More room in a Shoebox (Ibis - Birmingham)

Member Name: binnie

Product:	Ibis - Birmingham
Date:	19/05/02 (661 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: centrally located, cheap enough, clean

Disadvantages: basic rooms, no bath

I was fed up one rainy Sunday afternoon and decided that me and my husband needed to getaway from it all.
After seeing Grease in December at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, I thought it would be nice to go and see another show.
I chose the Blues Brothers.
Birmingham is over 2 hours and 30 drive from my house, so we thought it would be better if we stayed overnight in a hotel.
I considered the Comfort Inn again, but the prices were coming up £75 for the night per room.
I searched and searched until I came to a site advertising Accor hotels.The site is www.accorhotels.com.
This is how I discovered that there was a Ibis hotel in Birmingham which was ideally located for us.
The price for the room per night was more like it, it was £35, if you wanted breakfast that was £4.25, but seeing as though it was only a cold continental breakfast we didn't bother.
We went to a service station on the way home.

*Checking In*

The entrance area was nice and bright with a couple of sofas.
You could also see the restaurant from there, it was part of the reception area but sectioned off.
Behind the desk were three french girls, they have imported staff over from France seeing as though Ibis is a french chain.
There was quite a queue when I got there.
The people in front of me were trying to sneak another person into the room, he said he will sleep on the floor. The receptionist wasn't too happy.
Then came two girls who wanted to move rooms as their room smelt of sick and poo.
I considered leaving but with the Pop Idol concert being on in Birmingham that weekend, I thought everywhere might be booked up.
Then it was my turn, the girl took a swipe of my credit card for the room and just in case I had breakfast, plus she took extra in case I made any phone calls.
She said that the money wouldn't go out until I checked out, then if we didn't have breakfast then they wouldn't charge me fo
r it.
I was then given an electronic card for us to go through a door to the lobby on our floor, it also opened our door to our bedroom.
I thought this was good as it would stop uninvited people getting up to your room.
They couldn't get through the corridor doors without a swipe card.

*Rooms*

We opened the door, and let out a gasp. Wow there's hardly any room to swing a cat in here I thought.
There was a double bed, a wardrobe made out of cheap white wood, it looked like something somebody had thrown together. My dolls house bedroom was made better than this, when I was younger.
This was not the same standards as France where I have stayed in two Ibis hotels over there.
Oh well time to check out the bathroom.
Oh dear no bath, if I had been staying for more than one night, I would have asked to be moved.
I love my bath as I find showers in basic hotels always look unclean to me.
There was just the normal shower cubicle with the horrible white base to stand in, which looked clean enough, but somehow always make me cringe.
I always wonder who's stood in it, if they had smelly feet.
I'm not the same for baths for some reason.
In the shower, it had a soap dispenser for you to use for your hair/body.
There was also another one next to the sink.
The bathroom was tiny, with a small window, with no curtains, I always wondered if anybody could see me peeing.
I suppose it was adequate, but compared with other hotels I have stayed in, this was the worst I have come across, room wise that is.
The room had a dressing table with kettle and tea/coffee, no biscuits.
There was a TV with no remote control, this was right next to the door high up on the wall.
It was a bit difficult for me to reach to switch channels.

The room was clean, but was so small and basic, it could have done with a good lick of paint and new wardrobes.
I'm not sure if all rooms were like
this, I would have liked to have compared some.

Didn't bother with breakfast, we grabbed a packet of crisps from the receptions machine which would do until we found a service station.
There was also a drinks machine and ciggie machine.

*Parking*

There was parking right across the road, we used the multi storey car park, which we got a ticket for.
If you checkout before 12pm the day after, we got a discount of £3.00 off the parking price.
It came to £4.00 for the ticket, which would normally have cost us £7.00 for overnight parking.
They stamp your ticket at the reception at the Ibis and then you go to the second floor of the car park and pay, he then gives you a ticket to release the barrier.


* Location *

It's in a great location, right in the middle of the chinese quarter.
behind the hotel was a square which consisted of some flash restaurants, trendy bars.
I was very impressed. It was all lit up at night, with even the trees looking like Xmas trees.
There was a Pizza Hut, a cinema commplex and plenty of other eating places.
Next door to the hotel was a lovely looking restaurant, I think it was a Thai/French restaurant.

It was within walking distance to the Alexandra Theatre, it only took us about 10 mins to get there.
I was quite happy with this hotel especially for the location, but they do need to do something with the rooms.
The reception area is nice enough, the staff a little reserved, the restaurant looked ok for what I could see of it, and yes, I would go again as it was cheap enough for a city overnight stay.

The address is

Ibis Hotel
Ladywell Walk
Birmingham
Tel 0121 6226010

Summary: