Bruges, Belgium

I stayed in Bruges on the 26th – 29th August 2012, it was a budget trip and I went with my boyfriend and another couple. Bruges is a beautiful place – it is full of experiences, surprises and history! Below is a picture I took of the canal in Bruges during my stay:

Booking

We booked ourselves 2 rooms in an Ibis hotel in Brugge, Belgium about a week before our trip. It cost me £41 a night for my room.

Ibis have a simple-to-use website which makes booking fast and easy. You can receive booking confirmation via SMS and if you need to make any changes in can be done via a mobile site if you are not at home.

The hotel was booked quickly and with ease, it cost £82 in total for the two rooms. We booked the hotel last minute using a laptop from home.

The Hotel

The hotel is part of Ibis, Ibis is a popular budget hotel chain. The hotel includes an elegant gourmet restaurant, a lovely lobby bar, and a re-decorated reception area that is open 24 hours a day and staffed by multi-lingual professionals. Below is a photo I took of the entrance to the Ibis:

Car parking is almost underneath the hotel and is pretty cheap, 8.70 Euros every 24hr.

The Ibis was a short walk from many of the attractions in Bruges, I did so much walking over the 3 days my leg muscles were in pain at the end of the trip!

Opposite the entrance to the Ibis hotel there is a well-known vegetarian restaurant called ‘De Bron’ we went there on our second day for some brunch.

First Impressions

On arrival we signed a couple of forms and were given a free discount card, which offers up to 15 Euros off at local attractions. My first impressions of the hotel were good, when you walk into the newly renovated lobby the hotel looks very stylish and modern. Below is a picture I took of the lobby:

We were greeted almost immediately, however as soon as we left the lift after we had been given our room number the hotel wasn’t so stylish. The halls were very basic, there was a vending machine on exit of the lift and we then followed the signs to our rooms.

I must add that the car park was disgusting and smelt strongly of urine, if we had judged the hotel on their parking I doubt we would ever go back!

Customer Service

I had a bad experience where I wanted to order some late-night food to have in the room. There was no-one at reception so I gave up and went to bed hungry (the reception is supposed to be 24-hour).

The other couple that we were staying in Bruges with booked a wake-up phone-call for 7am on our last day, this phone call never happened and we missed our ferry home.

The Room

The room was very basic, it was small and lacking a comfortable chair to sit on. There were no tea and coffee making facilities in the room which is a shame but you can bring them up to your room from the bar.

I found a wrapper under the beds sheets, it managed to wrap itself around my toes during the night – this is why I have rated the cleanliness so low. Below is a picture I took of the room:

On the plus-side it was clean and the bed was surprisingly comfortable.

Overall

If your focus is a central location for not too much money, then this hotel is for you! Next time I visit I would like to stay somewhere on the canal. I personally did not like the Ibis hotel and I would prefer to spend a little extra next-time and get somewhere nicer.