Formula 1 (Formule 1 Hotels in general)

Member Name: REALTRAVELLER

Product:	Formule 1 Hotels in general
Date:	20/09/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great value for money

Disadvantages: Do not forget the code

Despite their name, Formula 1 are not the best or the top in the range of Hotels, but if cheap is what you want, they cannot be beaten, and although some time they are dirty cheap I never found them dirty.

Formula 1 belong to the French chain of Hotels Accor, part of the same chain are also Ibis (see my review on them) and Sofitel (review to come in the near future).

I stayed at Ibis in few countries, Ibis are the next step above Formula 1 in terms of quality, but only at Formula 1 in France.

When it comes to accomodation, location, location and location again is the key. Well, Formula 1 are cheap because they are not located exactly in the centre of town, however, for smaller cities, this is a minor inconvenient, particularly if you have a car, and actually on few occasions, particulalry either when I needed a place to crash for the night while travelling, or anyyay when we arrived late and we planned to visit the city the day before, this can even be a benefit, since normally parking is easy and free of charge.

If you are travelling with public transport, it is a different story, and, differently from Ibis, Formula 1 do not have in house restaurants, so be prepared.

Being the real no frill hotel, Formula 1 come with a very basic room, but Accor seem to generally do one thing well, and this is getting good solid beds. Nothing fancy, no Egyptian cotton, no house maid making the turnaround at 5pm, like at Sofitel, but I slept in worse beds in 5 stars hotels than at Formula 1.

Not surprisingly, when you pay as little as 30 euros for a room sleeping up to 3 people, the bathroom is also basic, the toilet is there, a wash basin and a shower.

And yes, you can hang some of your clothes if you need to, but space is normally limited.

There is no receptionist either, you pay using your credit card, you are given a code, and that is the code for the main entrance and the door of the room (each person has a different code for the room, do not worry)

I got into the habit, may be a bit paranoic of doing the following. Once I got the code, I saved it on my phone under the contacts (I still have Formula 1 as one of them) and also emailed it via my blackberry to my personal email address.

If you loose the code, you will probably need to book another room or wait in your car until the staff arrives in the morning. I believe they have some help desk, but I am not sure and anyway the cost of calling them must be probably higher than the value of the room.

In theory, and actually as a fact, because there is no control, you can book a room and have as many people as you want. We did it with friends of mine when we were travelling in provence with 2 small motorhomes. It proved an excellent way to get a hot shower and wash some clothes at a very reasonable price and also have a proper toilet.

Bottomline, Formula 1 are not where you want to go on your honey moon, but if cheap is what you want, they are great value for money. I had reports that in some locations the working ladies (erm, can Ii say "prostitutes"?) use them for their business. I never found evidence of this, but apparently it does occur, I guess it also depend on the location, since the ones I used myself did not seem to be in any seedy area (but then, I must admit, I am not the best person to comment on this topic)

Summary: Great value