ibis budget Paris Porte de Bercy — Hotel in Nogent-sur-Marne

Let me clear up several things that might be frightening if you read the comments and reviews for this hotel.

There does seem to be a city tax, they give you a receipt for everything. Not sure what to say about it, just make sure your booking has or did not have it before you pay. That deposit they mention, seems to be for "do you have a room available?" which is pretty standard for a hotel. As always, ask for paperwork if you're nervous. I didn't have to do a deposit, I booked in advance. Breakfast is seperated depending on if you're in budget or non budget. The budget side seems to have a reasonable selection of typical breakfast fare. The non budget side seems to have elevated typical breakfast fare. You wouldn't know if you couldn't compare them directly. Put a do not disturb tag on the door, and room service doesn't bother you. Easy. The front desk... Mixed opinion. They couldn't accommodate a half an hour early arrival. Which to be fair is me asking for a small favor... So we put our luggage in 2 lockers and left which cost 14€. It also took 15+ minutes. At that point the room was likely ready...and only ten minutes early. 5a. Check in took 2-5min. Room card key looked damaged but worked perfectly! Elevators work just fine, this isn't a skyscraper and it makes a little bit of noise. Funny thing, it's metal... You'll be fine, if the cable snapped you'd fall 0.5m because we live in the modern era. This isn't a historic death box, it's an modern (albeit old) elevator. 6a. The annoying thing about the elevator is that two of them don't go to the ground floor but trigger the down button. Send it to the 4th...and push again. The smell of perhaps an unfortunate accident is firmly embedded in the hallway, so yes it smells a bit out there. But you're not planning to spend a lot of time in the hallway so honestly who cares? It doesn't smell in the room. The room is clean. The shower is highly functional. There is no soap... Which is weird, but just use the shower gel as soap. It's literally the same ingredients as liquid hand soap. Some pillows are better than others, it's going to be a budget fluff pillow. Our room had a "half pillow" and a reasonable one. There is a TV... I dunno who watches TV anymore. I didn't waste time in the room, I went to Paris! There is wifi... Speed is so so. I didn't spend additional time in the hotel to experience their wifi, I woke up and went back into Paris! The exterior sounds from the hallway, you will hear. Mostly the closest doors, I didn't hear footsteps. I didn't hear any sounds of other people in other rooms in the night. Could be luck, could be that the people near me used the simple room they had for sleeping like I did. AC seemed to work, though I didn't touch the damaged controls. Mostly to not damage them further. The window opens, you're in the city. Yes it's going to be noisy in the daytime, seemed fine at night dunno what everyone else was complaining about... Maybe they were from a tranquil village or suburb. The bus... Works just fine. Also Uber exists if you need faster. Not sure what else to say. I didn't see any blocked fire exits or anything like that. The mall is directly next to the hotel. Go there and get anything you need. There is a pharmacy at the entrance for anything you need. The shopping centre on the top floor also had a pharmacy. It's also a large everything store, so everything you could want within reason. The mall also had a nice little quick bakery, they had yummy jumbo macaroons. This is a budget hotel, there is no safe. But if you don't obviously show that you have a wad of cash. They wouldn't know. Have some common sense. There aren't any thieves roaming the hotel

Summary, if you're the type of person who requires a 3+ star hotel to sleep: Then go to a 3 star hotel and don't complain about typical budget hotel reality. Be polite and not a pain in the arse, and the staff will be polite back. This is a room to sleep in, not one to...

Just a warning, this is a long one. I was doing a study abroad program at Kedge Business school in Bercy and the IBIS Porte de Bercy was the “recommended accommodation” through the school. Not sure why because it was quite expensive (although I had a two week stay, so it was bound to be) however, I was promised(through the school, not from the hotel website, which is a problem all on its own) that there would be a kitchenette or some kind of kitchen appliances in order to save money due to my extended stay. I was told this hotel was close to my school and centrally located. It was none of these things. The room has a bed, a tv, a window, and a bathroom. There was barely even a garbage can in my room. No fridge or microwave for keeping food in my room so I don’t have to spend money on every single meal. I did attempt to have some light snacks in my room and on the same night, I heard squeaking in my room. I was up all night because I thought there may have been mice in my room. Then I heard scratching. It was 1 am so I just laid there all night knowing there was a mouse in my room but to afraid to do anything about it so I stayed. This Ibis hotel also is not centrally located as it took much getting used too, to have to take a bus out of this location because you cannot walk from here to basically anywhere of importance. It was not easy to get to the school from here and it especially was not easy to get to any metros. It is next to an almost fully abandoned mall but besides that there was nothing else near here. Maybe 3 restaurants. Everything else was always closed! The neighborhood does not feel safe as it is next to a highway and on/off ramps that are piled with trash and look scary. I don’t know who would choose to stay here, maybe because the other reviews seem to make this place seem not so bad. My door didn’t lock and there was no peep hole so I did not feel safe. I was booked for a double room, paid for a double room but only got a single room. There is slamming of doors and screeching of elevators all night! I would not recommend this place. I’m very disappointed with my first trip to Paris entirely because of this hotel. Do not stay here, especially if it is your first...

It was a very disappointing experience from the very start.

I came to the hotel at 12:50pm expecting a check in at 12pm but was asked to wait for nearly an hour since there were no rooms available. I understand it's Easter holidays and you have a lot of people but it was a pre-booked premium slot and we were expecting to at least have a decent reception. They didn't even ask for water and didn't give any clarity on the availability of the room.

On the other side the front desk mentioned that check in is supposed to be FROM 12:00pm and it's normal that we have to wait (super bad tone and behaviour). It was an abuse of power with wrong information and bad attitude. We felt harassed as the customer.

After asking 3-4 times about the room, they gave us a damaged room which was under repair with the window lock being still repaired by some expert even after the check in. They also gave us a card without activation and made us go multiple times up and down to the reception.

Lastly the AC was not working and it only blew hot air even after different settings and complaining to the reception didn't work because it's going to fine in the evening! WOW!

Also, they charged us an extra 2.24€ as city tax which was already prepaid by us. I saw multiple pre-booked customers paying this amount, and when I confronted the reception about the double charges. They failed to respond and sort of panicked that I figured this SCAM. (It's not a big amount but why pay twice for the city tax)

Overall it was a bad start to the trip to Paris but still fine as the bed and the room was clean with a good washroom. The location was also very nice.

But the first impression is the Last impression and therefore I will not be recommending the place to anyone, unless they are French or they have a capacity for...