Ibis Hotel, Bonn

...a hotel stay involved an Ibis (the one at Euston in London) and it was an enjoyable one, so when the Ibis (pronounced ‘Eye biss’, NOT ‘Ibb iss’) in Bonn turned out to be the cheapest option for a stay in the city, I was happy to accept it.


• Booking

I made my reservation through Expedia. The price of the rooms is fixed (49 Euros / night when I went) whether you book online through ...
...as you’d expect from the Ibis chain: clean, cheerful and well maintained, but fairly basic. The main room contained a double bed, a table and desk chair and a window seat. There was a funny sort of shelves / wardrobe concoction that housed the TV set, and provided storage space for clothes in side alcoves. There was also an extra blanket “incase you get cold”. Ha. They must have been ‘avin a larf. No one could possibly get ... more

My first memory of a hotel stay involved an Ibis (the one at Euston in London) and it was an enjoyable one, so when the Ibis (pronounced ‘Eye biss’, NOT ‘Ibb iss’) in Bonn turned out to be the cheapest option for a stay in the city, I was happy to accept it.

• Booking

I made my reservation through Expedia. The price of the rooms is fixed (49 Euros / night when I went) whether you book online through any of the sites offering it, or with the hotel itself, but I went through Expedia as it meant I could earn MyPoints with the transaction.

• Getting There

The hotel is near (but not in) the center of Bonn. The nearest underground stop is Stadthaus, from which the hotel is a 10 minute walk. Various busses stop outside the hotel, but although these are fine for catching into town, I didn’t manage to find the corresponding bus stop for returning to the hotel in the evening. The area around the hotel, while not unsafe, is hardly pleasant. It appears to be in the Turkish area of town, and the main road leading to the hotel houses nothing but Turkish restaurants, bakers, dry cleaners and so on. The streets were a little dirty, the gutters full of rotting vegetables etc. They were also badly lit, so I wouldn’t recommend walking there if you arrive at night as it would be easy to get lost in an instant.

• Checking in

Check in is at 12 noon (as is check out), and the hotel has a 24 hr reception available should your arrival or departure occur in the twilight hours. When I arrived, my reservation was checked, as I was asked if I’d prefer smoking or non-smoking. The room was then assigned, my key handed over, and directions given. The whole process was quick and easy, taking only 5 minutes from when I walked in the door. They required a signature and my address details, but no passport needed to be left at the desk.

• The room

My room was a shoebox. That’s the only way to describe it. My hall of residence rooms have been bigger than that. It was so small that if you rolled, action-man-dodging-bullets style over the bed, you would end up in the bathroom. But apart from the size, I kind of liked it. It was just as you’d expect from the Ibis chain: clean, cheerful and well maintained, but fairly basic. The main room contained a double bed, a table and desk chair and a window seat. There was a funny sort of shelves / wardrobe concoction that housed the TV set, and provided storage space for clothes in side alcoves. There was also an extra blanket “incase you get cold”. Ha. They must have been ‘avin a larf. No one could possibly get cold in that room, and opening the windows wide for 3 hours in the evening didn’t do much to lower the temperature. If you like Saunas, this is the place to stay.

The television boasted around 40 channels in a number of languages. I managed to watch What Women Want in German in the evening, then the news headlines in English followed by a bit of the Tweenies in Dutch the following morning. English language channels included BBC World as well as CNN, and French and Turkish channels were also available, along with a number of music ones, in German, but it’s all the same when they start singing.

The bathroom was small but provided everything you would need – a toilet, sink and shower. No stealable freebies were available, but there was a bottle of “face, skin and hair gel” fastened to the wall. One problem I found was that after I had a shower (a lovely warm, powerful shower, too) I stepped out to find the floor awash with suds. There was a grate under the sink, and it seems that whatever washed down the plug hole soon washed up here. I dread to think what the state of the floor would have been like had another person needed to shower after me.

The towels provided were small and hotel size, but since there were a couple for each person (the room could accommodate 2 people), I took all 4 and was dry in no time. The room was well stocked with mirrors – there were 2 full length ones, and 2 large upper body ones, which was surprising, but a pleasant addition. The only other things in the room were a television guide (another nice extra) and a directory listing every Ibis hotel in the world….

The windows were German style (meaning there are 3 settings – fully open, closed, and tilted), but if you opened them fully and leant out, there was only a thin bar to stop you from plummeting to the ground, which seemed a little unsafe for somewhere calling themselves a family hotel.

• Hotel

The hotel had a small bar (open 5pm until 1am) which served drinks and snacks, although their menu pretty much read “Pizza. Sandwiches. Ice cream cake”. There was also a breakfast area (see below), and a “lounge” – 4 sofas, some magazines and leaflets. The rooms are spread over 3 floors, each served by lifts, though I failed to find the stairs I know they must have had (the fire escapes were well marked, but these lead outside, not to the reception area). My floor was entirely no smoking, as was one of the others, the last being for all those with the filthy habit.

• Breakfast

The hotel offers breakfast from 4am until 12 noon (!), with the full selection being available from 5.30 am until 10 am (or 11 am at weekends). It offered a nice selection (though not quite as much as I’d hoped from somewhere describing their offering as “extensive”) and included in the buffet were:

ß Fresh rolls, with and without various seeds, and plain croissants
ß Bread for toasting (toaster provided) again, with and without nasty bits
ß Benecol (!), butter, funny honey, cheap version of Nutella and 6 or 7 jams
ß 4 types of cereal, and proper Kellogg’s ones at that!
ß Fresh fruit, and fresh fruit salad
ß Various cold meats and slices of cheese
ß Hard boiled eggs, cucumber and tomatoes
ß Yogurt, and crisp bread cracker things
ß Coffee, hot chocolate and various teas
ß Orange juice and “multi fruit nectar” (a ‘drink’ that is 50% water and usually 20% sugar….)

We also got mini chocolate bunnies each as it was Easter Sunday. The breakfast room was nice and light, and a pleasant place to sit despite the view of the main road outside. Breakfast is not included in the price of the room, though, and can be booked at a cost of 9 Euros (~ 6 GBP) per person. Breakfast is not available as room service.

• Extra bits and pieces

Rooms cost 49 Euros per night at weekends, 59 Euros during the week, for one or two people. Children can stay free of charge if they don’t require their own room. They accept Amex and Visa, but I delighted in paying cash for once, since it was so cheap (and I was only staying one night). The hotel is within walking distance of a number of museums (op coming soon) and opposite an open air swimming pool.

• Verdict

The hotel is a basic one, but the staff members were friendly (and multi-lingual if you needed them to be). The location is not wonderful – it’s not an easy place to pop back to during the day, for example – but it has reasonable public transport links. The hotel offers no leisure facilities or similar, but it’s a decent enough place to choose for a city break when you plan to spend most of your time out of the hotel anyway. And at 30 GBP for 2 people per night, in a major city, you can’t complain.

• Address

Ibis Bonn

Vorgebirgsstr. 33
Bonn 53119
Germany

Tel: (+49) 228 72660
Fax: (+49)228 7266405

www.ibishotel.com/ibis/index.html
 

...less