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Category: Accor

  • Bingley – Mercure Bradford Bankfield

    Bingley – Mercure Bradford Bankfield

    Hotel prices at weekends are at the highest levels I’ve seen them in the UK at the moment, which has required me to be quite creative. There’s near 100% occupancy in chain hotels across the north of the country, a result of people wanting to have some weekends away. For my Saturday night stay the Mercure at Bradford Bankfield was showing at £45 for a double room, which was very cheap compared to everywhere else and seems to be a quirk, perhaps someone just cancelling. I also have a heap of Accor rewards points, so paid for most of it with that.

    I walked for twenty minutes from Bingley to get here and it’s an impressive building and I tried to ensure that I didn’t include the wedding party in my photo who were having photos taken outside the front of the main entrance. Unfortunately, Mercures in country locations in the UK generally have a poor reputation, and I had low expectations of this one, usually the grand frontages hide some dated rooms in cheap extensions.

    “Set in a Gothic style mansion house surrounded by landscaped gardens, the Mecure Bradford, Bankfield Hotel is a peaceful retreat and a short stroll from the banks of the River Aire.”

    The above is what the hotel has written, and ignoring the issue they can’t spell the hotel name, they’ve probably set up expectations here of a grand country house that they clearly can’t deliver on. Most of the hotel isn’t in a Gothic style mansion house, it’s in more modern extensions that are quite rickety. That means guests expecting they’ll be in lovely historic rooms won’t get what they hoped for.

    I also only realised after leaving that the hotel has been dumping inventory on Groupon, which in nearly all circumstances I’ve ever encountered is a sign that there are huge problems in getting customers and it’s almost always a last resort. They’d perhaps be better just reducing their prices on Accor’s web-site rather than handing over a big cut to Groupon, but there we go….. It could be claimed that it’s great marketing, but it doesn’t look like that, they’ve got some devastating reviews because they’ve over-promised a country house luxury stay and haven’t delivered on that to Groupon customers.

    Anyway, I digress.

    The main hall. The welcome at reception was helpful and the staff member apologised that he couldn’t offer me a free upgrade as they were full. To be fair to them, I was aware of that as the hotel filled soon after I booked the room that I did, so they were being entirely honest there. They didn’t bother with the welcome gift though, which they should have done, although the drinks voucher was pro-actively offered. I was nearly charged the wrong amount for the room, but it was soon fixed.

    I was aware that the bedroom was small when I booked, probably too small for two people, but fine for me.

    I think that the bathroom was about the same size as the bedroom….. There were some basic maintenance issues that needed addressing here that the hotel probably should have already fixed, such as the state of that window ledge.

    I took my welcome drink back to the room as I didn’t want to get in the way of the wedding that was taking place. As a drinks option, this Goose Island bottle is perfectly acceptable to me.

    The room wasn’t really clean enough, although it sufficed for me as I have relatively low standards here, otherwise I’d permanently be at receptions complaining. The bedding was clean, but the floor wasn’t and they had left half-used shower gels in the little bottles in the bathroom rather than replace them. That was shoddy and cost-cutting they shouldn’t be engaged with. Those mini bottles are a slight environmental disaster as it is, but they should be thrown away if they’re part-used.

    There’s no air conditioning in the room, although it’s an old building and so that’s not surprising. But, they haven’t bothered with putting fans in the room, and even Travelodge and Premier Inn do that. This to me is an omission, they should be doing this. I was also staying only for one night so this doesn’t affect me, but the hotel is saying it isn’t cleaning rooms for Covid cleanliness reasons. This is a little disingenuous, every other hotel I’ve stayed at recently is now moving back towards the usual housekeeping schedule. If they are short staffed then that’s fair enough, but they shouldn’t be claiming they’re doing it for cleanliness reasons, especially when they’re not properly cleaning the rooms anyway.

