Clean and Reasonable

With three children we needed two rooms so price is important. we booked a twin for the older boys and a double and put me up for the youngest and us. You cant do this online so no 10 euro saving but it is easy to do over the phone with fax confirmation. the only problem is that the twins and doubles are located on different floors so not suitable for larger families with young children. The rooms aren't big but all you are going to do in Paris is either lie down after site seeing or go to bed at the end of the day. As with every Accor group hotel we have ever stayed in the rooms are clean and beds comfortable. The area feels extremely safe ( walking around as a family at 11pm felt perfectly normal). There is plenty of nightlife available 500 yards south towards Bastille.

Don't use the express check out!

We stayed at the Ibis Bastille Opera in May to watch the Champions League Final.

The Hotel is of good standard for its cost.

Like all Ibis, it is basic so don't expect a mini-bar or pay movies.

The bar & restaurant are very good however the bar closes quite early and the staff were rude.

When we came to check out, the self service check out computer crashed and kept my card. We had to wait over an hour for an engineer to fix the problem meaning that we then had to make our onward journey to the train station at peak time. This delay meant we were nearly refused access onto our return flight as this error had set us back nearly 2 hours!

After complaining about this they refunded me for 1of our 3 nights stay but took 2 months to do this!

Typical Ibis in a good location

This echos other previous reviews. OK, this is an Ibis which should give you the basics - average quality budget hotel, good value, small but clean rooms, satisfying if unremarkable 7 Euros breakfast buffet. The location is good for the budget-minded tourist as Ibis value is combined with proximity to the Place de la Bastille offering easy public transport connections to many of the tourist attractions, cafes, restaurants, etc. There is a supermarket a block or so away, another small convenience store which seems to be open long hours most days and a bakery. Numerous neighbourhood places to eat, many of which offer reasonable choice for any vegetarians. This is not a place for a romantic weekend or for a long stay or if you are looking for frills and facilities. However, for the budget-minded looking for somewhere reasonably central for a few nights it may well be what you are looking for.

Good option if you are on a budget

If all you need is a clean room with ensuite in a central and safe area, this may be the place for you. You will have to comprimise on size though, as rooms are compact and showerrooms tiny.

The reception messed up with our booking (we were a group of 10 with different requirements) but all issues were sorted at the check-in. Having booked via fax (followed by phone calls) really helped as the fax proved their cock-up.

Breakfast in the crowded room is good value too, considering the price of teas and coffees in Paris. If you don't want to give up on a proper coffee, one of the very few Starbucks in Paris is a few mins walk in rue du Faubourg (left hand side if you come from Place de la Bastille).

Good affordable restaurants in the area: La Griaude, Le P'tit Manger, Le Passage (wine bar).

Small rooms, macdonalds feeling

The rooms are small, we asked for a cot but there is no room for one Ended up putting the extra mattress on the floor for the infant..The restaurant has a 'chain restaurant feeling' but the breakfast is good value for 6 euros. We met quite nice staff members but unfortunately our requests were 'forgotten'...The cleaning maids came in after a couple of knocks even when you had the 'do not disturb' sign !! Good location though..

Faboulous location, great base for sight-seeing

We stayed at the Ibis Bastille Opera for two nights. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a good quality budget hotel in Paris. The hotel is situated in a lovely residential side-street very close to Place de la Bastille. The directions given on the Ibis website were perfectly adequate and we got from Charles De Gaulle to our hotel with no hassle whatsoever! The Metro is FAB and so cheap to use - there's a Metro station very close to the hotel. We felt very safe in this area day and night and after sightseeing we came back and ate locally as the hotel is right on the doorstep of the bustling sidestreets of the Mairie. The food and drink here was half the price of eating out in the very centre of Paris which frankly is a total rip-off (We paid €30 for two coffee's and two slices of tart in a city-centre cafe - hard to believe!!!)

We had a thoroughly enjoyeable weekend in Paris and saw all we wanted - Do the bus tour it's great value!

As a slightly nervous traveller myself I would have no hesitation in recommending this hotel to anyone - The rooms are small but clean and comfortable and the staff were polite and helpful if needed. Don't eat the dinner there though it's adequate but the food in the local restaurants a stone's throw away is far nicer and cheaper with a much better ambience!!

