ibis budget Arles Palais des Congrès

After a long trip, I arrived late at night with my two small children and was told our fully paid, confirmed booking wasn’t valid because of overbooking. I showed proof of payment, but they still denied us a room. There was no apology, help, or solution. We were left outside in the middle of the night with the kids. The reception area was hot and stuffy and smelled terrible, too. Then the hotel failed to cancel the booking, so for over a week I had to chase a refund. Booking.com couldn’t process it without confirmation from the hotel, which ignored both cancellation requests and Booking’s messages. Total silence. This was unacceptable, unprofessional, and frankly heartless. For a hotel under the Ibis name, that’s especially bad. Stay away if you care about reliability, cleanliness, or basic decency.

We left within ten minutes and booked somewhere else, even though we’d already paid for the room. The hotel itself was run down, in a horrible area that didn’t feel safe, and the rooms, while seemingly well cleaned, were old and smelled. The entrance was strewn with rubbish, probably from the shanty town next door. There was no real restaurant, just a few seats around a poorly appointed bar. What a dump, unfit for human habitation. Avoid it.

The food was frozen, the air conditioning barely worked, and the rooms were nasty. Awful experience. Avoid, avoid, avoid. You’ve been warned. Spend more and find somewhere else. This hotel ruined our holiday.

The pool was nice, the price was reasonable, and the room was big enough for two adults and two kids to sleep in three beds. I actually liked our visit despite all the maintenance problems. The shower head wouldn’t stay on the wall, the bath had no plug so we couldn’t fill it, and wires were hanging out of broken lamps on an outside wall. The hotel restaurant was closed. They really could do much better. And please install a car charger or two?