    The reviews for the hotel aren’t great and they should perhaps be most alarmed about how they’re doing badly on service looking at Google Reviews, that should usually be around 4.2 to 4.6 out of 5, but it’s down at 3.5 here. It’s easy to assume reviews aren’t reliable, but trends like that usually tell a story. There are a lot of negative reviews, although this one was quite blunt:

    “Worst hotel ever, no staff on reception. No food despite being pre booked my room has no lock and the door can be pushed open easily. The bedding was dirty. The curtains were falling down. The walls are like paper thin. I could go on for days. So instead of staying here give yourself a free upgrade and just sleep in a cardboard box outside the conditions will be much better”

    No lock? That’s not ideal. The walls were quite thin, although this was only evident to me in the morning as I could hear the television next door. The doors probably also need door closers on them as well to try and reduce noise, rather than them slamming shut.

    “Getting my bill right was clearly a major problem for the lady and she didn’t manage it (a subsequent charge to my credit card) as, in her words, she was emotional over the death of a disabled pigeon that morning. Clearly the cycle of nature passed her by. Food was adequate (no pigeon on the menu) but expensive as were the drinks. Bedroom was comfortable but the shower was unadjustable – fiercely hot all the time and unusable. A totally unsatisfactory stay and despite its convenience we shall not return.”

    I don’t want to make light of the disabled pigeon, but that review did amuse me.

    I can’t complain too much because the room rate was one of the cheapest in the area, but they often charge higher rates and I’m not confident they’re offering the standard of service that they should be. For my stay, it was entirely acceptable, but I wouldn’t stay here again.

  • Barnsley – Ibis Styles

    Barnsley – Ibis Styles

    The Ibis Styles in Barnsley, which is around a 30 minute walk from the centre of the town. I had thought about getting the bus, but I couldn’t be bothered and so just walked there and back every day. Sometimes it’s just easier to walk than try and understand the bus ticketing policy. For those who don’t like walking everywhere or getting the bus, there’s a free car park on the site.

    This hotel wasn’t built as an Ibis Styles, it rebranded a few years ago when it became part of Accor, so it’s a slightly different design to what I’ve seen before from the chain.

    Every Ibis Styles has a theme, sometimes quite quirky, although this hotel seems to have gone for glass which is in fitting with the new Glass Works development in the town centre. The room was spacious, had a modern bathroom and was very clean.

    I quite like the look of all the lights, but I was slightly concerned that I’d break one. Not that I actually break much stuff, but it’s good to have something to worry about. I didn’t break any incidentally….

    The hot drinks arrangements, with a carton of water.

    My view from the window, there’s actually the M1 in there as well, but the railway line is more visible in this photo. I quite like the noise from the road and railway, something a little different. The windows open in this hotel which is quite handy, saves me complaining about sterile rooms.

    The welcome drink, which was satisfactory to me even though it’s from Greene King. I wasn’t given a drinks voucher and had to ask for one, which is never quite ideal. Friendly barman though and there was a choice of around eight different beers across the taps and fridges, which isn’t bad at all.

    The breakfast area, although I didn’t eat at the hotel and went to the neighbouring Toby Carvery on one morning.

    The reviews for the hotel are broadly positive, although the management seema  bit abrupt in their responses to the negative ones. They had a run of complaints about the decor and they responded:

    “The rooms are not dirty, however we have steam marks on most of our bedroom walls as the decorator who did our refurbishment in 2015 used the incorrect paint and we now are unable to remove any marks from the walls and the steam marks have stained the walls, we have tried our hardest to remove the marks. All our bedrooms now require a full re paint and this will be completed soon.”

    That must have been a bloody nightmare, go through a refurbishment and they end up worse than when they started. Anyway, it all seems fixed now. I really quite liked this hotel, it was all quiet and peaceful with the room cleaned and restocked every day.

  • Ibis Styles – No Longer Serving Free Breakfast

    Ibis Styles – No Longer Serving Free Breakfast

    I forgot to write about this a few months ago, but it’s relevant (or slightly relevant…) to the next post I’ll be making.

