Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Accor

  • Accor Hotels in Poland

    Accor Hotels in Poland

    I thought I’d create this list as I’ve visited a relatively large number of Accor hotels in Poland and it’s a handy way to link to my blog posts about them. I understand that all Accor hotels in Poland are operated by Orbis Hotels and they frankly are managing these hotels to a very high standard, with a much better consistency than many of the franchises in the UK which are all over the place in terms of consistency.

    I couldn’t find a list of hotels that Orbis operate in Poland, so I might have missed some off. However, this will do for a start. I’d merrily recommend any hotel operated by Orbis, my stays in Accor hotels in this country have nearly all been excellent, with some reaching exceptional standards.

     

    BIALYSTOK

    Ibis Styles Bialystok : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Bialystok : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    BIELSKO BIALA

    Ibis Styles Bielsko Biala : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    BOLESLAWIEC

    Ibis Styles Boleslawiec : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    BYDGOSZCZ

    Mercure Bydgoszcz Sepia : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    CIESZYN

    Mercure Cieszyn : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    CZESTOCHOWA

    Ibis Czestochowa : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Czestochowa : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    GDANSK / GDYNIA / SOPOT

    Ibis Gdansk Stare Miasto : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Gdansk Posejdon : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Gdansk Stare Miasto : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Gdynia Centrum : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Gdansk Centrum : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Gdansk Marina : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Rezydent Sopot MGallery : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Sofitel Grand Sopot : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    GNIEZNO

    Ibis Styles Gniezno Stare Miasto : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    GRUDZIADZ

    Ibis Styles Grudziadz : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

     

    JELENIA GORE

    Mercure Jelenia Gore : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    KARPACZ SKALNY

    Mercure Karpacz Skalny : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    KATOWICE

    Ibis Budget Katowice Centrum : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Katowice Zabrze : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Katowice Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Katowice Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    KRAKOW

    Bachleda Luxury Hotel : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Budget Krakow Bronowice: [I stayed here in 2016, but it was just before I started the blog] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Budget Krakow Stare Miasto : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Krakow Centrum : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Krakow Stare Miasto : [I’ve stayed here but didn’t write about it] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Styles Krakow Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Styles Krakow East : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Krakow Fabryczna City : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Krakow Stare Miasto : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Krakow Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Krakow City West : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    KRYNICA ZDROJ

    Mercure Krynica Zdroj : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    LODZ

    Ibis Lodz Centrum : [I stayed here in 2018, but it was just before I started the blog] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Lodz Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    LUBLIN

    Ibis Styles Lublin Stare Miasto : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Lublin Centrum : [I stayed here in 2016, but it was just before I started the blog] – More information about the hotel

     

    NOWY SACZ

    Ibis Styles Nowy Sacz : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    NOWY TARG

    Ibis Styles Nowy Targ : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    OPOLE

    Mercure Opole : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

     

    PIOTRKOW

    Hotel Mercure Piotrkow Tryb. Vestil : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    POZNAN

    Ibis Poznan Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Poznan Polnoc : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Poznan Stare Miasto : [I’ve stayed here but didn’t post about it] – More information about the hotel 

    Mercure Poznan Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Poznan Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Poznan Malta : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    RACLAWICE

    Mercure Raclawice : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    SIEDLCE

    Ibis Styles Siedlce : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    SZCZECIN

    Ibis Szczecin Centrum : [I’ve stayed here but before the blog] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Szczecin Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    TOMASZOW LUBELSKI

    Ibis Styles Tomaszow Lubelski : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    TORUN

    Ibis Budget Torun : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Torun Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    WALBRZYCH

    Ibis Styles Walbrzych : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    WARSAW

    Ibis Budget Warsaw Centrum : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Budget Warsaw Reduta : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Styles Warsaw Centrum : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Styles Warsaw City : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Styles Warsaw West : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Warsaw Centrum : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Warsaw Ostrobramska : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Warsaw Reduta : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Warsaw Stare Miasto : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Warsaw Airport : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Warsaw Centrum : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Warsaw Grand : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Warsaw Ursus : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Warsaw Airport : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Warsaw Centrum : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

    Raffles Warsaw : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Sofitel Warsaw Victoria : [I’ve stayed here] – More information about the hotel

     

    WIAZOWNA

    Mercure Wiazowna Brant : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    WROCLAW

    Bridge MGallery : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Budget Wroclaw Poludnie :  [I stayed here in 2017, but it was before I started the blog] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Budget Wroclaw Stadion : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Styles Wroclaw Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Ibis Wroclaw Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Mercure Wroclaw Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Wroclaw City : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

    Novotel Wroclaw Centrum : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

     

    ZAKOPANE

    Mercure Zakopane : [never stayed] – More information about the hotel

  • Sopot – Novotel Gdansk Marina

    Sopot – Novotel Gdansk Marina

    I thought that I’d come to Sopot for the day as I wanted to walk along some of the coastline here, which was a successful little afternoon outing for a couple of hours. More on that in another post.

