotel manager was perhaps entirely correct. However, I spoke to Accor customer service, and they replied that the hotel should stop using that voucher and I should tell the hotel manager. At this point, I realised I had done enough to reassure myself that the hotel was at fault, so I just left it. I didn’t tell them that it was the hotel manager that decided the voucher was correct.

    But, moving on to my thoughts about the hotel generally. The staff at breakfast and the cleaning staff were all friendly and polite, the hotel was spotlessly clean and there were no noise problems either internally or externally. There’s not much point in trying to re-evaluate my entire experience because the member of bar staff sneered at me, but nonetheless, I can’t help thinking that the manager’s decision to give customers a voucher which told them they could get any drink, and then decide that this meant “any drink from a list” was really to blame here. But, such things are up to them, and I was otherwise happy with the hotel. It’s located a little way from the centre of Warsaw, but there are frequent trams which stop just a few minutes away, so it’s not an inconvenient location given that. The prices can also be a little cheaper than the city centre Ibis hotels because of its location.

  • Bialystok – Ibis Styles

    Bialystok – Ibis Styles

    This has been one of my favourite hotels, although it wasn’t a subtle Ibis Styles, it was an enormous bulk of a building towering over the shopping centre which it’s attached to.

    The view from my room over central Bialystok, which I very much liked. It also had large windows which made gazing out of the view much easier. The air conditioning and room heating worked to my satisfaction and the wi-fi was also fast and efficient.

    A room with a desk and chair, something which certain Ibis room designers would be horrified by. I’m not sure why I booked a twin room, I can only imagine that either it was all that was available, or that I’m an idiot. There was effectively no internal or external noise disturbance, this felt a particularly well constructed building to manage to avoid such noise leakage.

    I thought the water and biscuits were welcome gifts, but they were generally restocked every day, so they might be a standard offering. Anyway, a nice touch.

    Every Ibis Styles has a theme, something I think is a really positive idea, giving lots of design options to play with and giving it an element of uniqueness. I’ve had Ibis Styles focused around the Romans and space, with this hotel going for birds.

    The drinks voucher.

    And the drink I went for. I’m not sure that they had any darker beers, although the staff member had a look for some options and although this was a lighter option, it was something different to Zywiec.

    The hotel provides free coffee and tea at all times, they’re available at a little desk near to the reception area.

    Part of the salad offering at breakfast.

    Fruit.

    They had waffles that guests could make, although I’m not too engaged with that, but these are the toppings for those or for the pancakes, which I’m also not that engaged with…. They did though have a coffee machine which also did some rather excellent hot chocolate.

    And there were cereals to be had as well. The breakfast area was never that busy and it was kept spotlessly clean by the staff. They were a bit overwhelmed on the Saturday and didn’t seem to be restocking food very efficiently, but on the other four days it was all kept fully stocked.

    The prices for this hotel are reasonable, something usually around £35 to £40 per night, although my room was around £27 per night including breakfast as part of an Accor offer. The staff were always friendly, the public areas were clean and it’s a centrally located hotel just a short walk from the city.

  • Accor Hotels – New Ibis Rooms

    Accor Hotels – New Ibis Rooms

    Further to my post about the new Ibis rooms…..

    I’ve been looking into this a bit today, such is the joys of train travel and spare time. So, Ibis have launched some new hotels with their concept, the one I think is dated and won’t meet the needs of younger guests and business guests. The new social hub thing is brilliant, on trend, although they probably need to speed up the roll-out of coffee shops or craft beer elements to the ground floor, to bring in more non customers. Their desire to get people into their social spaces, both guests and visitors, is ahead of the curve.

    But, back to the rooms. The real danger with commenting is that any individual only ever does so from their own perspective, so without the big data that the company themselves have. Sometimes the company know a change will be unpopular, but they can see that it’s working on a wider basis, so it’s worth persisting with.

    Ibis have already rolled out their new room to a few hotels, so there are some numbers which we can see already.