    Last year, Accor decided to change the brand image of their Ibis Styles network of hotels and remove the need for them to offer a free breakfast. It had been a little bit clunky for years though, some offered a basic continental breakfast only (which I liked, Ibis Styles Croydon did that) which was free, and some offered a paid-for cooked breakfast on top as well. That set-up was never really viable as it seemed to just annoy customers who thought they were getting free bacon and eggs, but had to fork out another £5 or so.

    That meant that an Ibis Styles hotel could offer a free continental breakfast, which would be fine for me, but they disappointed people who wanted a fully cooked breakfast. I asked at Ibis Styles Kensington earlier this year why the change had been made, as I worked through numerous breakfast bags during my many visits there and then they suddenly stopped. They said that Accor recognised that the free breakfast wasn’t meeting the demands of the customer and so hotels were given flexibility on what they offered. Apparently this process started before the health crisis, so must have been an ongoing problem for a few years.

    I like the differentiation of Ibis Styles, their branding is often quite fun and different, with a theme to each hotel. In a few locations, some of the themes are quite half-hearted and I can’t see why a hotel has picked to become an Ibis Styles over a simple Ibis. Anyway, the breakfast situation was clearly muddled, with hotels paying quite a lot of money out when there were two people and two kids in a room, and it’s not hard to note the guests who pinch stuff for their lunch and the like. Whether or not they should be doing that, it comes at quite an expense to the hotel.

    So, it was probably the right decision from Accor, although I’d like them to start offering the hotel deals which include breakfast again, I liked those. They were stopped during the last couple of years as breakfast rooms are already at, or near, capacity, but it’s definitely time for them to return.

    I mention this now as next door to the hotel I’m staying at, Ibis Styles Barnsley, is a Toby Carvery and so I went there for breakfast this morning instead. As it seems did a fair few other hotel guests, but that’s a different matter.

  • Accor Hotels – London Mercure

    Accor Hotels – London Mercure

    For my three loyal readers who have been following my London Heathrow Mercure debacle, I’m pleased to say that it has been resolved by the hotel. I’m distinctly unimpressed by Accor’s customer service, which seems to have messed their Mercure hotel franchise around just as much as me.

    Anyway, resolved, which means I can stop moaning on about it now.

  • Leicester – Ibis Leicester City

    Leicester – Ibis Leicester City

    This is the sort of centrally located (it’s very central if you’re at the railway station, more like 10 minutes away from the city centre) Ibis Hotel in Leicester. It has 94 rooms and is part of the Accor hotel and I’m pleased to add that I no longer need to start posts with a mention of problems with their customer service (since my long standing issue seems to have now been resolved).

    Guests entering on the ground floor see this little reception type area, although the main reception and all of the staff are on the first floor. The check-in process was all efficient and the staff member seemed very keen to be helpful, a kind and warm welcome.

    The Ibis room, which is pretty much like all the others in the chain around the world, although the television was a little small (not that I ever turn them on anyway). I wouldn’t say that the room was spotlessly clean, but it was sufficient for me.

    The view out of my window of the railway station. I was pleased that the window opened, the sound of trains was quite smoothing. Well, the sound of what sounded like a freight train braking at 3am was less exciting, but it’s all part of the character of the area.

    The welcome drink of Boddingtons, which I consider to be an acceptable option, so that keeps everyone happy.

    I had a look at the reviews of the hotel, and it’s pretty much in the middle of ratings, it’s managed to upset a fair few people, but also pleased quite a lot. Alongside some of the ridiculous reviews, such as an angry guest who was annoyed that the hotel wouldn’t put balloons in their room, there are more worrying ones such as one which says a previous guest had been smoking in the room and the hotel didn’t resolve the smell issue, with another guest mentioning that the light switch was hanging off. If there’s a smell of cigarette smoke then I’d refuse the room, and I’d expect that the hotel would find another room even if that was in another hotel. The hotel is within its rights to charge the previous guest for their costs. Anyway, I’ve digressed again.

    Incidentally, the hotel doesn’t advertise car parking as they have five spaces which aren’t accessible spaces, but they’ve had several guests turn up, park in a neighbouring car park and complain they’ve been fined. Sounds like an interesting drama to listen into at reception….

