400 Travelodge hotels may rebrand as Ibis

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• Vit says:

  30 Jul30 July 05:22

  Got £54 travelodge voucher – – need to use it up quickly. 🤔

• Nick says:

  30 Jul30 July 05:36

  Do you mean ‘budget Ibis’ (as written) or ‘Ibis Budget’ (the brand)? Quite a difference in practice – I’d suggest a mix of the two would be most appropriate given the particular hotels concerned, but will be interesting to see how strict Accor is with the branding rules. I’m guessing you’re too snobby actually to have stayed at an Ibis Budget, but they’re actually not too bad – consistent family rooms, clever design of space, often decent price for French cities.

  • Worzel says:

    30 Jul30 July 06:18

    Forming an opinion on guesswork isn’t wise.

  • MattB says:

    30 Jul30 July 07:07

    Stayed in plenty of Ibis and Ibis Styles in 2016 travelling round France for the Euros. Always spotlessly clean, nice lounge areas and very well priced probably because they were everywhere. In Paris in particular seemed to be on every street.

    • Lady London says:

      30 Jul30 July 13:10

      IBIS Budget is considerably worse in quality than IBIS or IBIS Styles.

      Originally they were ETAP Hotels. This is basically Formule1 hotels with a molded plastic shower/loo cubicle in the room, instead of shared down the corridor.

      I have found my very few IBIS Budget stays to be depressing experiences. I doubt I will stay in them if they’re adding in the Travelodges with falling-apart buildings and poor maintenance. Possibly some newer Travelodges or Travelodge Plus might make it into IBIS/IBIS Styles territory but those are very, very few.

      I’m impressed with the organisation of the 400 hotels that got themselves out of Travelodge though.

      • Lady London says:

        30 Jul30 July 13:17

        PS IBIS Budget hotels also dont earn or spend Accor points, like Formula1 hotels they are excluded

  • Mark says:

    30 Jul30 July 15:58

    Some reports are using the phrase “Ibis family” which suggests that they will be using a mix of the brands.

    Splitting the hotels between Ibis and Ibis Budget (with a few Styles) brands does make sense as it will avoid confusion between the vending and cafe bar sites.

• Alex W says:

  30 Jul30 July 05:51

  Uuugh Ibis, can’t think of a worse brand it could have been. Worse than Travelodge.

  • Matthew says:

    30 Jul30 July 08:11

    I don’t think there are many brands worse than travelodge, maybe Brittannia Hotels, but Travelodge are pretty dire. Zero customer service, poor quality everything. Stopped using them years ago. Also whilst many rave about Premier Inn, they too are too full of their own self Hype, and waiting for a fall too.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      30 Jul30 July 08:36

      Wel crucially Premier Inn are full of paying guests, so….

    • Phil says:

      31 Jul31 July 12:09

      We stayed in a Travelodge in Stowmarket who told us they were mostly full form the day hotels were allowed to reopen
      This implies many people are perfectly happy with the Cost/value ratio
      For what its worth our family stay quite often and have never experienced bad service

  • Peter K says:

    30 Jul30 July 08:13

    Britannia Hotels?

    • Alex W says:

      30 Jul30 July 11:08

      Fair one! I was hoping for more holiday inns or hamptons, perhaps even that was too optimistic.

  • ChrisC says:

    30 Jul30 July 10:03

    Sometimes hotel owners don’t have a choice and it was either muck in with Accor/All or fend for themselves.

  • Nick_C says:

    30 Jul30 July 10:05

    I’ve only once stayed at an Ibis, and that was in Hong Kong. Surprisingly good. Modern. Clean. Pleasant staff. Good breakfast. Perhaps that was not typical though!

    • Anna says:

      30 Jul30 July 10:44

      We stayed at an Ibis in Milan – being Milan it was pretty chic though!

    • Doug M says:

      30 Jul30 July 11:46

      Stayed in lots of Ibis places in France, always clean and fine for what they are. The ones I’ve been to are identical once inside, you couldn’t tell which one you were in. The bathrooms look like they’re delivered complete and just fixed in. In my experience always well priced when events are on, unlike so many others. I think it’s Ibis (well Accor) that like dual properties? I remember a specific one in Caen that was an Ibis to the left and a Mercure to the right, the bar between them was called Bar Le Between. Being Caen they got a lot of UK/US visitors 🙂

• Scott says:

  30 Jul30 July 06:28

  I’ve stayed in the Ibis Budget at Salford Quays (Manchester) a few times (Marriott next door if that’s more your scene, and a HIX 250m away)
  Usually £29-£39 a night + parking (although can jump to nearer £80 on match / concert days), and a lot of the time it’s half the price of other hotels, and the location is good for the tram, city centre, Old Trafford, few shops up the road etc.

  It’s a bed for the night, shower and toilet and that pretty much is all I need. Pretty much a single hostel room.
  Generally clean and quiet, no power points next to the bed unfortunately, no kettle etc.
  Small TV with Freeview up to a point.
  Beds are comfy.

  I’ve stayed in everything from cheap hostels to posh hotels and they’ve all got their pros and cons.
  Just because something is cheap or expensive, doesn’t make it good or bad.
  Some hotels costing ££££ are soulless, charge £££ for everything under the sun, are nowhere near anything, 99% of their services I don’t need i.e. saunas, beauty parlours, restaurants, bars etc.

