Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Ibis

  • Accor Hotels – New Ibis Rooms

    Accor Hotels – New Ibis Rooms

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

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

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

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

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

     

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Kielce – Ibis Centrum

    Kielce – Ibis Centrum

    Located a short walk from the city centre, and interestingly for me in what was once the city’s Jewish ghetto during the Second World War, this is a modern building. The welcome at the reception area was prompt and polite, with the staff member setting a friendly first tone.

    My room had its own mini corridor, very nice. Not that I could do much with that space, but it made the room feel a bit quieter.

    And the welcome gold amenity, very nicely done and this pleased me greatly.

    I was here for three nights and did do this for one day, earning 100 Accor points.

    The breakfast area, which is also where meals are served throughout the day and that’s the bar area on the right. It was never very busy. I’m not sure that the hotel needs such a visible car rental area though, it’s the first thing that customers see when entering and it’s not very subtle.

    The teas, coffees and juices are on the left hand side.

    Breads, croissants, apple pie and jams.

    Fruit, salad and hot dog accompaniments.

    Very lovely.

    The welcome drink, the staff member helpfully told me that I could have a darker beer, but she took the bottle and so I don’t know exactly what it was. It tasted fine though, it’s a nice change from the standard Zywiec.

    Without being rude to the band or hotel, this simply didn’t work as far as I’m concerned. The hotel knocked out its bar and restaurant for the evening, disturbing every single one of its customers (I know this as I was the only customer in the bar, and had to leave quicker than I wanted). The hotel is meant to be promoting its restaurant and it can’t do that by shutting it to put a band on. I know it’s all part of Ibis’s engagement with music, but I’m not sure that was how the concept was meant to work, shutting restaurants and bars in order to put very loud music on. Anyway, as a positive, it was nice of the hotel to engage with a band and try something different, as innovation is the key as they say. I’m not sure who says that, but I’m sure that someone does.

    The hotel was clean throughout and everything was well managed, although it always felt quiet (other than when the band was playing, which I could hear on the fourth floor). The sound proofing seemed effective, as there was no noise disturbance either internally or externally (other than the band) and the staff were always friendly and helpful. The air conditioning that the hotel use is though inadequate and would ideally be better, although it’s frequently not that good in Ibis hotels. Anyway, all told, all very lovely given that the room and breakfast was under £25 per night.

  • Bonn – Ibis

    Bonn – Ibis

    There’s only one Accor option in Bonn itself, which is the city centre Ibis, located around a ten-minute walk from the historic town centre.

    The chairs looked a little like I’d made them, but they fitted well into the decor of the ground floor which had a contemporary edge to it.

    The hotel’s bar. I took a photo of this as we had to sit for a few minutes there waiting for a staff member to appear, since we timed our visit badly with the arrival of a coach party. The welcome at the reception desk was though polite and friendly, with the staff member giving us all the information that we needed.

    This is a slightly hopeless drinks voucher which makes no sense at all, with the reverse reading that visitors could have a lemonade or similar non-alcoholic drink. I can only imagine that this voucher is given to children, since there is no such non-alcoholic drink rule, or something has been lost in translation.

    My Accor status gave us each a large Bitburger. It’s not exactly at the top of my list, but it tasted fine, it was at the appropriate temperature and it was free. The free thing was my favourite bit.

    The exciting view from the room. The room felt slightly tired and it’s apparent that this isn’t a new hotel, but equally, nothing was run down or broken. There was no welcome gift, beyond the drink, and I think that’s the first time it hasn’t been provided during a visit to a German Ibis.

    All told, the hotel was organised and there were no noise disturbances either internally or externally. The bathroom was relatively small (I never worked out why they had designed the bathrooms in such a clunky way in a building which didn’t seem to be limited on space), but everything worked as it should. The Germans seem to have no legislation on banning windows from opening, so the window opened out as much as required, which is my personal preference.

    Overall, the room cost around £50, which seemed reasonable given the location.

  • Vilnius – Ibis

    This Ibis hotel only opened a few weeks ago, and the official opening was during my stay. As it was a new opening, and not necessarily very well known about when I booked, the prices seemed quite reasonable at around £45 per night including breakfast. It’s around a ten-minute walk to the centre of the city and it’s in an area which is being modernised and improved.

    I upload these for Richard to monitor how Ibis deal with dual occupancy. I was on my own, so I just got one.

    The room was clean and comfortable, with a modern feel to it. I still don’t really get those lights that hang down though, they periodically have those in Ibis hotels so they must think they’re useful. I like the multi power square they have, which could be moved about to most points of the room and let me charge multiple devices. There were a generous amount of power points around the whole room though, such are the needs of the modern traveller.

    I didn’t turn the TV on during my stay and it felt quite hidden given the decoration on the wall.

    The view from my hotel room, which will likely be quite lovely in a year or two. In fairness, I didn’t have any noise issues from either outside or inside the hotel.

    That’s the free glass of wine from my Le Club Accor status…

    The bar area, I like the generous provision of power points.

    The bar and lobby area. There is a restaurant on site although I didn’t order from it as it looked a little expensive and slightly generic. They had a good idea though of putting QR codes on tables and in the room, if customers scanned it then they were sent to a web-site with the current menu on. They had proper menus as well, but this is a great idea if a customer can’t find the menu in the restaurant for any reason.

    The main breakfast counter, there was a choice of breads, cold meats, cheeses and fish. There were also some hot items, which I studiously avoided. This was four breakfasts of cold meats, breads and cheeses for me. And cake. And cornflakes.

    The coffee machine and the fruit juice machine, which produced perfectly good quality fruit juices, although they weren’t of course freshly squeezed. Although, this is Ibis, not Raffles, which is interestingly an Accor brand…

    I’m a creature of habit, this was the breakfast on two different mornings. It looks rather similar…

    I really enjoyed this stay, the staff went out of their way to be friendly, and it did feel like a training hotel at some points. That’s a good thing…. The room was clean, the housekeeping was efficient, there were no noise problems and the room prices were reasonable.