    There were minor internal noise issues on one night, although nothing that troubled me. Others might not have liked the noise of the railway and road outside, but I like such external distractions so all good. There wasn’t air conditioning available in the room, just a centralised air warming and cooling system. However, with the window opening, it wasn’t difficult to regulate the temperature.

    Anyway, all good and reasonably priced. I’d suggest that this is likely a reliable option for anyone wanting relatively inexpensive accommodation near to Leicester city centre.

  • Accor and New Craft Beer Concept

    Accor and New Craft Beer Concept

    Much as I’m still annoyed by Accor Hotels at the moment, one of their hotel managers has told me about a new concept that is being launched which is the rolling out of Charlie’s Corner, offering craft beers and a relaxed cafe bar style dining option. The name seems a bit random, but if their bars can actually offer something unique and exciting in the way of craft beers, then they’d have a selling point which would make them interesting for non-guests to go to. They’ve got one at Ibis Bristol at the moment, but they’ve also launched it at the newly opened Ibis London Sutton Point.

    I’ve emailed the Ibis London Sutton Point hotel today to see what the concept is like and to see if they’ll send me any photos and beer lists.

    [update, I emailed the hotel and also the general manager as another hotel gave me their email address, but as of 48 hours later they haven’t replied so I can’t add yet anything to this post which is rather a shame. I’ll amend this if they do get chance to reply though as I’m very interested in this whole concept]

  • Glasgow – Ibis Budget

    Glasgow – Ibis Budget

    I had one night earlier in the week at the Ibis Budget in Glasgow, where I stayed with my friend Liam a few years ago en route to his stag week event (which was very well organised, but that’s a different matter). It might be one of the most basic brands within the Accor set-up, but they’ve got some excellent ones such as Ibis Budget Whitechapel.

    The welcome at the front desk was exceptional, with the staff member being full of enthusiasm. The greeting didn’t feel scripted or automated, so my first impressions were very positive. The room is the standard old-style Ibis Budget set-up, one which is entirely functional but not overly glamorous. There are rooms with a bunk bed, but since I was on my own I didn’t feel that I really needed bunk beds. They’ve put a bit of glamour into the toilets by putting fake brickwork paper on the wall (that seems the only change from a few years ago), but everything was clean and tidy.

    The reviews of the hotel aren’t great, but this mainly relates to the room rather than the staff or the cleanliness. That shower in the middle of the room is not ideal for some guests, although the modernisation at Whitechapel resolved that problem, so perhaps it’ll be addressed in the future. Looking at the Google scores, this hotel receives 2.9/5 for the rooms, 4.5/5 for the location and 4.8/5 for the service, so they’ve clearly got a competent and friendly team there. The hotel doesn’t have tea and coffee facilities in the room, but they provide it free of charge at reception.

    My view wasn’t the most inspiring (I mean the front bit, the view of the rest of Glasgow was better) and I’m not sure what’s going on with that fake facade on the left hand side. However, I had no problems with my stay, with no noise issues either internally or externally. There was another staff member at reception when I checked-out, but she was also friendly and helpful. It’s about a ten-minute walk to the city centre, so I’d happily recommend this hotel to others (but until resolved, I have to keep mentioning my on-going problem with Accor Hotels).

  • Glasgow – ibis Styles Glasgow Centre George Square

    Glasgow – ibis Styles Glasgow Centre George Square

    I have to begin by mentioning that I’m still having problems with Accor, so it is probably best for me to recommend that people book using a third party agent.

    With that little bit of negativity out of the way, I have to say that this hotel in Glasgow seems to be run to an incredibly high standard. I don’t know who the manager here is, but I’d suggest that they’re doing a great job and this is the best Accor visit since my little trip to Whitechapel Ibis Budget a few months ago.

    This messaging works for me, I love the slight irreverence. The welcome at the reception was genuine and authentic, with the staff member being engaging and helpful. Nothing felt scripted, it just seemed to be a personable greeting, so my first impressions were very positive.

