“The team at ibis Moscow Centre Bakhrushina are looking forward to welcoming you” – an extract from email received prior to our stay||||At no time did we feel welcome ! ||||Having stayed in this hotel previously and contributed to them receiving the “2017 Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence “ which is hung in the reception area, the hotel is now resting on their laurels.||||Whilst most of the current reviews are glowing of this property, there are a few reviewers daring to speak the truth.||marekj856 wrote a review Apr. 2019||“Unfriendly place. Strange service. You are there a number not a person. The people working there some months ago were not anymore visible”||||Another said “despite the low staff quality”||||Ranjan_K_Singh said “Some Water?”||||When we were making the reservations earlier this year, paying for rooms in advance for 3 different periods resulted in receiving unsolicited email requesting payment on some obscure portal – not the usual Accor website. Having made numerous Accor reservations over the years in several locations, this request caused me anxiety regarding my credit card security.||||During this recent trip staying in Accor hotels in Russia in 4 locations, this ibis hotel was the only one where we experienced problems with check-in – and on all 3 occasions with similar issues – specifically being allowed access into the room before the 1400 hrs. We were offered check in prior if we were prepared to pay for it – so there were obviously rooms available. At the third time staying at this hotel , we were “offered” the possibility of a room being available around 10 – 11 AM. After a 4 ½ hour wait to 12:30 hours and seeing other guests arrive and get checked in straight to their room around 11:30 hours – and the male reception person that made the offer to us, had conveniently disappeared. When I challenged the current manager and said “it needs to work both ways – if we check out at 1000 hrs where check out time is 1200 hrs – you are only too happy to accept this benefit”. Furthermore, I had received an email saying “your key will be ready for you when you arrive”. This was misleading and a false statement.|||| BEDS ! branded Sweet Bed thin mattress on top of another with saggy edges - resulted in me falling out of bed one night. ||||TAXI 600 Rubble for what was 400 Rubble 3 years ago – a 50% increase for same destination . Seemed to be Collusion with hotel and their chosen taxi service. Ibis recommended taxi services in 3 other cities in Russia cost only 120 to 180 Rubble for similar distances traveled.||||WATER – Accor policy in other hotels to only supply water upon arrival but requests to room service staff / reception was always met without fuss in other hotels stayed. In this hotel, a request for water from house keeping seemed to be a major ordeal and met with “ contact reception “. On this absurd policy, if I had made 3 separate reservations for 3 continuing nights, management would have had the expense of fully serving the rooms each day AND had to provide 2 NEW waters each day.||||BAR CLOSED – advised to go to the adjacent Mercure Hotel Bar - where at 1800 hrs – the bar- man had his head buried in the computer - walked past us 3 times totally ignoring our presence seated at the bar.||||Record keeping questionable with reception staff refusing to issue tax invoice in my name saying a another member of our group of 3 had paid for the accommodation – which was incorrect. They would only agree upon seeing my wife’s credit card.||||The manager seemed to be very young for her role and by her own admission, had been the manager for only 2 weeks. It was apparent she knows little about hospitality – only towing the ibis corporate line (“We must strictly follow the standards our region sets us” ) and did not offer solutions to issues affecting guests – could not think laterally outside the corporate box and only ever offered excuses. Ultimate responsibility for staff performance must lay with the manager and other issues such as the reception staff with their heads always buried in computers and house-keeping / room service coming to our room at 1700 hrs and 1800 hrs - when many guests are in the room preparing to go out for evening would indicate insufficient staff numbers.