ibis Bucharest Politehnica — Hotel in Bucharest

We took a Bolt from the airport to the hotel. Since we didn't have internet, we couldn't download the app. While our friends paid 82 lei, we were charged 300 lei. Because the Bolt driver didn't speak English, we asked the reception to translate. Despite not raising our voices or arguing in any way, the receptionist—whose name we later learned was Raluca—shouted at us, saying, "Don't bring problems to this hotel, solve your issues outside," and walked away from the reception area. Thankfully, another receptionist named Mihal helped us and ensured we didn’t overpay.||We were a couple traveling with a 7-year-old child and a 1-year-old baby. On the first night, we were given room 511. There was no wardrobe in the room—in fact, none of the rooms had wardrobes. There was only a small shelf to place your belongings, which was not sufficient at all. For the remaining nights, we were given rooms 406 and 407. We had been out all day and all we wanted was to come back, shower, and sleep. But there were no towels in our rooms. We called reception to request towels, but no one answered. I had to go downstairs and request towels for four people. When I returned to the room, we realized they had forgotten to bring the baby crib. We called reception again, but again, no answer. The receptionist on duty was Raluca, the same person who told us not to “create problems” but was the one causing them.||We were given only one key card, and since the elevator doesn't work without a card, I had to leave my family in the dark each time and go to reception. I asked Raluca for another card. The card she gave didn’t work with the elevator. I asked for another one, and she sighed and gave it to me as if I had done something wrong. Half an hour later, the towels arrived; the crib came an hour later. But the towels were small hand towels.||Also, while there was no issue with the air conditioning in room 407, the AC in room 406 wouldn’t turn off. Since Raluca again didn’t answer the phone, I had to go down again and asked for a technician, explaining that the AC kept blowing cold air and wouldn’t switch to heat or turn off. She told me there was no technician at the moment and that the security guard would check it. I thought she was joking, but she was serious, so I went back to my room. The security guard never came, and we had to sleep in a freezing room.||Moreover, neither of the two rooms had a kettle. It didn’t arrive that night either, so we had to borrow one from our friends in another room to prepare formula for the baby.||The next morning, since our rooms had been changed, we tried to enter the breakfast area by giving our room numbers, but they didn’t show as having breakfast included. Only one adult and one child were listed. We eventually managed to resolve it, though it wasn’t easy. The staff in the restaurant were extremely unfriendly and unwelcoming. There was a rule at the water dispenser—you could fill a glass, but not a bottle. That wasn’t a problem for us—we could fill a glass. But for the baby’s formula, we needed to fill a bottle. Even though we got approval from receptionist Mihal, the restaurant staff didn’t let us use the machine. I asked the staff member to come with me to hear Mihal’s approval directly, but they refused. So I went back to Mihal again, and he resolved the issue.||In short, we were extremely disappointed with the hotel. Only three things were good:||1- The breakfast|2- The room...

I went to Bucharest for one conference, and stayed the entire month until the second conference. And then I stayed another month because everything fit together so nicely with the room, the breakfast and the dinner. I had looked into another ibis, more center city so I could walk to more touristy places, but I was very happy being able to do most everything I needed to do on foot or by bus. An occasional Uber to AFI Cotroceni filled in the gaps. The nearby grocery store was bigger, and the closest Post Office was nicer than those in other areas I have stayed in. As many others have mentioned, the staff was very personable. Their numbers were fairly small which meant I had the chance to interact with each over the ensuing weeks. Not a bad apple in the entire bunch! In fact I left with two new Facebook friends! The hotel is large but not the largest Acoor property I have stayed in, and overtime several tour groups visited for evening dinner and morning breakfast. As an American, my favorite part of traveling is to mingle and interact with persons from different countries with different languages. It was very interesting meeting people from Kyiv, several groups from Spain, and even a tour bus of Asian adults. There was an Erasmus group of students, I learned later apparently from Greece, and models from a Romanian reality Tv series. Building the Ibis next-door to Politechnia was an amazing decision. While I have no connection to the school, I did occasionally walk up and down the flower garden to take in the sights, and to get in some exercise that I otherwise would have gotten doing touristy things in old town. The kitchen restaurant was an amazing room, and I wound up spending the better part of an hour and a half a day there, for breakfast and back for dinner. It is an ibis so the furniture was a little quirky, but I found ways to keep my ailing back very comfortable. My being gluten and lactose intolerant, the staff was very aware, and despite the fact that I brought my own bread which can be a little tricky, they had plenty for me to choose from. Especially since I don't stray from very plain American/English menu items. Almost everyone spoke English, and those who did were quite fluent! I would not be surprised if some were also fluent in other European languages, especially what are known as the Romance languages. Perhaps even German! I had a quality time and I will return for the next...

Pros:

Importantly, rooms are spacious and clean. It's also relatively modern and new. The cleaners are friendly and attentive to the door signs if you want the room cleaned, have new towels, or not to be disturbed.

The double bed was nice and large and very comfortable for a good sleep.

Selection at breakfast is overall decent, but the buffet counter with warm food is on one side of a narrow aisle with the coffeemaker, juice & water dispenser directly opposite, so it gets very crowded with people squeezing past each other trying to get breakfast.

There are freshly made omelettes on Mondays only, but the chef sometimes wanders off for long times leaving his station empty, so you need to request staff to go and find him somewhere in the back.

Cons:

Depending on which room you have, the shower can easily flood water out over the bathroom floor. If you're just taking a quick shower it shouldn't be a big issue.

I brought a bag of laundry to reception at 8.30am, the paper attached to the laundry bag said to do so before 9am to receive your clothes by 11am the next day, but reception said the cleaner already came which was a bit annoying.

When it's peak breakfast time (8-9am) and you have a room on a higher floor, the elevator is a nightmare. There are 2 to look after 8 floors and sometimes you can wait 10 minutes.

The restaurant advertises closing at 22.00 (last orders 21.30). One night 5 of us arrived at 20.45 and ordered without issue. Then another 5 joined us at 21.00. The waiter said they could not place an order as there was only 1 chef and he was too busy. But besides one other large group who had already eaten, it was an empty restaurant. After asking several times back and forth, the waiter eventually allowed them to order from a smaller menu selection, but the hassle wasn't nice or good customer service. The burger I had was average.

Overall for the price and location we needed, it was a good option even if the concept of time was lacking a bit. I've stayed in worse hotels...