Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Accor

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
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
Bucharest – Ibis Styles Bucharest Airport

I accept that this isn’t a perfect photo, but I had taken two flights and a rather packed bus from Bucharest Băneasa airport to get here. This is the Accor operated Ibis Styles hotel, which is where I was spending my final night of my near two week trip around various bits of Europe.

There was a very friendly welcome from the team member at reception and he mentioned about the free breakfast. When I said that I’d be leaving too early, he said that the hotel can arrange something in these circumstances, which was much appreciated. He also mentioned that they had upgraded my room and I very much liked this as well.

Very comfortable. The design felt both a bit 1980s and also modern, it had a homely feel that I liked. Ibis Styles are known for their slight quirkiness and they brand their hotels around a theme, with this one being air travel which feels appropriate.

My welcome drink of beer and also my welcome gift of fruit. I’ll be honest and say that I prefer chocolates, crisps, beer or random souvenirs, but a gift is a gift and was much appreciated. I also love seeing a Nespresso machine in a room, so I indulged in coffees.

Some of the room decoration.

I like traffic noise, so I opened the window happily, although the double glazing is very effective at keeping the noise out, including from the next door airport.

With my breakfast collected, it was time for the early morning walk to the airport. And more on both of those in the next post….

But, overall, this was an excellent hotel, with friendly service, clean rooms and no noise issues. I felt very welcome and after two flights in one day, with another one early the following morning, I felt entirely rested by the time I woke up. This is a hotel that I’d certainly be happy to book again when I’m next in the Bucharest area.

December 14, 2025
Ljubljana – Day Three (Ibis Styles)

We were all staying in Accor’s Ibis Styles for the three nights that we were in Ljubljana, a conveniently located hotel just a short walk away from the bus stop and railway station.

The set-up here is a little different to the usual Ibis Styles arrangement, as they also have a hostel on the seventh floor which means more social areas are provided for the entire hotel. There is a rooftop bar, which I confess that we forgot to visit.

We were all on different floors, but I think that the rooms looked the same. The bathroom set-up is very Ibis Styles… My room felt functional and bare, but it was clean and I had what I needed. Well, other than a welcome gift….

The view from the hotel over to Ljubljana Castle.

I had been fortunate to obtain a favourable rate that also included breakfast, although the others had booked room options without the breakfast. I didn’t intend to miss out though.

I didn’t bother with the hot options as the cold options were plentiful, but there were some eggs and sausages as well.

Bread, blue cheese, tomatoes, olives, cucumber, salami, croissant, bread and butter, all really rather lovely.

I always find it handy when they do this. I went down between 07:00 and 08:00 to fit in with the others and it was always quiet.

And my welcome drink, which I picked up on the final night. It’s not a beer that I’ve had before, but it was dark and interesting.

As an aside, I liked the lights outside the room which clearly indicated to the cleaning staff who wanted the room cleaned. I opted to just collect the 100 Accor points every night by not having the room cleaned, as every little helps…

I really rather liked this hotel, the staff were friendly, the room was clean, there were no internal or external noise, everything worked properly, there was a nice welcome drink and the breakfast was of a decent quality. I’d certainly stay here again if I come back to the city, which I likely will.

November 29, 2025
Tirana – Mercure Tirana

I’d just got off the bus from the airport and thought I’d take this photo with the beautiful light. Clearly so shaken by the bus journey, I managed to mess that up.

To make up for it, here’s a replacement shot from the following morning when I was marginally more awake and less traumatised by public transport.

The bar area of this Accor hotel.

The welcome drink and it was another smooth and generic European lager, but I like free things and it was refreshing in the extreme heat.

The room and they only had twins available. To my slight annoyance, this had a connecting door to the neighbouring room, which I hate anyway (and have to pile up furniture to prevent any access), and it was also not properly sound protected. They’ve only just built this hotel, so this just seems like a pointless small saving for the annoyance it’s already caused judging from the reviews. Anyway, I opened my window and the road noise drowned out any conversation from the neighbouring room. Fortunately, I very much like road noise, so all was well.

The view from the window.

