ibis budget Besancon Nord Ecole Valentin

I’ve stayed at many Ibis Budget hotels over the years and usually find them a good balance of price and quality. This one was by far the worst, and I no longer trust them. The standards at the others I’ve used were much better. It needs updating and renovation. I regret not choosing the one in the city centre; I picked this one only because parking was unavailable there, not because of a price difference. It’s too expensive for what it offers. I should have checked first that the rooms had no AC.

The receptionist was nice and very helpful. There’s free, unsupervised parking right outside the hotel entrance, and it’s close to the motorway and Carrefour petrol station. But the place is so cheap-looking, it’s more like a dog kennel than somewhere to live. There’s no wardrobe or place to hang clothes, the bathroom is horrible, and the room is a tiny 8-9m2 for three people. Better to escape to another hotel and pay 20-40€ more.

The room was the smallest hotel room I’ve ever been in, and it wasn’t properly clean. We found dirty napkins on the floor, and the bathroom wasn’t really clean either. I’d booked a room with 3 separate beds, no bunk beds, through the website, but we were given a bunk bed. My daughter doesn’t like sleeping in one, so my husband took it. It wasn’t properly secured to the wall, and he was scared it might fall, so he slept on the floor. When I told the receptionist in the morning, he said nothing, not even sorry. I wasn’t sure he’d heard me. He was really unfriendly. We left that morning and decided never to stay in an Ibis budget again.

The WiFi didn’t work, and there was only one plug socket in the room, hanging off the wall. It was dirty, noisy, and thoroughly unpleasant. I only stayed the one night while travelling, and wish I’d booked somewhere else, like the Camponile across the road. Most Ibis Budget hotels aren’t great, but this one is the pits. I used to stay with Ibis regularly because, although basic, the hotels were at least clean. My last few stays have been dreadful, so I hardly use them now. Ibis should be ashamed to have its name on this filthy, disgusting place.