Ibis York Centre Hotel

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Average
Quality of Rooms	Poor
Standard of Service	Average
Quality of Food & Drink	Average
Cleanliness	Average

Advantages:	Close to York center and attractions
Disadvantages:	Basic hotel with basic features

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Arrived at the hotel at around 1pm on Friday 19th December. We eventually found the car park even though it was not sign posted at all (little side street to left of the Ibis and right behind the building). Giving the time of year we were relieved to find a space but there aren't many spaces at all so I suggest you arrive as early as you can. Once we got our very heavy case out of the car, we had to walk round the building again as there is no entry to the hotel from the car park which is very inconvenient. What is even worse is that there are steps up to the hotel and, with a case, it is extremely difficult to get it up them. There was a disabled lift next to the steps for wheelchairs but we had no way of operating it ourselves as a member of staff has to do it and there was no staff there.

~RECEPTION/CHECKING IN~
The reception looked very nice and modern but there was no one at the reception desk so we had to wait. Once someone attended to us, the check-in process was very slow and the lady who checked us in didn't even know the room rate we were paying for - I had to tell them myself. The lady was quite friendly but slow and not very efficient.

~LIFT~
The lifts are extremely small and you can only fit in 2 people and a suitcase. Anyone with a pushchair/wheelchair or a group of people would have to take it in turns to use the lift.

~CORRIDOOR~
As we came out of the lift and made our way to our room, all we passed in the corridor was filthy plates, dirty laundry and hoovers that anyone could trip over.

~ROOM~
The room was quite small. A double bed, wardrobe and table and chair took up the whole room and there wasn't much room left for us to manoeuvre around. The room was so small that the bathroom door was a slidey door and not one that opened out, this must be to save space. A big window made the room very bright but the decor was quite out of date and drab. The floor was incredibly creaky when we walked around and I felt sorry for anyone who might be in the room below us as we could hear every footstep from the people in the room above us. The bed wasn't very comfortable at all and I wasn't surprised to find it was a cheap mattress plonked on top of a plank of chipboard. The walls are VERY thin. We could hear the gentlemen in the room next to us snoring most the night. The bathroom was quite small. The glass shower door only covered half of the shower so when anyone went in the shower, the water bounced off your body and went on the bathroom floor making it very wet and slippery. The shower wasn't very powerful but enough to do the job. No hairdryer in the room as advertised on Ibis' site. Towels are quite small and, even though the hotel knew there were two of us staying in the same room, only one towel was left for us. Dull lighting in the bedroom is not what a girl needs when she is applying her make up for a night out, so I suggest doing that in the bathroom as the mirror is huge and the lighting is great! Flat screen TV worked fine but the kettle was a bit temperamental and wouldn't always work. Plastic spoons are not a good idea as they just melted and/or snapped when trying to make a cup of tea. Not much tea, coffee and sugar was left by the cleaners.

~QUALITY OF SLEEP~
I do recommend taking a pair of earplugs with you if you decide to stay at this hotel. The whole hotel is so incredibly creaky with thin walls and floors that you can hear everything that goes on next door, outside and upstairs. The cleaners start very early and you can hear every footstep they take (even though, because of the thin floors and walls, it sounds like a herd of elephants) so if you are wanting a lay in, double lock your door and use some earplugs. You can still hear some noise though them which isn't great but imagine what it would be like without them! I didn't sleep well in the bed. The mattress was too bouncy so when my partner moved - so did I. The room is very dark during the night and even in the morning and there is a thick blind that you can pull down over the window as well as using a thick curtain. It gets so dark that during the day you still think it's night. The window in our room wasn't double glazed so we did get a bit of noise from traffic and when we kept trying to open the window - it would slam shut after about five minutes.

~RESTAURANT/BAR~
We didn't use the restaurant or the bar so I can't comment on this but from what I saw on the menu which was left in our room, the food seemed quite overpriced.

~VALUE FOR MONEY~
We got a "Weekend Special" with Ibis and paid £158 for three nights (Fri, Sat, Sun) which, compared to Premier Inn just a few meters away down the road at £230 for the same amount of nights, is a great price but just because it's a good price, doesn't mean Ibis should cut corners here and there. The hotel is in a great location and close to lots of attractions but the hotel seemed relatively empty. Could this be due to Ibis' poor quality?

~OVERALL~
I think this is a bog standard hotel with basic features. I do think the hotel is a little overpriced but when you compare it to other hotels in the area - it's one of the cheapest, if not THE cheapest. If you just want somewhere to lay your head at the end of the night then you can't go wrong but don't expect too much as you will be very disappointed. I recommend this hotel for the simple fact of it is the cheapest of it's kind in this particular of York but if you do have the money then definitely stay elsewhere!