If there’s a fire at the hotel, the general manager will get called out on this as the emergency plan is complete nonsense. Which means in the event of an actual emergency a guest might probably wander off in the wrong direction and for a brand new hotel, that’s a rather impressive oversight. They’ve been told about this in reviews and haven’t corrected it. Being quite dull, I always already know where the lifts and stairs are in nearly every hotel as I check in advance, but they’d be better to take these down and have nothing than to have widely incorrect plans. In this plan, the room highlighted is at the rear of the hotel, but I was at the very front.

Breakfast was very peaceful as the dining room was large and quiet, with the staff being attentive and plentiful. The filter coffee was a little drab, but that cherry jam was formidable. It’s one of the punchiest cheeses that I’ve had, but there were plenty of juices to temper the flavour a little. All absolutely fine though with plenty of choice and numerous breads and croissants.

I liked this hotel and would stay again, but they really do need to sort out the sound protection between the rooms as it shouldn’t be like that in a new build. Most people don’t want to open the windows to hear road noise to resolve the issue, I accept that I’m odd in that regard. The air conditioning seemed temperamental, some reviews have suggested it’s because they’re turning it off and on at reception. Either way, the room was tolerable in terms of heat and I set the bar quite high on that, so I suspect most guests would have been entirely happy. The highlight was the breakfast, but as for the fire plan, let’s just say don’t rely on it unless you’re keen on a spontaneous tour of the wrong part of the building.

The hotel is around a one hour walk from the city centre, so I decided that’s what I would do in the extreme heat, although there are buses and taxis available for those who don’t feel the need to walk everywhere.

July 25, 2025
Faro – Faro Ibis

This is the second time that I’ve stayed at this Accor operated hotel, located halfway between the airport and the Old Town of Faro. This was ideal for me as it put within walking distance of the airport, but I suppose it’s also handy if you’re the sort of person who can’t decide whether you want to be near planes or actual civilisation.

Check-in took nearly fifteen minutes because of two guests in front faffing about with their reservation, it felt like that they were negotiating some UN peace agreement.

My welcome drink of Sagres, a generic tasting beer which did meet the key requirement of being refreshing, although the brewery haven’t burdened themselves with what I consider a key requirement of it actually tasting of anything. The staff member, with commendable honesty, told me it was “only available in small” which somehow felt both welcoming and not. I wasn’t exactly planning a major session at the bar with my free drink, but it does feel like the sort of policy that saves the hotel about £10 a year while just very mildly irritating everyone.

The standard Ibis set-up with a desk, which is how I like it.

There was a welcome gift of pasteis de nata and bottled water and it’s hard not to feel welcomed when someone provides me with free custard tarts.

The view from the window over the sun scorched land.

The view from the side window of the corridor and the hotel’s main draw (although not to me) is the swimming pool.

All told, I rather liked this hotel and there were no noise issues, although I had my favourite room location of the top floor far away from the lift. The team members were friendly, the room was clean and I liked the custard tarts.

July 22, 2025
Bratislava – Ibis Bratislava Centrum

I had one night at the Ibis Bratislava Centrum, staying loyal once again to Accor Hotels. It’s centrally located in the city, around a five minute walk away from the city centre with its restaurants, museums and craft beer bars. It’s also quite convenient, as might be obvious from the photo, to the tram line. The slightly odd thing in terms of first impressions is that they drape the mat outside the front door so that it’s over the top step, I’m moderately surprised no-one has fallen down the stairs, especially as some of the tiles are chipped and damaged.

The room is the standard Ibis design, but I’m content with that. The staff member at reception was friendly and helpful, but there was quite a queue to check-in when I arrived. Fortunately, I’m rarely in a rush unless there’s a bakery or craft beer bar involved. As a minor point, they could though do with more power points, they are all over by the desk and they could probably do with them by the bed. I think that’s usually resolved though when the room renovations take place.

My welcome gifts and I particularly liked that chunky fridge magnet. Well, and the chocolate and the peanuts, there’s always a need for food based gifts. Call it an edible bribe.

And my welcome drink from the downstairs bar, the Urpiner Classic 10. It was the only beer that was available as a welcome drink and to be honest, I’m surprised that the fridge magnet didn’t stick to it as it tasted so metallic. It’s a very basic beer which was pretty devoid of any flavour, maybe some malt although I wondered whether that was just some slightly tasty dust. But, it was free, so I drank it.

