ibis budget Caen Nord Mémorial — Hotel in Caen

We (two adults and a teenage son) were due to arrive at Caen ferry port at 22h00, and, arriving so late, we sought an inexpensive hotel, as we wanted a good night’s sleep before exploring the Caen area the next day and then several hours drive heading home. ||When we booked it, Ibis Budget Caen Nord Mémorial was the only reasonably priced available hotel in the area. Our expectations were that despite being an Ibis Budget, it would be clean, safe and presentable, so we did not look at the online reviews.||When we checked in, the night porter was pleasant, but on entering the hotel, we noticed that there was a stale smell and the hall carpets were stained and threadbare.||On entering our room, it looked like it had been fairly recently repainted. After a day travelling, we wanted a shower, but found that the shower was broken and unusable. We told the night porter, and he suggested that we could either just hold the shower hose – or use his.||Back in the room, there was an electric fan, but this too was broken. The blinds on the window were damaged and torn.||There was a used tissue under the bed, and litter on a table. Whilst the room was not 'dirty' – it clearly was not clean.||The ‘third bed’ had not been made, and bedding was in a box. The overall state of the bedding and matress cover was such that we did not use the third bed, and the three of us (adults sizes) got barely any sleep whilst lying fully clothed on top of the double bed duvet. The matress and bedding were so unpleasant that we did not want to get undressed and into the bed.||The next morning, we left as soon as we could, and did not even want to clean our teeth in the bathroom such was it’s unpleasantness. ||Having subsequently looked at reviews on ‘Trip Advisor’, it seems that our experience is not unique – and either several other rooms have broken showers and fans, or that several customers were unlucky enough to have been given our room over the past year, and the obvious simple to repair issues have not been done.||Other posts have commented on this – but we too suspect that migrants may be housed on the ground floor of this hotel. Whilst walking our dog around the hotel grounds, it looked like people were living on the ground floor. Ashtrays and foodstuffs etc. were on the window sills.||If you are indeed housing migrants, then this needs to be explicitly stated on your website so that customers know before booking, and can make an informed decision as to whether they want to stay in this hotel. ||Come on Accor Hotels – we know that this is a ‘Budget’ hotel. We were not expecting a swimming pool, mini bar and room service. We have stayed in Accor Ibis Budget hotels before and found them satisfactory – but this hotel is more doss house than Ibis Budget.||Three nights earlier, we stayed in an Accor Novotel, and we have given this five stars because it...

The first night at the hotel was acceptable but the next two ones went worse until unexpected limits.||The hall in every floor always smelling bad, like in a teenager camp.||The bathroom also, smelling awfully from the first day. The floor wasn’t cleaned enough.||From the second day the real problems appeared. Firstly, we didn’t get our towels cleaned back the third day, even though we left them on the floor, according to their instructions. The second day we just got cleaned one of them. ||The only thing we got done was the bed, they made it every day but I insist, never cleaned.||Secondly, the blankets never got cleaned in all our stay. This also happened to all the room: floor, table, etc. ||Furthermore, they give some paper glasses in the first day but we used and threw them and they never gave us new ones. ||Additionally, they never put more toilet paper during our stay. ||Just one of all the receptionists could understand some little English. We had to explain EVERYTHING in our broken French, and when I say everything I mean everything. They did not even understand the word ‘check out’.||When we left the hotel, we wanted to say politely that the room wasn’t cleaned and the receptionist who understand English didn’t give to us any explanation, meaning something like ‘take it or leave it’. It is necessary to say that the affirm in the first place that the room services are included so at least an apology would have been nice. If they had said an apology, I wouldn’t write this bad review. But they just ignored us.|| ||For the ones who get breakfast: it is extremely poor. Just bread, croissants, juice, coffee, and some types of jam. Nothing more. But for the price I guess...

This is a budget hotel - please keep this in mind when you read this review. It is an incredibly cheap room for the night, but at €60 a night you get exactly what you pay for:

PROS very cheap for a hotel room great water pressure quiet at night breakfast is basic but plentiful

CONS it’s on an industrial site about 3km out of the centre, with no restaurants nearby it is a tired building, covered in scaffolding the rooms are very basic, with small windows, and windowless bathrooms that feel like an airplane bathroom pillows were appalling no common areas other than a few chairs in the car park

It’s not bad. But it’s exactly what you should expect when booking a €60 a night hotel room. Normally something stands out in a hotel, but for this ibis, nothing did.

I’ve stayed in ibis’s before in France, but this was my first time staying in the budget range. I would recommend paying a little extra and staying somewhere closer to the centre if in Caen for more...