    This Novotel was relatively expensive, coming in at around £40 per night, but I haven’t been to this particular hotel before and it was handily located near Sopot.

    I thought that this was a really beautiful room, clean, modern, in keeping with the sea and quite uplifting. I don’t want to sound like Alex Polizzi, but the cushions on the bed probably shouldn’t be there, as they are going to be thrown on the floor and can’t easily be cleaned. However, that’s one minor negative comment given that I had a suitably glorious room which was really very comfortable.

    And the welcome gift of a mini bottle of wine. I’m not a huge connoisseur of wine, but it’s a lovely little gift.

    And some juices in the fridge as well. My only complaint with the room is that the switches by the bed not only turn off the lights in the room, but also all of the plug sockets. I noticed this in the morning when my laptop was at 0% charge, which wasn’t ideal. I suspect it might be because otherwise elements such as the fridge would remain lit up, but it wasn’t what I expected.

    A plan of Gdansk on the wall, to add to the local theme.

    I initially wondered why there was a gin menu for children, until I realised that was the name of the hotel’s restaurant. Lots of clarity here as well, often Accor hotels don’t put menus in the room, but here the offering of pizza and fish dishes were tempting.

    The highlight of my room was though the view from the window, as the reception staff had very kindly put me on the top floor (the eighth floor) in one of the handful of rooms that was fully facing the Baltic Sea (or more technically I think the Gulf of Gdansk). It was a murky day, but I wondered if it was possible to see Russia on a sunny day, as the city of Kaliningrad isn’t far along the coast.

    The same view by night. They’re not easily visible on the photo (although are clearer when clicking on the image to make it larger), but there are lots of lights from the freight ships.

    One of the areas near reception for children. I think it’s a useful time to say here that my Accor Platinum status proves its value in stays like this, as the upgrade to such a lovely room made it a much nicer experience than say a room at the end of the first floor corridor looking mostly towards the road. For my £45 (room stay and evening meal) I received an excellent room, a welcome gift of wine and soft drinks, a drinks voucher for a local beer, a pizza, breakfast and a room with a Nespresso coffee machine. I’m prepared to accept that was very reasonable value for money.

    This is one of the best designed hotels that I’ve seen in a while. They’ve pushed the reception desk to one side and created a large public space at the front of the hotel. This bar is easily visible to one side and some thought has been put into how it looks, really quite successfully.

    And more credit to the hotel here, they’ve made the effort to find some local beers, which is not a common occurrence in Accor Hotels (although Orbis do a much better job with this in Poland than the operators in the UK). It’s a dark IPA called Festiwalowe from Browar Miejski Sopot, and was a perfectly decent beer. Also, credit to the staff member who served me for not only speaking fluent English, but also being knowledgeable about the beer options.

    My camera has once again distorted the size of this to make it look smaller, it was a Salami Piccante pizza with jalapenos, which all had a pleasant flavour and the dough tasted of a good quality as well. Not badly priced at just over £5, I was half tempted to order another one, but that might have been a bit greedy.

    The breakfast selection was standard fare for Novotel, although they had a few things that I don’t normally see, more on which in a moment. It got busy later on, I think for a BNI event, so my friend Richard would have felt right at home. There was plenty of space for the food and drink selection, but the breakfast room did get completely full just as I was leaving. I mentioned to a couple nearby they could have my table as I was leaving, but I felt a little sorry for the family that looked quite confused and couldn’t find a table. The staff were on hand to help, which was all very attentive, but I was surprised just how busy it got and I wasn’t quite sure where that family was put.

    As an aside, this is the first Accor or IHG hotel I’ve seen in over a year that requires guests to use disposable gloves. I’m really not sure that they make much difference to anything, given the amount of handling people give them to try and get them on. It did though add to the perception of cleanliness in the hotel, with staff often busy cleaning things.