    This is their new flagship, the Ibis Tallinn Center, with the new room design since the outset. And, that figure isn’t looking good. What Ibis called their most modern and innovative room, in a sparkling new hotel with everything shiny and contemporary, is scoring a 3.4 out of 5. That’s low, very low, it’s about the same as the reviews for their cheapest of brands, Ibis Budget. The raw figure is also worse than it looks, as some guests really like the new room design, so they’re going to mark that higher than they normally would, so there must be some very negative opinions amongst the other reviewers. I found 26 negative reviews about the lack of desk, none of which the hotel addressed directly.

     

    If we look at two hotels I’ve stayed in over the last couple of weeks, with the old Ibis design, they’re scoring at 4.0 out of 5 and 3.7 out of 5. Taking into account that these rooms are older, these should be scoring a fair bit under their flagship hotels.

    The problem is that Accor’s press team hasn’t mentioned on-line their new room design since mid-2019, after a huge burst of publicity. They have though mentioned quite a lot about their new Greet concept, which has rooms which are modern, contemporary and quirky. I have no idea why they haven’t run with the Greet room design for their Ibis hotels, or the Ibis Styles concept.

    This is a Greet hotel which opened at around the same time the Ibis in Tallinn opened, with their room score 4.1.

    Based on this, I’m going to have a guess here that the Ibis rollout of rooms is amended in 2020, to bring the rooms back to some form of comfort and modernity…..

  • Warsaw – Ibis Warszawa Stare Miasto

    Warsaw – Ibis Warszawa Stare Miasto

    This is the seventh Accor hotel in Warsaw that I’ve stayed in over the last couple of years, and the fifth this month, and it’s also the one I’ve liked the least and the only one that I wouldn’t stay at again. I posted separately about how Ibis are seemingly moving away from what I personally would like, with this hotel being the cause of that post.

    Irritatingly though, for an Ibis hotel, the breakfast, the welcome and the design of the public areas was well ahead of the curve for the brand. The public areas do have that community feel, although they need to go further, whether it’s by implementing some form of coffee shop or some form of specialism, such as my own favourite of craft beer. The first impressions for guests at this hotel is, I’d imagine, a really positive one as it’s airy, bright and contemporary in style.

    I’ve already posted that I don’t like the room, I think it looks dated, although it’s the lack of functionality that is primarily why I don’t like it. There used to be a lovely desk and chair under that window. Ibis used to be proud of that, in the booking confirmation for this stay it even mentions “a large desk”.

    Incidentally, the room does still have a door, this hasn’t been removed yet. In terms of cleanliness, it was spotless, with the bathroom feeling modern and contemporary. This also isn’t the brand standard for the new room that Accor sent to me last year, all three of their room designs had desks in, albeit not as large as I’d personally like, so I’m not sure why at this stage they’ve changed.

    The room’s climbing frame and play area. As an aside, the bed was very comfortable. Although since there’s no chair now, I suppose it has to be.

    Just as my opinion, this is a really poor design, I’m conscious that a couple of airport lounges introduced these, then had to take them back out again. Anyone with an adapter, so the USA, the UK, much of Asia and the like, may struggle as they’re recessed. That leaves one power point in the room. I don’t understand why they can’t just keep things simple and have a power socket on the wall that everyone can use. Design improvements are meant to make things easier, not present the guest with more difficulties.

    I digress slightly, but a few years ago, Marriott hotels had this marvellous idea that they’d take the desk out of hotel rooms. They claimed this was what the younger generation wanted, that guests didn’t want formal desks, they wanted informality and they could always sit on their bed with their laptop or just use public spaces. It was a little bit of a PR nightmare for the company and the policy was scrapped during the fit-out process, it had misunderstood the needs of millennials, let alone everyone else. I’m also pretty confident that in a year’s time that Accor will be doing the same, saying that they’re evolving the room design by re-implementing larger desks.

    Anyway, back to my normal drivel, this is the welcome drink voucher. The check-in process was seamless, the staff member particularly engaging and everything felt clean and modern. I’m pleased to note that this hotel still has a check-in desk, although Ibis are apparently ditching them so that customers have to queue up at the bar. I have no idea how Accor have come to the impression that this is a great idea, although they have access to far more customer data than I ever will, so I’m sure they’ve got good reason. Although, I still think customers want to be receive a proper welcome from a staff member at the check-in desk, they often don’t want to check-in at a computer, or by trying to find a member of bar staff padding around with a device to check them in.

