ibis Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont 3 estrelas

We used this hotel for an overnight stay. The hotel is quite close to the national airport. But that’s the only positive point. I always liked Ibis hotels but this is probably the worst I ever stayed. The checkin took 30 minutes! I know that filling some forms is mandatory. But instead of giving us all of them at once, the guy at the reception was kind of confused (but very friendly) and when you thought that everything had been finished, he came up with another one. That happened 3 times. The rooms are very old. We had 2 rooms and in BOTH rooms the door to the bathroom could not be closed! And it was quite noisy. You could even hear single sentences of your neighbours talking in the next room. So no recommendation from me. Below usual Ibis standard and hopefully someone takes care on the renovation that is required!

Firstly, be aware it’s not next to the airport. If you have just hand luggage you can walk it in ten minutes by following the big bridge you can see from Departures and it’s at the end of the next again block. But it’s not a salubrious area (homeless people sleeping on the street). I’ve stayed at several Ibis hotels and they are usually good value bricks-and-mortar places but Ibis S.D. Is quite isolated and lacking nearby facilities. The food at the ‘restaurant’ was poor, the ‘buffet’ turning out to be soups and plain, undercooked pasta. (Next door at Novotel I found marginally better but a very long wait for the food.). Zero information from reception on food deliveries or other restaurants (other than ‘try WhatsApp’), zero info on directions other than ‘take a taxi’ when downtown is only 15m walk, buses terminate almost opposite and the excellent modern tram system runs from the airport. It has all the basic facilities, wifi, safe, air-conditioning. One member of reception spoke English and was enthusiastic. It’s not that they don’t try: they just don’t have basic visitor information or recommendations to hand.

The room was clean, the only problem I had with the door knob, but no big deal, my problem was the people at the front desk, they made me wait because they were either on the phone or the computer or talking to each other. They didn’t acknowledge me immediately when I arrived, they need to be trained better for hospitality, I was standing in front of them for 5 min or more and they wouldn’t bother to say please give me a minute, nothing that is not the way it was rude. Every agent did the same. They were friendly after but not aware of the time they made me wait when there wa no line, the supervisor was next to the agent and DID nothing either.

Actually the Ibis was closed and we were upgraded to Novotel next door. In the first room the air conditioning didn’t function. We were moved to another room so that was good. We used the room service and that was quite bad: pasteis were almost burned, cheese of poor quality and the pina colada tasted synthetic... Anyway, the (second) room was fine, customer service ok (Indidnt feel like complaining about the food in these difficult times) and the breakfast was also good. All hygiene measures were at the appropriate level.

Nice place to stay! The food was very delicious :) The staff were friendly and helpful, but only a few of them can speak english. It’s nearby the subway station. We were there at the carnival, it was a incredible week :D Highly recommended!!!