    My little breakfast selection, rolls, salami, gherkins, cheese and the like, alongside tea, orange juice and a heap of fruit in a bowl which wasn’t the highlight of the arrangement if I’m being honest.

    I only noticed they had different doughnuts towards the end of my breakfast, but I felt it only right to try one of each. They were suitably decadent and I might have had more if I wasn’t already full from trying to eat fruit. I’m not sure I’ve seen these in an Accor hotel recently, but their appearance should be more commonplace as everyone knows doughnuts are an essential part of breakfast.

    Anyway, this was a really well managed hotel and I was very pleased with my room and its view. The staff were all friendly, personable and attentive, and everything felt like it was under control in all parts of the hotel. It was really quite marvellous to hear nothing other than the sea crashing onto the beach during the night, all peaceful and calming.

  • Gdansk – I Am Polishing My Polish

    Gdansk – I Am Polishing My Polish

    I got this at the Hotel Novotel Gdańsk Centrum and I rather liked it as a Do Not Disturb hanger for the door. Nice touch I thought.

  • Gdansk – Hotel Novotel Gdańsk Centrum

    Gdansk – Hotel Novotel Gdańsk Centrum

    This is a new Accor hotel to me, the centrally located Novotel Gdansk, which has rooms at relatively low prices at the moment, around £25 per night. Given that Novotel is hardly the budget brand of Accor, that’s a very reasonable price. This is a view of the hotel’s gardens, although some imagination has to be used at the moment.

    The large foyer with its football tables and other distractions for guests, including a number of games consoles. The check-in process was efficient, although I had to wait for a staff member to arrive as if they didn’t expect many guests, although more on that later. All very welcoming though and everything seemed clean and organised.

    A functional and clean room, with a sofa and all the facilities that I would expect. There were no internal or external noise issues at all, so everything was peaceful.

    The welcome gift which I’ve had numerous times before, but I’m always pleased to see it in the room as it’s a handy snack.

    Woooo, a Nespresso machine. OK, I’m easily pleased.

    It felt only appropriate to go for the Żywiec Porter as my welcome drink on my first night back in Poland. It tasted exactly the same as it did a few weeks ago, so all to the good….

    The breakfast buffet arrangement, a very decent selection of cold meats, cheeses and the like. They also asked me if I wanted any eggs cooked and I opted for fried eggs, but I can’t recall being asked this question at an Accor hotel before other than the Sofitel in Warsaw. Which brings me to the situation that I’ve never stayed at an Accor hotel where I haven’t seen another guest, whether at check-in, in the public areas or at breakfast. That did explain the lack of noise issue in the hotel, it all felt a little odd.

    The lack of other guests meant that I had the entire breakfast selection to myself for the 40 minutes that I was there. This usually sounds a lovely thought for convenience and not being annoyed by other guests, but it did feel strange. Anyway, everything was clean and comfortable, so all to the good.

    The reviews aren’t quite as positive as I’d expected and this mostly seems to be down to the rooms being dated. I’m not sure that I understand that from my room, but it’s possible they’re started to renovate and update them and I had a newer decor.

    On a different issue, there was this 1 out of 5 review from a seemingly livid customer:

    “i delivered food to my hotel room ,two days in row,first day it was no problem,the delivery guy comes to my door,second day I order food from wolt again,and the receptionionist calls me and says my food is here,i say ok.do he deliver on my door,then she just hangs up the phone,and i think ok,they will probably come,i wait 5 minutes and still no food on my door,so i go to reception ,and there my food was , and i ask why does he not deliver on door,she say deliverer cannot deliver on room door cause he is not guest,then the whole point of food delivery is wasted.i have never had any problems with having food deliveried to my hotelroom door,and have done it many countries before.”

    On a different matter I was talking to a Deliveroo driver a few weeks ago about this issue and he mentioned that there are a minority of people in hotels who are like this and demand their driver tries to navigate around a hotel through all the security precautions. He has taken to asking everyone ordering at hotels to wait at the front of the building or in reception to collect the food, which seems a very reasonable request to me. It seems very harsh to be so rude to a hotel and attempt to mark them down for trying to keep their hotel secure. But, I’ve digressed again here.

    I had absolutely no complaints about this stay, especially at the low prices that they’re charging, and I’m back at the hotel a couple more times over the next week and perhaps it’ll be a little busier.