  Even survived the Travelodge at LHR (Hounslow). Basic, but I was in at 10pm, out by 5am, so wasn’t going to pay 2-3x more for a room in a hotel with features I was never going to use.
  No Hoppa bus either 🙂

  • Harry T says:

    30 Jul30 July 06:36

    Agree, the key discriminator is the value you derive from a hotel stay. I’ve been perfectly happy staying at Ibis or HIX when the location has been ideal, and my time in the hotel limited. Some of the newer HIX hotels are actually pretty sharp looking too – the new one on Flinders in Melbourne was surprisingly fresh.

    Sometimes you just need a bed and somewhere to store your stuff. Sometimes you want all the amenities of a truly luxury hotel – you are right in saying that some higher end hotels nickel and dime, representing poor value.

    • Harry T says:

      30 Jul30 July 06:37

      My only Ibis stay was courtesy of KLM, at Schiphol airport. Room the size of a shoe box but comfy bed and clean.

    • Andy Davies says:

      30 Jul30 July 08:15

      I’ll quite often choose HIX when away solo on business, in the UK many of the HIXs are in better shape than the local HI too

      They could improve the HIX breakfast though

  • Matthew says:

    30 Jul30 July 08:13

    Totally agree. On a long drive from say Madrid to Germany to UK, a simple clean room, bed shower etc. Job done, and you don’t need/have time for any of the extra services. If you are on holiday then it is different.

• Matt says:

  30 Jul30 July 07:06

  What’s the reason for subsidising that route? If there were no flight option, would people otherwise not use the frequent trains (or sleeper train) and hence Cornish tourism would lose out?

  • Rob says:

    30 Jul30 July 08:07

    Do you know how long it takes on the train from London?!

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      30 Jul30 July 08:21

      About the same as in a car 5 hours.

      • Rob says:

        30 Jul30 July 08:39

        That’s why it is getting subsidised – in an attempt to get businesses who occasionally need to be in London or fly long haul to move there.

        Remember the train to EDI from London is only 4hr 20m.

        • Ken says:

          30 Jul30 July 15:40

          Hmmm,

          Nothing to do with MP’s and the great and good having nice 2nd homes in Cornwall, with flights nicely timed for a Friday pm finish and you can eating in Padstow at 8:30pm

  • Rhys says:

    30 Jul30 July 08:31

    It also ensures Cornish residents have access to BA’s longhaul network. Note that it is to Heathrow, not to London City, even though CityFlyer aircraft might be a better size for the route.

  • Paul Pogba says:

    30 Jul30 July 10:21

    The same reason trains are subsidised – social and economic benefit. GWR receive £646m a year and the service is horrendous. https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/finance/rail-investment-and-subsidies/government-subsidy-per-passenger-kilometre-by-train-operating-company-table-17/

• Iain says:

  30 Jul30 July 07:25

  Any idea if the staff will transfer over as a going concern TUPE style or will they start from scratch, I have a friend who is a Travelodge Manager, looks ad though if he’s left with Travelodge he’s out of a job!

  • Sam G says:

    30 Jul30 July 08:34

    Hotel staff would transfer over. HQ would be impacted but I can imagine the OpCo would be looking to do something rather than have to start from scratch, especially if Travelodge did go into receivership

• Secret Squirrel says:

  30 Jul30 July 07:56

  BA are kidding themselves if they think the NQY will ever fly anywhere near full capacity. I used to frequent this route via Flybe and it was lucky to be half full on the busiest days. I can see this route folding after the contract finishes unfortunately.

  • Andrew says:

    30 Jul30 July 08:41

    With the Q400, surely that was good fortune indeed to have a half filled plane? You might get somewhere to put your 55x35x20 hand luggage (if it managed to squeeze into the 54x34x19 cage at the gate).

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      30 Jul30 July 11:16

      Yes, you’ve been there and done that then. To be fair, at NQY Flybe desk they never checked my hand luggage size.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    30 Jul30 July 08:43

    On which basis I would hazard the contract will be renewed…

    There’s be no need for the subsidy if it were commercially viable on it’s own ergo it must have strategic value to the south west – hence the contract…

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      30 Jul30 July 11:18

      Depends if the Govt have tightened the belt on spending by next year contract renewal.

• Jay says:

  30 Jul30 July 09:44

  £2k per flight doesn’t seem much at all.

  • Rob says:

    30 Jul30 July 09:50

    Remember that cash tickets sold include APD and landing charges – let’s say they add up to £25 each way.

    £2,000 per flight is therefore the same as selling 80 x £50 one-way seats for cash, as BA only sees £25 of that money.

    • ChrisC says:

      30 Jul30 July 10:13

      Newquay Is one of the APD exempt airports though.

      Just did a dummy return booking and APD not mentioned in the fare breakdown for the flights to/from LHR (but it is charged if you connect onto somewhere else)

      • Rob says:

        30 Jul30 July 10:43

        Fair point. Still charged on the flight TO Newquay though.

        • ChrisC says:

          30 Jul30 July 11:08

          not according to the price breakdown on the BA app

        • Charlieface says:

          30 Jul30 July 14:40

          No that’s only for Higlands and Islands. PSO flights are exempt both ways

        • Rob says:

          30 Jul30 July 14:47

          Learn something new every day!

      • Dubious says:

        31 Jul31 July 03:38

        Is NQY Airport still charging the £10 cash security fee before departures though? I always thought it was a sneaky hidden fee.

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