ibis budget Rueil Malmaison 2 estrelas

It markets itself as budget and it certainly is! Room is tiny, no tea/coffee facilities, thin small towels, hard bed, no iron, desperately in need of a make over. No bar area, no gym, breakfast just passable.

This is a modern, clean well designed hotel in the Rueil business area, quite close to the RER station, and surrounded by office buildings. The hotel breakfast is simple but satisfying, and the staff here have always been very polite and helpful. The rooms are a bit smaller and basic than the nearby Novotel, but cost significantly less. The windows in the rooms do open, which is nice if you prefer fresh air rather than the air-conditioned version only. The television includes one or two foreign stations including BBC World for the news. The bed is quite firm, which for me is not a major issue. For the money, this is a good option.

The hotel rooms are clean and comfortable, and all rooms are in good working order. The beds and showers are good. Unfortunately, the hotel is very basic, with not even a wardrobe, chair or sufficient spare toiletries provided as standard. It also appears to be understaffed at times as room service were still cleaning rooms past 5pm on one day after we had to chase them to find out when they would be cleaned. Parking is charged extra at €8 per day, and pricing for the total cost of stay is fairly expensive for what is provided. Breakfast is basic with a limited choice of food / drink options. The only dinner options are to eat out (recommended) or order a Just Eat via the hotel touch screen. Overall it was okay for a short stay but I wouldn’t want to stay here more than 1-2 nights.

This was a booking made at short notice and in a great hurry — we were attending a funeral nearby. I was concentrating on proximity, and Ibis budget was a great mistake. So here is a warning to others to take more time than I did. A very, erm, casual receptionist gave us the feeling that we were intruding on his personal space. Room BAD, BAD,BAD. 135 cm (4’6”) bed. No proper bathroom - loo in a tiny cupboard, difficult shower unit (hole in screen = water on bedroom floor), tiny washbasin in corner of room. Thin, miserable little towels, one each. There is no air-con — or rather, there is (apparently) “centrally controlled” air-con, but it certainly wasn’t coming through to our room! We were there during the most murderously hot day and night of the heatwave, and in a bid to avoid being reduced overnight to a pair of anonymous puddles of sweat, we slept with our window open. Mosquitoes? Of course. Did they bite us? You bet. They weren’t IBIS mosquitoes, of course, but they visited as a direct result of our having to leave the window open. When we arrived, a big notice on the reception desk stated, “This hotel is fully booked for tonight.” We had a reservation, so thought nothing of it.....until that evening, eating after sundown in the restaurant directly opposite, we noticed that in the dozens and dozens of Ibis windows facing us, only two lights were on. All other windows had their blinds pulled down identically to a uniform halfway mark that clearly indicated unoccupied rooms. At 8.00 next morning in the fully-stocked, crumb-free breakfast room we saw five other people. Fully booked? Hmmmmm......

If you are looking for a clean, well located hotel in the Rueil 2000 business district this is probably the best deal. I was traveling alone and the room offers the essentials for a comparable reasonable price. I found the bed a bit hard.