  • Warsaw – Ibis Styles Warszawa Centrum

    Warsaw – Ibis Styles Warszawa Centrum

    I’ve stayed at this relatively new hotel before, it’s not really that central, but I liked it previously. It’s also next door, and indeed the hotel is visible to the left in the above photo, to the Ibis Budget that I stayed in last week. The check-in was swift and efficient, with a slightly early check-in being possible which was useful.

    The room is colourful and I like this sense of informality and fun.

    The shower arrangement wouldn’t be ideal for everyone, where a curtain can open it up to the rest of the room.

    The view of the ceiling from the bed. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it is better in my view to sterile and dull. Incidentally, despite this being a new build hotel, they did have windows that open, which is now a requirement of mine in hotels (although it’s sometimes hard to work out which ones have sealed up rooms, but fortunately it’s very few Accor hotels in Poland).

    The welcome gift, these chocolate pastries were delicious.

    I went to the bar to get a welcome drink and was pleased to be offered a choice of five craft beers, as well as the more standard options that are available in Accor hotels. This is a great little enterprise and is a change to when I last visited and had no decent choice at all.

    The breakfast in the morning is included in the room rate and it’s all a little oddly laid out in the space that they have. I found it slightly illogically laid out, but I often find things complex so that didn’t concern me. Some of the items weren’t perhaps of the best quality, although they’ve got a lot of fruit for guests to make juices from which is a decent idea. They’ve also got the honey arrangement that I’ve only previously seen at the Crowne Plaza in Dublin where I stayed a few weeks ago. There were some hot items as well such as scrambled eggs and sausages, although these didn’t look overly appealing. Anyway, there was plenty of choice and other guests seemed happy.

    I liked this whole hotel and paid for it using the Accor rewards points offer, so that was all rather handy. It was spotlessly clean throughout and the staff were always helpful. I thought it was slightly odd that coffee is provided downstairs free of charge at all times, but they provide kettles and tea in the rooms. This is a hotel that I’d come back to though, a really quite lovely stay and there were no noise issues either internally or externally.

  • Warsaw – Mercure Warszawa Centrum

    Warsaw – Mercure Warszawa Centrum

    I’m still working around the last few Accor hotels in Warsaw that I haven’t been to, although this is the last new one of this trip. There’s some odd naming of Accor locations in Warsaw, this one is central, but nowhere near the Ibis Styles Warsaw Centrum or the Ibis Budget Warsaw Centrum, but it is vaguely near (but not close) to Ibis Warsaw Centrum. Anyway, now that’s clear.

    Copyright: Accor Hotels

    For reasons unknown, I forgot for the first time in a long time to take a photo of the room. So, here’s the Accor photo of a similar room…… They didn’t tell me that they’d upgraded me at reception, but they had, this is called an Executive Room I think.

    I did remember to take a photo of this impressive picture above the bed though.

    The view from the hotel room of the neighbouring offices and the Złote Tarasy shopping centre.

    The welcome gift of a large chocolate and fruit, all nicely wrapped up.

    I always like a nice selection of Nespresso coffees, adds a touch of decadence to arrangements.

    And some complimentary drinks in the fridge, and I liked that there was a sign pointing out that they were free, otherwise I’d just worry.

    This signage is a sensible idea as I assume plenty of people have complained about the air conditioning, but essentially, it stops working when the hotel key card is removed and the window is opened.

    My go-to welcome drink of Żywiec Porter in the hotel’s restaurant. I liked that the staff pointed out at check-in that I could have 10% off in the restaurant and put a menu in the room, which was all quite tempting.

    The hotel is well-reviewed on-line and I can find nearly no negative reviews that seem reasonable or are even about the right hotel. And if I sometimes think I’m picky, there are reviews such as this:

    “I am again and each time it gets worse and worse, no disposable slippers, where they were always in the wardrobe before, no cold drinks in the glaciers, before that there was always apple and orange juice in a glass bottle, only one water was left in the room where two people were checked in still for two people, for two people there are two tiny shower gels, so one person can take only one shower in the evening and no gel in the morning. The wardrobe also lacks a set of needle and thread where it has always been.”

