Ibis London City

I stayed here for one night when attending a conference around the corner in London Metropolitan University.

I've stayed in Ibis hotels before & generally regard them as reasonable for a short stay - a bit lacking in character but perfectly adequate.

This was fine - room was OK with a rather odd bathroom 'pod' ! I was a bit annoyed by lack of hairdryer which I've come to expect as standard in hotel rooms but not a major issue.

The breakfast was a bit basic - I expected a wider choice of continental items for the L5.50 charged.

I also used the restuarant in the evening - it advertised itself as a French restuarant & it really was, with many French speaking people using it. Food good & not over expensive.

As a (older) woman on my own I found it a good place to stay & though the neighbourhood isn't one I would have chosen but for the proximity of the conference, it was convenient & very near the tube.

I stayed in this hotel for three nights in August 2008. When I arrived, it appeared that no non-smoking rooms were immediately available, but they promised one starting from the second night. I had to live with it since I was not sure myself whether I had requested one at the time of booking. The next day I was given a non-smoking room which, however, had such a stench of chlorine that I began to wonder whether tobacco smell of my first room was not nicer after all. There was no hairdryer in the room but they were supposed to be available at the front desk. When I asked for one in the evening, it appeared that they were all gone and I was able to get hold of one only the next morning. The towels were different shades of white, yellow and grey and pillow cases had dark stains, so I had to ask to replace them. On one of the days the cleaner merely forgot to replace the towels (she took away those left on the floor but forgot to provide new ones) as well as to wash the cups in the room and to replenish tea bags. I had to ask for that specifically too. At the check-out I was requested to produce the hairdryer which I had naturally left in my room. The explanation to this effect did not help and I had to go back to the fifth floor and return to the reception with the ultimate evidence that I had not packed the hairdryer in my suitcase by accident. On top of everything, when I asked them to store my luggage for several hours until my departure from London (it was one small bag acceptable for cabin luggage), they said that their luggage rooms were full, they absolutely could not put my bag under the reception desk either and they had no other place to put it. They could not do better than suggest to me to walk to the Liverpool Street Station and check it in the luggage room there for 6 pounds. Definitely the last place I will ever stay again in London. OK, it is cheap, but it is worth paying more rather than staying in a dirty stinky hotel with poor service.

This hotel was good for the price. The reception staff were very helpful and accommodating with all my requests and I asked for a room on the quiet side of the hotel which they honoured. There's a lot of building work around the hotel so looks from the outside aren't good but inside the rooms are very spacious, including big egg shaped bathrooms! The room was quiet, the bed was big and although it's right next to Aldgate East tube station I couldn't hear any trains.