ibis Chennai OMR Hotel 3 stars

Safe stay

Cool and nice, except missing the bar in the same premises

Was here for 3 weeks and was working night shift, I couldn’t sleep properly in the morning because the staff cleaning the room next to mine are always talking and bickering loudly every morning. The rooms are not sound proof as I can loudly hear the other rooms’ doors opening and closing. Even when someone is knocking the door beside my room, I hear everything. Even with the Do Not Disturb sign on the staff will knock on my door while I’m sleeping and even call my room while I was in the middle of online meetings, and they do this to ask about having my room cleaned. And I even had to emphasize that if I want my room cleaned, I will put the sign “Clean my Room” on my door. There are also mosquitoes inside my room which have bitten my legs while I’m sitting at the room’s desk. The water pressure in the bathroom shower and sink is also very weak, it takes me twice as long than normal to shower because rinsing myself from soap and shampoo takes much longer. I didn’t avail of breakfast during my first 2 weeks of stay because I sleep in the morning until past noon. What I did instead is order non-spicy lunch directly from a chef in the hotel, which then gets delivered to my room. The first few meals costed me 600 Rs per meal, but during the second week the prices slowly increased. Until one day, I ordered a pork dish which costed 748 Rs. The following day, I was given the same exact dish the day before but was charged 948 Rs. When I asked, they said it was because the day before I was not charged with the eggs that came with the meal, but the succeeding one included egg charges. After that, I cancelled ordering specially cooked meals for me. Then on my 3rd week, the front desk convinced me to avail lunch buffet because he clearly said that ibis hotel has international food during lunch (I cannot eat spicy food due to health reasons). But lo and behold when I went down for lunch I found that ibis only had Indian food in the lunch buffet which of course I can’t eat because everything is too spicy. So initially it was arranged with a lady at the front desk that I can have lunch instead at the hotel next door (Novotel) because that is the hotel with international food in their lunch buffet selection where I can find non-spicy food that I can eat. But when I had lunch at Novotel I got scrutinized for eating there since I do not stay in that hotel, which made me feel very uncomfortable. They made me feel like if I’m from ibis, I had no right to eat lunch at Novotel. I was shunned away. Is that how guests are normally treated? And when I raised this to the ibis front desk, instead of getting reassured I was even told that I had to pay more because I ate at Novotel and it was twice the cost of the lunch in ibis. I was in utter shock and confusion because this was not what was told to me when I availed the lunch, and yet every front desk receptionist I talk to was saying something different every time I ask them about it. So I just cancelled lunch altogether to avoid any further stress and headache. And then on the night before my check out day, I went to the front desk to settle my bills and request for airport transfer so that I’ll just leave my room card key upon check out. I clearly said my flight is at night so my checkout will be at 8pm the next day. Again take note I work in the night shift so I start sleeping from 5am to 6am. But on the day of my checkout the front desk called me at freaking 8:24AM, when I only had been sleeping for just 2 hours, to tell me that my cab is waiting for me to take me to the airport. So apparently, the front desk person I was talking to the night before when I paid my bills wasn’t paying clear attention when I said “8PM airport transfer”. Another evidence? She gave me the wrong credit card receipt when I finished the payment and even stapled it to my billing statement and put it in the envelope that she gave me. No one seems to be attentive or consistent enough in the front desk. So, defeating the purpose of me paying early, I had to pay again during check-out because my last day in the hotel wasn’t included in the charges I already paid for. It was just too much hassle for me even until the very end of my stay. And I am very tired of it all which includes having this much of issues to write about. But I’m saying this not to condemn the hotel but to point out the huge areas for improvement. I felt very mistreated in this hotel, I never had a peaceful sleep in 3 weeks nor was I able to eat normally. And I hope the hotel will seriously look into this because my company plans to have my other colleagues stay there as well in the future, which I will have to voice my opinion on whether they should do or not.

Washroom is too small even to fit in...

I would certainly reckon anyone to stay here. Very satisfied with my stay here - - Great staff , very good service - highly courteous, helpful and tremendous focus on customer needs. - Great food - thoroughly enjoyed the breakfast during my stay here. - Good recreational activists available as well