    One of the worst hotels that I’ve visited was Ibis Styles Seven Kings, which I won’t whinge about again here. This hotel though nailed it though for me, the decor was modern, on-trend, bright, functional and everything was spotlessly clean. There was a desk, chair, sofa and thought had been put into the design elements here. I like the nod towards the cone statue as well, given that it’s just over the road.

    It’s hard to say this without sounding entitled, but I like to receive little gifts like this to acknowledge that I seem to spend half the year in Accor hotels. I’m a fan of Irn-Bru and Tunnocks, so this was a lovely welcome for me, something really positive that didn’t cost the hotel much. This is a time to acknowledge the rather lovely carpet in the room as well.

    It’s not possible to walk along the balcony, but I liked it being there.

    I was on the top floor, so there were some decent views over Glasgow. As a bonus, there was air conditioning in the room and it worked perfectly at nicely chilling the room as I wanted (it’s too hot in Glasgow at the moment…).

    I don’t know who wrote this, but they’re a good communicator. This fits entirely with the Ibis Styles brand, all nicely done again.

    I very much like the local nod towards Tunnock’s.

    They’ve even been creative with the carpet design, so someone has given massive thought to the decor at every customer touchpoint throughout the hotel. If I’m being honest, the lift arrangement wasn’t ideal, as they seemed to struggle with the number of customers. However, it didn’t reach the point of being annoying and guests seemed to be very cheery about everything, so all was well.

    Brave to do this so that it doesn’t look like graffiti, but they’ve pulled it off. It’s a better look in the lift than in the photo to be fair, but I was trying to avoid my reflection being in the photo.

    The restaurant and bar area, all spotlessly clean again.

    And my free welcome drink. I’m going to credit this Ibis Styles with making an effort to provide a range of beers and they had around six, although draft options were off due to a gas supply issue that was outside of their control. Entirely acceptable to me, as being offered a choice of Corona or Budweiser isn’t ideal, although I accept there are greater things in the world to worry about.

    I experienced no problems with this hotel at all, with no noise issues either internally or externally. I liked that they have WhatsApp if I needed to contact them and the staff were so friendly that this was the sort of hotel that I’m fairly confident would have fixed any issues if I had them. I tried to think of some things that the hotel could improve on, but there really aren’t any. The desk in the room looked a bit like it would collapse if someone jumped on it, a sign not of any problem with the hotel, but just how I couldn’t find any fault.

    The reviews of the hotel are generally very positive, not that this surprises me in the slightest. I’ve had a look at some of the negative reviews, and some seem to be a little aspirational, such as the guest who was unhappy that the hotel reception didn’t deliver them milk to the room when they phoned. Another negative review said simply “No fridges…what hotel has no fridges and no netflix”, although the answer to that is actually most of them.

    As a hotel, this is brilliant and I hope to come back here. All very nicely done. This is absolutely the reason that I like Accor hotels and why Ibis Styles used to be my favourable brand within the chain.

  • London – Brent (Borough of) – Wembley – Ibis Wembley (Repeat Visit)

    London – Brent (Borough of) – Wembley – Ibis Wembley (Repeat Visit)

    Before writing this, I feel the need to say that the Accor customer service seems to be in a difficult place (or they just dislike me, which is fair enough, although I’d rather they said that as it’d make for a decent blog post on its own), so it’s probably best to book using a third party booking agent.

    I’ve been to this Ibis hotel in Wembley on a few occasions before (1, 2 and 3 before I stopped writing about it) and it has always been reliable. I wasn’t going to write again given the number of previous posts, but I particularly liked this visit.

    The check-in process was a bit convoluted as I was told that all guests need to show ID. I don’t have my passport as it didn’t seem to be necessary to visit Wembley (although I was in Pimlico yesterday, but that’s an irrelevant reference really) and I don’t have a driving licence. The situation didn’t seem ideal as with the exception of the ever quirky Ibis Styles Walthamstow, I’ve never been asked for ID by Accor in the UK. After dropping out of the queue and finding a photo of my passport on my phone I went back to reception, with the staff member being pleased with this, which was fortunate as I didn’t have any other solutions. He then looked at my details on his device and found my booking, before telling me that I hadn’t needed to show ID. I decided not to question what had gone on here. The staff member was friendly, although I had to ask for the welcome drink.

