Ibis Styles awful everywhere ? Tiny rooms/bad renovations/unfriendly staff/no windows
 

I'm accor Gold and have stayed in many of their hotels worldwide for over 10 years now.
Only this year I have been exposed to the Ibis styles brand and have been quite shocked.

I have stayed at 3 different Ibis Styles hotels in the past year (Kyoto Japan, Heathrow airport UK, and Croydon UK) and all 3 have left me very disappointed in some way or another.

The one in Kyoto, Japan had rooms so tiny it was claustrophobic even for local asians. Literally a step above a capsule hotel. The normal room for 2 people had a double bed could only be entered from 1 single side as the other side was shoved up against a window and the bottom of the bed was shoved up against the wall. So a person sleeping on the window side had to climb over the other person to get out the bed. The bathroom had a bathtub that could only be used standing up with barely any room to even lift your arms up to wash yourself. I was travelling with some local Japanese who stay in smaller sized hotels all the time, and even they were shocked at how small the rooms were. There was a notice at the front desk if you lost your plastic room key card you would have to pay a penalty charge. I have never heard of such penny pinching.

The one in Heathrow airport seemed newly rennovated and I got a decent sized room, but my room was located an an adjacent side building detached from the main hotel and required you either to go past an outside smelly smokers area and though what looked like an emergency exit. Alternatively you could use a walkway on the 1st floor of the main building but the lift was not working when I visted. Worst of all, the staff at this hotel were really unfriendly. No welcomes, hellos, thank you's or even a smile. I even got a call to my room from the staff that wasn't even for me. When I told them they had the wrong number they didn't even apologiese, just hung up. The breakfast was a joke...very, very limited choices.

The one in Croydon looked like they'd done a rennovation really cheaply. You could see traces of the previous use everywhere. Also, a lot of noise from the corridors all the time and a lot of difficulty trying to fall asleep sleep. Apparently from what I read online, some rooms at Ibis styles Croydon HAVE NO WINDOWS AT ALL. Is this even legal to have a hotel room without a window ??!!


What is going on here with Ibis styles ?
Have I just been unlucky or are all Ibis styles brand hotels this bad ?

I have stayed at "normal" Ibis brand hotels all the time and have never had these problems before.

Well the Ibis Styles Brisbane windows are floor to ceiling so tiny windows are not a brand standard. Midsummer with a 4.30am sunrise in Brisbane I would appreciate really tiny windows compared to the wraparound glass in one of the corner rooms that is impossible to black-out. The staff are also very friendly but then everyone is friendly in Brisbane

I have relatively few Ibis Style experiences (St Malo, Stockholm, Paris CDG airport), but it's the complete opposite as yours. I was very pleasantly surprised by the brand and the quality of the offer. But, as always, some hotels are better/worse than others and I cannot comment on the ones you stayed in. But what I can guarantee you is that what you described is not the "norm".

I have stayed in a few of the ones dotted around the UK and have found the majority of them to be decent enough.

That said I have found Blackpool, Walthamstow and Croydon to be awful. There is a reason Walthamstow and Croydon are a fraction of the price of any other Accor London property. Location and a combination of poor management over time is the cause for them being so bad and tbh Croydon is a palace in comparison to Walthamstow.

Re the internal rooms I'm pretty sure some of the single bedded rooms are internal at Croydon and yes it's it perfectly legal. Super budget chains such as Easyhotel and PointA or whatever they are called these days actually sell them as internal rooms with no windows.

In London I would say the best two Styles properties are Southwark and Ealing. Both are very good. Gloucester Rd also isn't too bad. Elsewhere in the UK the three Scottish properties are all very good.

The ibis Styles quality varies a lot. Some of them are really good (like Southwark and Budapest Center), some not so (Manchester). For me the LHR one was actually pretty good, totally disagree on the staff attitude. Skipped the breakfast, so can't comment on that - but those vary a lot as well.

So the Stockholm one is ok? Was thinking about it, but didn't stay last summer because of some reviews. Now looking into Stockholm hotels again..

You being unlucky. The ones in Warsaw and Vilnius and few Dubai ones are very good!

Ibis is fine as long as you arrive expecting Ibis, if you arrive expecting Sofitel you will be disappointed.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.
Perhaps I have been unlucky in the 3 properties I chose to stay in this year.

Over the past few years, the many regular "standard" Ibis brand hotels I have stayed at have never let me down.
A few were old/outdated (need rennovating) but the cheaper rates made that acceptable.

I think I was expecting more from the "styles" brand because both the brand is new and, the hotels are new or newly rennovated.
Also, I noticed that the "styles" brand hotels often tend to be a bit more expensive than the regular standard Ibis properties, so that's another reason I was expecting better quality than what I got.

I will try to give the Ibis styles brand another chance in the future and see if I manage to find a few better ones.

Just stayed at the brand new Ibis Styles Sukhumvit 4 in Bangkok, absolutely fantastic. The property is shared with a Novotel. The Ibis Styles has a roof top pool, and bar. it shares the breakfast area with the Novotel. I think that due to its sharing with Novotel, the buffet breakfast has added so many upgraded options. The buffet was also marvelous, as was all the staff.at both hotels.

Anyone able to compare Ibis Styles and the Ibis Hotel CDG Airport across the road?
Thanks.

Thanks for this. I had booked two stays there for Jan and Feb hours before reading this thread - it made me a bit anxious.

My experience with Ibis Styles is overwhelmingly positive, I did like the Heathrow one as well for a variety of reasons and found the staff to be friendly if not overbearing. The WarsawCity one is exemplary (could have easily carried a more upmarket brand), Manchester Portland is OK, Wien City is good value for money... The Ibis Styles is a quite unique brand in today's hospitality world, as most franchisors strive to unify their select-service brands, while the green Ibis gives Accor the ability to quickly increase coverage in many secondary markets and add entry-level capacity where there is demand.

Of course there are some properties, especially older conversions, who bend the rules the wrong way, but then there are so many brand-new ones, far more interesting than the regular ibises, with extra features, more comfortable rooms and, of course, much more stylish. They are also a boon for any sales, as most comply with the basic brand rules and offer breakfast with every rate, plus they are a great way to burn reward points, given the slow earning rate at ibis and the usually attractive pricing (easy to afford a night with as little as 2 000 pts).