Compact and Bijou!

The hotel was what you'd expect of an Ibis - I know they are formulaic and bland but they are clean, the staff were friendly and I felt safe and secure. The bathroom was tiny! and I don't mean by american standards, I'm european and it was smaller than any other hotel bathroom I've ever seen. Think bathroom on a cruise ship or in a caravan and you'll get the idea, the window was like a porthole which made it even more boat like! No bath just a shower which is all right by me, but I would have enjoyed a long soak just to ease my aching limbs - Paris is a city best seen on foot and by God did we walk!

The area around Bastille is buzzing and Rue Richard Lenoir (the hotel is off this street) is a great Boulevard with a market nearly every day. The handiest metro for the hotel is Breuget Sabin although Bastille is only a short walk and intersects with more lines.

Restaurants in the area are a bit 'touristy' but try Capricorn for the set menu which is excellent value a 3 course meal bottle of wine and coffees for around E50. We had fun translating the menu from the limited dictionary at the back of our guide book.

Ibis You know what to expect

I agree with the first 2 reviewers.

Go to this hotel, in common with all Ibis hotels, knowing that what you get is convenience, reasonable comfort and reasonably priced accomodation. If you require a hotel with a 'personality' go elsewhere.

I stayed for 3 nights in September 2004 and found it adequate for our purposes, which were somewhere to sleep which was easily accessable and clean. Bastille area is 3-4 minutes walk away and I felt we got value for money at the hotel.

Ibis Hotel Bastille August 2004

Written on August 19th 2004

Fairly good location, take the Métro to either Bastille (line 1, 5 or 8) for a few minutes walk, or take line 5 to station Brequet Sabin; it´s just around the corner from the hotel.¨

The rooms were small but nice, clean and felt fresh and modern - nothing to complain about there.

The service at the reception was, unfortunately, poor and DO NOT eat (dinner) at the Hotel Restaurant: bad food and poor service, the waitors came and tried to take away our plates before we had even finished!

If you want to buy your own breakfast, there's a supermarket and a bakery across the street from the hotel.

Even though the staff and service was poor, this hotel was definately worth the money (75 Euros/room & night) because of its nice rooms and overall contemporary interior.

Clean and convenient but some drawbacks

Admittedly, it was a couple of years ago that we stayed here so things may have changed since then.

First, the good points. The hotel is conveniently situated near the Metro for easy access to the rest of Paris, and travel times to any city destination are easy.

The hotel itself is in a side street which is quiet at night, and not the most attractive part of Paris, but you can easilly walk to restaurants and cafes in the Place de Bastille or the Rue De Lapp, with it's bars, nightlife and clubs. If you want to be on top of 'tourist' Paris, like the Champs Elysees, this isn't that place for you, but it's ideal for the Marais.

The rooms were clean and well serviced, if a little small. It is a big, modern hotel and so lacks character.

It has a bar and a restuarant but the bar was dead quiet and the restaurant food uninteresting. Go out to the cafes and bars instead. Being slightly off the main tourist track, there are plenty to choose from at reasonable prices. The bar staff were exceptionally friendly though (probably grateful of someone to chat to) and we stopped for a drink every evening because of that alone.

The service at reception was poor. On our first morning we were awoken at 8.00am by workmen installing air conditioning in the next room. I phoned reception and they said there was nothing they could do. The noise continued throughout the stay.

Housekeepers came in on more than one occasion despite a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door.

My husband politely asked at reception for another pillow and the receptionist promised to get one and leave it for us to collect at the end of the day. When we returned and asked for it, the staff (different from the morning staff) said there was no pillow. After some discussion he relented that there had been a pillow but it had been put away. We therefore asked if we could have it as promised. He refused and gave a variety of excuses from 'no pillows left' to 'they are in a store at the top of the hotel'. In then end, after much persuasion he went to get a pillow but when he returned he practically threw it at us with a scowl on his face.

We put all our comments on the feedback form at the end of the stay but we also pointed out, as I will now, that most of the staff were friendly and helpful. One lady at reception let me use the phone to call home and didn't charge me. Unfortunately, the odd few things that did happen were unnnecessary and blighted the view of the hotel and I would think twice before staying there again.