    Just as I like it, my room was on the top floor and I’ve never had a view of Wembley from this direction. I rather liked the hills (well, what I call hills) in the background, although that building in the front does monopolise the view somewhat.

    This is also the largest room that I’ve had in this hotel, all spotlessly clean and well presented. Its location in the corner of the building also made it incredibly quiet, which was rather lovely. I was also able to open the window so that I could hear life outside, albeit 14 floors down. The room also only had wi-fi in around one half of it which was nearest to the door. It transpired that being in the corner of the building was a problem for mobile and wi-fi signal.

    The bar on the ground floor and the beer selection hasn’t changed from my last visit, with the Goose Island being entirely acceptable to me.

    The prices charged here are generally low (which is why I keep staying here), unless there’s some sort of event on at Wembley. There’s a great deal of hotel capacity in the Wembley area which is designed to serve the events and sports market (the hotel overlooks Wembley Stadium), which has been badly affected by the whole pandemic thing. For me, this is a very good hotel which is well managed, clean and organised. I suspect that I’ll meander back at some point.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Ibis Earls Court

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Ibis Earls Court

    I’ve written about this hotel a couple of times before (Earls Court Ibis and Earls Court Ibis) although I’ve stayed here on around eight or nine occasions now I think. I thought I’ll add this visit just because it’s the first time that I’ve been since the on-site pub has opened, it’s never been busy enough before for them to open. I admit that it’s not hugely breaking news, but it’s something new…. This is a hotel where conferences usually take place, so I can imagine that this gets very busy when these are in full flow.

    This is the former bar, which is just now part of the general reception area. There was quite a queue for check-in, typically when I was in a rush and I needed to be on a Zoom call and had just been stuck on the Victoria line for over half an hour. I tried to look slightly annoyed but there was little point as the staff were working through the queue quickly and they were polite with large smiles. The staff member who checked me in was bouncy and welcoming, mentioning that he had the same first name as me which was a reminder he had been at reception the last two times I’d visited. The reception staff here always seem friendly, it’s a positive introduction for guests.

    All of my previous visits have seen me placed higher up the building (as in on a higher floor, not on the roof), with some rather lovely views, but I was down on the third floor this time. I suspect that they’ve done up the rooms in the higher levels of the hotel with a more modern design, as this is the older Ibis room interior. However, it’s still clean and functional. This remains one of the few hotels that keeps Bibles in the room, something that I haven’t seen for some time.

    I haven’t seen an Accor hotel do this for a while, but these have the dual purpose of being decorative and also advertising other locations from the brand around the world. A nice touch I think, JD Wetherspoon used to do this in their pubs as well to advertise new openings from around the country.

    Anyway, this is the hotel’s own little pub which is located on the first floor. The George and Dragon is designed to look like a traditional British pub and I quite like this, as often hotels go for something with a theme which isn’t local to their environment at all. Without generalising, this is at least something a little authentic for American guests and the like. I say authentic, it’s a hotel bar, but it’s all relative.

    There was a sizeable amount of space inside the pub, although it was also quite busy with many customers getting food as well as drink. It all looked a bit expensive, but since my drink was free I didn’t dwell on this matter for long. They looked a little short-staffed and empty plates started to pile up on most of the tables, but they seemed to be doing their best. These remain challenging times for the hospitality industry, so I’m just impressed that the hotel is still functioning.

    I found myself a high table to monitor proceedings from….

    The beer choice was acceptable, albeit a little orientated towards lagers, but there were at least some choices. I can always tolerate a nice Goose Island IPA for my welcome drink and they didn’t seem to have any limits on what I could pick as my free beverage.

    Anyway, another lovely stay with friendly staff, a clean environment and no noises issues either internally or externally. I shall hopefully stay here again, despite Accor annoying me (which I may have mentioned several times….)