The breakfast room was relatively quiet, which always makes for a calm start to the day. The staff member at the little desk had a friendly welcome as I arrived, but she said my room number wasn’t on her list for breakfast. She phoned downstairs to the reception desk and seemed pleased with their response as I was allowed in without any further query.

There were a variety of different seating types. This room is only used as the breakfast room as the bar is downstairs and the hotel doesn’t offer hot meals.

The breakfast buffet selection.

Delicious. There was a limited hot food selection, but I ignored that as usual, going for the cold food selection. That baguette was really decent, I had quite a lot of that bread along with half the hotel’s tomatoes, gherkins and pickled onions. I know how to live….

The view from my window over the city. It’s probably not the best view from a hotel room in Bratislava, but I liked looking at the trams going by. I also managed to make my room very cold, which pleased me greatly that the air conditioning was working, as the temperature outside was ridiculous.

I’m not sure that I entirely like “only use the stairs in an emergency” as that clutters up the lifts needlessly and also isn’t exactly the inspirational healthy message to give customers….

The on-line reviews for the hotel are a little mixed, so I thought I’d meander through the negative ones to see if there was anything exciting.

“Horrible noisy hotel, the room is dirty. The guests comprise of out of control kids and drunk Brit’s on stage parties.”

Assuming that’s stag parties, that is a problem and I think is a challenge for the hotel. There was a British stag group when I was there with the stag dressed as someone from Guantanamo Bay, but the staff coped with them admirably.

“I had an absolutely awful experience on the phone with the receptionist. After being sworn at multiple times and being told “I see people like you every day with your bullshit” i couldn’t face going to the hotel itself and booked through an Airbnb instead.”

I find it odd how people manage to make a receptionist react like this, although I’m highly sceptical about this narrative anyway.

“Location is crap.”

It’s in Bratislava. May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Bratislava hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeasts swinging majestically…

There are a lot of complaints about the air conditioning, so I might have been very fortunate to have a room where it worked so well. I have twice this year gone to reception at hotels to reject a room for being too hot, so I have a lot of sympathy for customers stuck in a room which is too hot. At least the windows open in this hotel, unlike some IHG hotels which seem to so often have sealed windows.

“No mini bar no room service.”

Aspirational.

Anyway, I liked this hotel as it was clean and comfortable. I suspect the staff member was fed up with putting my bag in the luggage store as they did it the day of my stay and the day afterwards, with it being a slight faff to get the key, walk to the luggage room and all that, but she pretended not to be annoyed. The breakfast was decent and I liked the welcome gifts, so another win there. It was more expensive than I’d usually pay at around £60 for the room and breakfast, but I wanted to be in the city centre for at least one night. Hopefully I’ll stay here again, all rather recent.

July 4, 2025
Gdansk – Hotel Mercure Gdańsk Stare Miasto

I’ve stayed here before and it’s one of my favourite Accor hotels in Poland, so as there was a relatively low price I thought I’d opt for here for my single night in Gdansk. Here’s the view from my hotel window as I didn’t take another photo of the hotel’s frontage. The welcome at the front desk was immediate, engaging and personable, a very positive first impression.

The rather lovely seating area on every floor. This is one of those little touches that does make a difference. Thinking of my friend Richard, who gets tired easily, having a chair to sit down whilst waiting for the lift is very useful. Incidentally, he’s now a TV star, I’ll excitedly post links when iPlayer has his appearance on.

I booked a cheap single room, but was upgraded to an executive room and I was surprised and delighted at the arrangement. Clean, comfortable and I love that window seat option.

Drinks in the minibar. I didn’t want to be greedy and so I left the lager. I’m very helpful like that.

I wasn’t sure when I stayed last time if the drinks were free, but it was clear this time.

There were also some welcome gifts, a nice postcard, badge, amber soap and some sort of coffee. A really lovely gesture. Richard very much liked my exciting ‘welcome gifts from Accor’ page when I had it, so I must update that at some point.

The view from the window and one of the free drinks from the fridge, the Złote Lwy from Browar Amber. It’s a light, malty and refreshing drink with the view adding to the whole experience.

The Gdansk shipyards are visible here, formerly known as the Lenin Shipyards and where Solidarność was founded.

The view at night and the city’s main railway station is visible on the left-hand side.

