I had organised a long weekend to London, only to realise just two weeks before that I'd not booked a hotel! I'd taken to staying at Marylebone Travelodge on my trips down to central London, but they had only got single rooms available and I needed a twin. So I went on a search for a hotel... I wanted one not too far from a tube station, due to going to a musical show one evening and a concert the next evening, and I don't like walking the streets at night.

I remembered that back in July I'd met some friends at their hotel... The Ibis London Euston St. Pancras. The hotel is just around the corner from London Euston mainline and underground stations, so seemed perfect.

I booked the hotel through the Accor Hotels website (www.accor.com) as the hotel is part of the Accor group (and I got some cashback through Quidco), however Ibis also have their own website. I booked a room for two (the website didn't state whether it was a double or a twin) for £199 between us for two nights. Breakfast was offered at £6.95 each per morning extra, but we tend to go to Covent Garden for breakfast so we didn't take up their offer. I was emailed a copy of our reservation (which I printed out to take with me).

We arrived at the hotel around midday (which is when check-in starts). There were 3 customers in the queue in front of us at the hotel reception and the first two seemed to be dealt with swiftly. However, they seemed to take ages to check us in and the woman who was being served by another member of staff.

The first part of the check-in process went quite quickly (filling in a form - which I find pointless as they already have that information - and paying), but it was the member that we requested a twin room that the check-in process slowed to a snails pace. The reception staff seemed to be waiting for the twin rooms to become available (from the cleaning team - they must have cleaned all the doubles first or something).

The staff member explained that he was waiting for twin rooms to become available and went about phoning the cleaning staff, then he kept clicking the computer mouse. A customer also phoned down to ask for help with connecting to the internet, so the staff member dealt with him and then continued to click the computer mouse (I can only assume he was refreshing his screen, waiting for the twin rooms to appear). While all this was happening, we stood waiting and the queue behind us grew longer. It bugged me slightly that the staff member didn't actually apologise for the wait, especially as we were waiting around 15 minutes. Finally, a twin room became available and we were handed 2 key cards for our room on the 3rd floor.

We made our way to the lifts and up to the 3rd floor. As our room was room 305, I expected the room to be just 2 or 3 doors from the lifts. However, the room numbers seemed to work backwards and we had to walk a fair way down the corridor to find 305 (not that I'm complaining, because I hate being by the lifts as you hear people coming and going during the night).

The key card to the room worked fine when I slid it through the lock (I've sometimes found that you need to slide the card through a couple of times at other hotels, as the locks can be quite picky!).

When entering the room, I was surprised to find the room lights (including the bathroom light) had ben left on - not very energy saving!

The room wasn't overly big, in fact it was a bit smaller than I expected (I'd say it was a bit smaller than the average Travelodge room). The room had 2 single beds (quite narrow ones, too), each with it's own little side table. There was also a narrow desk, together with a desk chair and what I can only describe as a piece of wood with a cushion on (I had to put the cushion on this myself as it was leant against the wall). Next to the desk was a small cubby area (I'd describe it as a cross between a cupboard - but with no doors - and a shelving unit), this contained a spare pillow (as there was only 1 on each bed), some hangers, an internet keyboard and a tea/coffee tray with a kettle. We struggled to find a plug for the kettle, before we realised the sockets were hidden behind the curtain! There was also a flat-screen TV and some menu & info leaflets.

One thing I noticed was missing was a bin. There was one in the bathroom, but there wasn't one in the room. We left our rubbish (M&S fruit cartons, drink bottles and a Burger King bag) on the desk and when we came in after the cleaners had been in we found they'd taken all the rubbish except the Burger King bag!

As the bedroom was a bit on the small side, I expected the bathroom to be too, but it was of average size for a budget hotel bathroom. It contained the usual toilet, bath/shower and sink. The bath had liquid soap on the wall, but the sink had one of those tiny bars of soap in a wrapper. Having used it the one day, we found it had been replaced the next despite us stopping there another night, so I thought that was a bit of a waste... I think liquid soap would have been better. The sink's plug wasn't fitted (though it was one that normally stays in the ink), instead it was left sat next to the sink. One think I didn't particularly like about the bathroom was the amount of times the lights flickered before coming on. They flickered (brightly) for at least 5 seconds. So anyone suffering from epilepsy - beware!

The TV reception was appalling (I would have thought they'd have digital) - I wouldn't normally complain about the TV signal, but I wasn't feeling well when I got to London, so spent the afternoon in the hotel room.

The overall temperature of the hotel seemed quite warm (a bit too warm), but thankfully each bedroom has a temperature control so we managed to cool the room down.

As the hotel is situated in central London a bit of street noise is expected, however the street is relatively quite. The only noticable sound (apart from a woman with a loud voice talking in the early hours one morning!) was the rumble of the mainline trains... It wasn't overly loud and it certainly didn't stop me sleeping.

The hotel also has a bar and restaurant (La Table Rouge). The restaurant menu in the room stated a number of dishes including a number 'Fresh from the Grill' (Chef's Mixed Grill - £14.95, Beef Rib-eye - £15.95, etc) and 'The Buffet' (including soups & salads, main courses and desserts - from £6.75). We didn't eat at the hotel, but one evening I did see a couple take a pizza up to their room. We did meet up with my cousin and spent a couple of hours in the hotel bar... Unfortunately, we spent 5 - 10 minutes waiting to be served! It's not that the bar was busy, far from it! There was us and another couple waiting, but there was nobody at the bar. Finally, a staff member came through the door behind the bar, but he just kept walking and didn't acknowledge us. Then a few minutes later another staff member appeared and this time came behind that bar... Again, this staff member didn't acknowledge us but instead did a couple of little jobs before turning around to serve us... Also, we'd asked for an Apple & Mango J2O (which is orange in colour), but instead we were served Apple & Melon J2O (which is green!). Hardly good customer service!

A small area in reception was dedicated to internet access. There were 3 computers and it cost £1 for 20 minutes (with several methods of payment), the connection speed was reasonable.

When it came to checking out, there was a queue at reception (at 8.45am on a Sunday morning). We didn't have time to hang around so we walked up to the desk and gave the keycards to one of the receptionists, which they seemed fine with.

Apparently, Ibis hotels have a thing where if you have a problem and it's there fault and it's not fixed within 15 minutes then your stay is free... which all in all is a great thing! Though I doubt our 15 minute wait at the check-in desk counts!

So would I stay at the Ibis London Euston again? Despite the problems mentioned, I would say yes. It's in an ideal location and in a good price bracket for central London. The problems we had were little things I can put up with. The hotel looks modern and over all it's clean & tidy, so it's good enough for me.

(Blimey, I've just realised how long this review is. Well done for reading, if you got this far!).