    I’m not sure I’d leave 1/5 on a web-site review after a series of positive experiences because of things such as not enough shower gels/shampoos (there would have been four) and no needle and thread, all of which reception could have fixed. Or the very angry guest who arrived at 13:30 and was furious they couldn’t access their room before the quoted time of 15:00, apparently that deserved 1/5 too. I have no idea how hotel managers cope with this nonsense. Anyway, I digress.

    This was another excellent Accor hotel and up there amongst my favourites in the city, although I like nearly all of them to be fair. Friendly staff, clean rooms, well designed building and all really rather lovely. The hotel room was also nearly free as I used up some more of my reward points from the recent Accor offer.

    And more about the hotel and to book it…..

  • Warsaw – Novotel Warszawa Airport

    Warsaw – Novotel Warszawa Airport

    I’ve never stayed in this Accor hotel which is, as the name suggests, near to the city’s airport. It’s also about a one hour walk from the city centre, or it’s easy to get a train, bus or tram into Warsaw as well. The welcome was efficient and polite, although they seemed a little under-staffed on the reception desk.

    I didn’t get an upgrade for the first time in a while for a Polish Accor hotel, but that was likely my fault for choosing a themed room and the hotel probably thought that was the one I wanted. This is the surfer room, which I thought might make for slightly different photos to my normal quite dull photos of the room interior. Incidentally, I got lost going to my room which wasn’t entirely ideal, and I’m blaming the poor signage.

    Certainly quite different, with that board thing on the wall. The white cupboard arrangement on the left appears to have survived from a previous room layout, that did feel quite dated and I’m not sure was part of the renovation.

    Oh, and deckchairs. Probably not really entirely functional, but it added some character to the room.

    This looked quite odd though, I’m not sure I liked that nailed to the wall.

    My welcome gift, similar to that I’ve had recently, some very delicious chocolate coated things.

    The view from my window, made the hotel feel like it had extensive grounds, although it didn’t.

    The free welcome drink, once again I went for Żywiec Porter. As an irrelevant aside, the table was very shaky, but fortunately there were no drinks spills.

    I had forgotten that my room rate included breakfast, so that was a pleasant surprise at reception when I checked-in. It’s quite impressive that I managed to forget this since I only booked it three days ago, but there we go…… Plenty of choice and it wasn’t particularly busy. I mostly went for the cold cuts and bread, all of which was of a suitably decent quality.

    The hot food section, which was effectively a create your own hot dog arrangement. There was an egg section where I think staff make omelettes, although I don’t much like them and I didn’t see anyone try and get anything cooked when I was there. There was also a waffle making machine for those who wanted it, although again, I didn’t see anyone use it.

    Desserts, which are an important part of the breakfast arrangement as far as I’m concerned. There were also cereals as well and milk was available (I mention that as my friend Nathan has announced that cereals shouldn’t have milk on them, although he’s obviously wrong).

    I did wonder at first if there might be noise problems as they had a drunken group charging around the hotel and there was also some crashing about from the floor above. However, they were both one-off noise issues, so there were no internal or external noise issues, so all was well.

    The hotel is reasonably well reviewed, although there are an odd amount of clearly fake negative reviews all about a staff member not giving a customer a blanket. Anyway, the room rate including breakfast was just under £40, which was funded nearly entirely from the latest Accor offer, which all seemed reasonable for me even if I was paying. I suspect that the room prices are a little muted at the moment because of the lack of passenger traffic from the nearby airport, they are likely usually higher. But, I’d happily recommend this hotel to others, although I prefer the Novotel in the city centre.

    For anyone wanting to book or find out more…..

  • Warsaw – Ibis Budget Warszawa Centrum

    Warsaw – Ibis Budget Warszawa Centrum

    I’ve stayed at this Ibis Budget before, although it was a few years ago and before that Ibis Styles (which I’ve also stayed at) was constructed. I stayed here this week inbetween my Sofitel and Novotel visits, so it was a little less decadent. The check-in process was efficient and well managed, so I felt welcome which is always positive. It’s about a twenty minute walk away from the centre of Warsaw and around a forty minute walk away from the Old Town, so it’s not exactly in the heart of the action. There are though buses that depart from nearby to the hotel, although there are no nearby trams or underground trains.

    There’s a bit more colour in the room than in most Ibis Budget hotels, with everything being clean. There’s also soap and shower gel provided, there’s normally just the former in this brand. I didn’t have breakfast on this occasion in the hotel, but it’s a cheap and cheerful arrangement which offers reasonable value for money. It’s best though to check that the Ibis Styles next door isn’t too much more expensive, as the breakfast is included there and so can sometimes be better value and also provide a better room.