Downstairs at the bar, these were the local beers to choose from as a welcome drink. The helpful team member said I could have any and I was tempted by the Baltic Porter but it was rather strong and I didn’t want to overdo it.

I instead went for the Kozlak from Browar Amber, which was sweet with flavours of toffee and caramel. I very much like it when hotels make an effort to support a local brewery, with Browar Amber being located in Bielkówko which is a little to the south west of Gdansk.

I won’t witter on any more as I’ve already written about this hotel, but I was entirely content at this repeat stay, it felt well managed and organised. And giving me free beer is always a way to get me to write lovely things about anything…. Unless it’s Greene King and then I’m more picky.

June 21, 2025
Vilnius – Novotel

I was fortunate to get a cheap rate for this hotel as it was a Sunday night, an Accor hotel that I didn’t visit when I was last in Vilnius. It’s a very well reviewed hotel on-line and it’s located in the centre of Vilnius, it was all a little more decadent than what I’m used to.

There was a wait of a few minutes to check-in as they had a little rush of customers, but it all looked quite organised in the lobby. They wanted to see my credit card so that they could take a deposit for the mini-bar that I had no intentions of using, but this became problematic as my cards are from Chase and don’t have the number printed on them. This caused the helpful staff member some confusion as she said she hadn’t seen this, so she decided to trust me not to run off with their Cokes.

The lobby bar and this felt modern and on-trend, but it didn’t ever seem very busy. It’s an interesting space that seems under-used, perhaps they should open a craft beer bar there.

They had two beers available as my welcome drink, one of which was some lager and this was the Penki Mazgai from Brick by Brick Brewery. It was perhaps slightly thin, but it had a tropical flavour, stone fruit and was an agreeable pale ale.

The welcome gift from the hotel, cheese, crisps, olives and red wine. I don’t much drink wine, especially red wine, but I did have this the following evening in Kaunas as they didn’t offer me anything there. A lovely gesture though and I fancied a snack. Although I nearly always fancy a snack, but that’s a different matter. I did take a video of the room, but no photos, but I don’t think it’s exciting enough to share. The room was clean, functional and in the bathroom there was a bath as well as a separate shower with the room design being near identical to the Novotel which I stayed at in Athens a few weeks ago. It was an upgraded room on a higher floor, not the cheap and cheerful room that I actually booked.

The view from the window of my room.

And at night.

Breakfast was included in the room rate and it was very busy, although I took this photo during a brief period of calm, although I found a seat without too much trouble. The space here is insufficient though, they have this large hotel and they’ve got a relatively small counter which is hard to navigate with the number of customers they have. At the back is the coffee area which also isn’t really large enough and there are numerous pinchpoints with this whole arrangement.

The hot food, which I ignored.

The cold food selection at the end, which was reasonable choice although not as good as in Dortmund. I liked the choice there, not least as they had guacamole. I suppose one of the challenges is trying to offer people what they want, so sacrifices are made with the quality to offer this level of quantity. Although I would personally have them ditch all the hot stuff and replace it with guacamole, I accept that this might not be a decision that went down with universal approval.

That’ll do. I’d add I might have had another couple of plates of this and at least two litres of orange juice. They had takeaway containers for the coffee which is a helpful bonus so that I could have one for the room as well.

As mentioned, the on-line reviews are very positive although one guest went to TripAdvisor to leave a 1/5 as there was a small hole in their bed sheet. I do wonder sometimes how people cope with life, but maybe I have lower expectations. And the member of the public who wasn’t allowed to use the toilet even though they’ve stayed at an Accor hotel in another location before, so they felt the need to leave a 1/5. Not only that, but he made sure to mention the staff member to try and cause her issues, which feels rather unfair to me. The vast majority of customers were though content with their stay, I just like having a little read of the negativity.

For the price that I paid, which was around £50 for the room and breakfast, I thought that the value was excellent. I’m not sure that they made much on me given they upgraded my room, gave me a welcome wine, snacks and then a welcome drink, but I’ve left them a positive review and I’m wittering on here in a helpful manner. I’d definitely stay again, although the rack rate for this hotel is usually quite expensive, so I might have to pick a cheaper option unless it’s a cut-price Sunday again…..

June 21, 2025