I’ve worked my around a good number of the Accor hotels in London, well, other than the expensive ones as I’m not that decadent. This Ibis in Canning Town is new to me and is located opposite the Underground and DLR station in the beating heart of Newham.

The check-in was efficient and what appeared to be a manager was standing near to the reception desk welcoming and talking to guests. I thought that was a nice touch, there was a really warm feel to this hotel in terms of the welcome. They gave me a room on the top floor and the interior was the Ibis brand standard affair, but spotlessly clean.

Well, that really is very lovely as Ibis don’t have to provide a welcome gift. Some other Accor branded hotels do, although often don’t, so this was another nice little touch. My loyalty is easily bought with popcorn and a drink.

The extensive view from my window, a reminder of when I got the DLR every day into Canning Town when I lived near here.

For the welcome drink I went for Meantime London Lager, a perfectly acceptable option for a chain hotel, although I was slightly puzzled when asked if I wanted ice with it. The hotel has done well here with its cafe, as they have a limited amount of space and it was busy with what appeared to be a combination of guests and locals. Hotels often have quite anonymous and quiet cafe bar set-ups which aren’t really much used, something that didn’t happen here. Although the flip side of that was that I couldn’t get any work done as the set-up wasn’t conducive to that as it was a little too loud, so I didn’t linger for long.

The view from the hotel room at night. The window in the room opened which meant that I could listen to the sound of traffic and activity, something I find quite relaxing (who needs the quiet countryside?).

I particularly liked watching this, the three levels of Canning Town platforms and the bus station in front of it, there’s quite a lot of integrated transport going on there.

As another one of my irrelevant asides and a clear sign that I’m spending too much time in Accor hotels, but there has been a switch from the white dispensers to the black ones. This hotel had one of each, but the ‘Rock Your Body’ ones are often broken, such as this one, not really a very well thought through design as around a third of these dispensers I’ve had just don’t work (they’re full, but the mechanism at the top doesn’t do anything). It’s not ideal from Accor, although I accept that it’s not the world’s most pressing issue at the moment…..

Anyway, I very much like this hotel, with friendly staff, clean rooms, a nice touch with the welcome gift and the views over the River Thames. It’s well reviewed on-line and it’s a quick journey into central London given how near the Jubilee Line station is, and it’s a short DLR journey to get to London City Airport and the ExCeL centre.