Why chain hotels are underrated – the likes of an Ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Days or Jury’s often provide the best value for money with city accommodation.
I spent New Year’s Eve down in London, getting thoroughly tipsy in one of my favourite old haunts (go to the Selkirk in Tooting if you’re ever down in the city’s south-west – it’s great). But for a couple of days beforehand, I decided to check out a few of the tourist attractions I’d not seen before.
As I didn’t want to impose on my friends for three nights, I decided to book two nights in a hotel. And as a result, I feel compelled to come to the defence of the much-maligned hotel chains.
In newspapers, magazines and travel websites, you will hardly ever read anything positive about hotel chains such as Novotel, Ibis, Mercure, Days or Jurys. The reason for this, of course, is that there’s nothing particularly newsworthy or different about them. They don’t make for a good story, and thus it’s easier to fill a page with 1,000 words of gushing nonsense about the latest boutique hotel that charges a small fortune, has stylish-but-uncomfortable furniture and hangs the odd bit of modern art on the wall.
Well sometimes I don’t want that. Sometimes I want a decent-sized room, a big comfortable bed and reasonable bathroom. And above all, I don’t want to pay through the roof for it.
I don’t think that anyone in their right mind could call the Ibis London City (www.ibishotel.com) exciting. But does anyone really need a hotel to be exciting? Especially when they’re just using it as a base to go sightseeing from? Realistically, a key quality for a hotel is not getting anything noticeably wrong.
For my purposes, it was perfect. It got all the basics right, threw in an enormous buffet breakfast for free and gave me absolutely no reason to complain. For GBP69 (approx $145) a night for two people – minus GBP10 if the current promotional offer is taken into account – that’s awesome. I’ll not grow old talking about the amazing time I once had at the London City Ibis, but that’s hardly the point – in an expensive city, that represents extremely good value for a hotel in a central location that doesn’t have anything in particular wrong with it. For a boutique joint with tiny rooms, bags of attitude and a million-and-one irritations, you’ll almost certainly be paying 50-75% more.
And this is a guilty secret that the travel media doesn’t really like letting you in on. A Novotel or an Ibis – even a Premier Inn or a Best Western – doesn’t make for fascinating reading, but it’ll often be the best value accommodation in a big European city. Unless you want to start scraping the dregs in the hostels or grotty budget hotel chains…
Do you agree about chain hotels getting an unfair bad rap? Are there any chains you particularly like staying with? Share your thoughts below.
