- Name of the hotel:
Ibis London Blackfriars

- What is your ALL status?
Platinum

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
The hotel is right next to a Novotel and a block away from a The Hoxton. I've previously staid in the Novotel a few times, but my last stay wasn't great - neither bad - and they had a minimum nights policy for some reason, so had to find another hotel as I was only staying 2 nights. I was glad it was only a 2 night stay. Not this hotel's fault though, it's just what Ibis offers. Next time I'll try The Hoxton.

Update: The Hoxton hotels apparently never participate in All - except for the hotels in Amsterdam (Lloyd), Berlin, Edinburgh, Florence, Rome, and Vienna. So striped through the last bit of the last paragraph.

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked and received: Double room with 1 double bed

- How are the rooms?
The room was right in front of the elevator, and even though I have a preference in my All profile for a quiet room, this surprised me a little. I have to admit that only once I was bothered by noise of loud kids getting out of the elevator.

The room was exactly what you'd expect from an Ibis: A relatively hard bed with power on both sides. A TV that I managed to turn on once (the next time I got "the server is busy" errors or nothing at all). The AC turned off randomly with an "error 3" code on the thermostat. Thankfully it wasn't hot outside and the window did open (a bit).

- What was good and what was bad?

Good:
The location makes it easy to move around in London. Just next to a Jubilee line stop (Southwark), walking distance from Waterloo and Blackfriars stations, close enough to e.g. Borough Market and with a bus stop right in front of the hotel with a line taking me directly to our office.

I arrived early (even though on online check-in I indicated I'd arrive late afternoon) and no problem to check in early. Staff was friendly.

Bad:
I had breakfast included but never used it. Between 8 and 9 AM (Ok, I know this is busy time) there was a queue every time to go have breakfast, the first day the queue was 15 people, the second day I didn't bother checking and just went for breakfast outside. First day had an early lunch at the office as I didn't have the time to wait in line.

The bar (which doubles as restaurant) has no natural light.

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge?
No lounge, it's an Ibis 😄

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks?
Welcome drink was granted. Asked for a beer, could choose any. Went with a pint of Stella Artois.

No welcome amenity, but they're not required to provide one, so fair enough. The Novotel next doors last time also didn't provide a welcome amenity so I didn't expect anything.

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?
It was cheaper than the Novotel next doors - but not by a lot (like 30GBP per night). The bathroom kinda sucked and the breakfast queue was something I never experienced in the neighboring Novotel. So if I'd have to choose between Ibis Blackfriars or Novotel Blackfriars, I'll go Novotel. Sadly this time I didn't have a choice due to the minimum amount of nights required for the dates I was staying.