    This is the standard beer offered by Ibis as a free gift, all acceptable if not particularly exciting.

    And a lovely touch, very much appreciated.

    For a few seconds I wondered what was going on here, but it’s just the floor being protected whilst they go through ruining the rooms with the new design.

    Breakfast was much better than the standard Ibis fare, I’m not sure why they’re going further than the brand standard. My Polish friends know what I think of smalec, but it’s a delicacy which it’s good to see for those who want to try it. The range of cold meats isn’t the usual Ibis standard either, it’s much better, which I very much approve of, with a wider selection of breads.

    All told, and excluding what I personally consider to be a dysfunctional room, this is one of the best Ibis hotels that I’ve been to. The cleanliness, staff friendliness and attempt at localisation at breakfast are all really positive, although I’m always easy to please by giving me free chocolate. But, a desk and chair in the room is essential for me, if not for others, so this is a hotel I won’t be revisiting.

  • Ibis – New Room Designs of Agora and Plaza – My End of the Road?….

    Ibis – New Room Designs of Agora and Plaza – My End of the Road?….

    Accor did send me last year photos of their new room concepts, which I thought looked faintly ridiculous, but I hoped that they’d be toned down. This is the first time today that I’ve seen the new Agora room design, and it’s probably the most dysfunctional room I’ve been in at any chain hotel.

    I don’t much like the design, it feels too old-fashioned to me, but that’s a matter of personal taste of which I’m not too bothered about. I spend enough nights in Ibis Budget to not worry about such fripperies. But the new room design has removed the desk that was in every single room, and taken away the comfortable chair to be replaced with one for a child. There’s also some weird 1970s effect on the ceiling that looks like artexing at first, does everything have to be aimed at the older generation in terms of general room design?

    I’d add that Agora is one of three room designs being rolled out, with each hotel being able to choose which one they want. The other two, Plaza and Square, are less ridiculous, but I can’t say I find either of these particularly engaging either, although they do appear to have at least some form of desk.

    The whole thing looks like a throw back to the 1970s, clunky and extraneous. The next problem for me is that there’s now just one plug socket in the room which is on a wall. I accept there are two in a new strip panel, but anyone with an adapter can’t use them as they’re recessed. I have no idea what bright spark thought that one up, but a plug socket on the wall is fine with me, they don’t need to be modernised.

    But, Ibis have decided to make some other changes. They want music to be at the heart of everything that they do, which isn’t going to end well. We had the situation where they shut the bar and restaurant of their Kielce hotel so a band could play. Music isn’t in my view their answer if they want to bring people together, they need to create areas which are focused around on-trend features such as craft beer or elements that get people talking, even if that’s just a coffee shop. If hotels want to capture the digital nomads (a horrible phrase, but Accor have used it) then they need to be on-trend, not move away from modernity. And, they’ve decided to take away reception desks and get customers to check-in at the bar. Muddled and fiddly, why can’t customers just talk to a staff member at the reception desk?

    But the most confusing thing about all of this is that I’m meant to be the customer that the Ibis brand is now targeting. A customer who uses them frequently, who would use their public spaces when not staying with them, who travels so much that they do a lot of work whilst in the hotel, but who also finds joint public spaces highly beneficial to productivity. So, Accor have come in with a new concept that is meant to appeal to people like me, but they’ve delivered something which seems to be primarily aimed at pensioners who don’t work in the room and like design throwbacks.

    All rather disappointing, since Accor are planning to have this concept rolled out in all of their hotels by 2022. Since I’m heading towards being Accor Platinum in a few weeks, I do feel slightly loyal to the Accor brand, but I’ll be looking to switch down to Ibis Budget or stay in Mercure instead. My custom is of little relevance to them as just one person, but what’s most frustrating is their design brief seems to describe me as their target market. Their statement that:

    “According to Ipsos, 80 per cent of respondents want new hotels to be social venues which accommodate both hotel and non-hotel guests. Ibis is therefore keen on transforming its lobbies into social hubs, where guests can relax, dine, meet and work. New food and beverage propositions will also be introduced to attract external customers as well as hotel guests.”

    Is entirely right, social venues and joint working is absolutely the future. Perhaps having a room with a desk and power points that are accessible might be a good starting point though.