    The view from my room of the road and river, and I’d be quite happy if they tore this road up to make the riverside area feel a bit more appealing (and also so I had a nicer view if I’m being selfish).

    Given that it is a budget hotel, the reviews are surprisingly positive in the main although there’s inevitably perhaps some grumbling about how the shower opens out into the room. For me there were no internal or external noise issues and with the room price being under £20 per night, I had nothing to complain about (not that I go around looking for things to complain about). All really rather lovely and although very different to the Sofitel, it has its own charms.

    And here’s a link to find out more and book.

  • Accor Hotels – 6,000 Points Bonus

    Accor Hotels – 6,000 Points Bonus

    Well, that was lovely. This is an offer that Accor were running a couple of months ago, where they would give 500 points for a two night stay, 2,500 points for a second two night stay and then 3,000 points for a third two night stay. I achieved this and so the 6,000 points have been added to my account. That’s €120, which is enough to pay for three nights in a decent Accor hotel in Warsaw, which is very handy, so my stays for three days are all funded by that. It’s a very generous offer and well worth looking out for and signing up to.

  • Warsaw – Mercure Warszawa Airport

    Warsaw – Mercure Warszawa Airport

    I’m back again in Warsaw and at a hotel that I stayed in last year during my brief sojourn to the city in between lockdowns. It’s conveniently located near to the airport and easily accessible to the city centre, hence why I thought that I’d go for two nights here. There’s also an Aldi opposite the hotel which is handily located and which provided my snacks on the first evening. For anyone coming from the airport, the hotel usually has a shuttle in normal times, but at the moment it’s easy enough to jump on the train into the city centre and then just jump off after a couple of stops (not literally jump obviously) with about a 6-minute walk to the hotel.

    It took me a few seconds to remember where the hotel room numbers are located, which isn’t on the door. This is the one little problem I had at the hotel, which is that the key card was a bit unreliable and sometimes required me to make several attempts to get into the room. To be fair I didn’t bother going down to reception to change the card as it was a bit of a walk and no-one saw me patiently trying again and again to get it to work.

    The room which the hotel had upgraded for me, which was rather lovely. There was a sofa, chairs, a large desk and a fridge, with everything being spotlessly clean.

    The bathroom was the size of a small changing room.

    There was a espresso coffee machine, other hot drink making facilities and two bottles of water. I spent a good few minutes trying to turn the machine on, until I realised there’s a small switch at the back. And then there was espresso coffee….

    And a welcome gift of fruit (which I did eat) and cake, all much appreciated.

    And a welcome drink voucher, which mentioned that I could have any drink, a policy which seems to vary at different Accor hotels in Poland.

    The friendly member of bar staff said that I could have the Żywiec Porter, so I went with that quite happily. I commented in my post last year that the seating in the bar area is a little basic, although I could have gone into the restaurant with my drink and I can’t imagine that they would have minded.

    Back in the room, the windows opened as far as I wanted them to, and it would be possible to walk out on that bit of roofing if anyone was particularly adventurous (I’m not). It’d take an idiot, but I like that the windows weren’t sealed up as some hotels seem to feel is appropriate. Lots of fresh air was accessible to me, although the air conditioning was also very effective for those who don’t need street noise.

    The breakfast arrangement, hot food on the left, breads and fruit on that table in the middle with cold cuts, cereals, yoghurts, cheeses, fish and the like at the back.

    Behind me is the hot drinks and fruit juice area. Another friendly staff member was in the breakfast room and she was busily clearing tables with everything feeling clean and organised.

    And food photos from the two mornings that I was staying at the hotel (I mention that in case it looks like this was just one breakfast, which would have been a little greedy). This is just the sort of breakfast that I like, cold cuts, cheeses, bread rolls and everything tasted of a decent quality. And there’s a certain decadence to having blue cheese in the morning, that’s always a delight.

    The hotel was around £48 per night including breakfast, although I had Accor Rewards points to use up which halved that price. It’s not the cheapest rate that I could have got in Warsaw, but I very much like this hotel and it’s my favourite non-central Accor option in the city. The staff were friendly throughout, the hotel was clean, the restaurant area was organised and everything felt really well managed.

    For anyone who wants to book it or find out more, here’s the link.