IBIS and F1 Hotels in France - Any Advice?

[simonhill]

Just starting to plan a two week tour in France (WW1 end to end) and am looking at hotels.

IBIS and F1 often come up on the search sites and they have also been recommended on this forum. Before I start booking does anybody have any advice re these hotels, or any other budget ones.

For example, are of their reward schemes worth using; is it best to book direct or via someone like booking.com; general availability mid week and weekend; anything to look out for re bike storage; etc, etc?

[whoof]

When I've used F1 I've always taken my bike into the room. Breakfast in French hotels can leave a lot to be desired. I've paid 8 euros for a croissant, cup of juice and a coffee. In comparison the F1 buffet is good value. Don't think it's going to be Premier inn with bacon, eggs and sausage but rather cereal, bread/spreads, yogurt, fruit, tea, coffee, hot chocolate and juice for about 4 euros.

[bikepacker]

IBIS and IBIS Budget are better than F1. My wife will only use F1 as a last resort. If you do use them don't take a ground floor room even if it is convenient with your bike. They allow dogs in those rooms and they are not cleaned out that well.

I find Premiere Classe to be okay, they have outside leading doors so taking your bike in the room is no problem.

[cycleruk]

F1, and possibly the others, are usually out of town away from the centre.
May be a bit of a walk to nearest evening meal.

[geocycle]

Ibis are rarely cheap hotels, they are often good for business trips and well located, Ibis Budget are presumably cheaper. I have used F1 and Campanile, both are OK but often located at the edge of towns, often on busy roads. I prefer town centre locations if possible.

[profpointy]

I've stayed in F1 and they are clean, extremely basic, and extremely cheap. Breakfast is a croissant and machine coffee, so you'd be best off finding a nice cafe to be honest. Perfectly fine for stopping a night on a journey, but not for a romantic weekend break lets say.

Ibis is more a medium grade business type hotel - premier inn say, or somewhere between travelodge and premier. Perfectly OK and a proper hotel. Several notches above F1 for both price and niceness.

I'd happily stay in either depending on the nature of a the trip

[1982john]

I stayed in an F1 hotel once in France. Wouldn't do it again unless there was little choice, so noisy and felt unsafe.

[simonhill]

Thanks for the advice. Good food for thought.

[oldun]

Simonhill....there are quite a few chain hotela in France now.....B&B.....Mr Bed....Fast Hotel.....Balladins et etc .
The problem with some hotel chains , and not just the Formule 1 chain , is that they are now being used by some local towns to house immigrant families and as such are often quite noisy what with kids running down corridors etc . This is normally confined to the ground floor , but in Paris i once moved out of a Formule 1 because of the noise from open windows .

Earlier this year i stayed at an Etap hotel near Toulouse and they too had several immigrant families housed in the hotel . The children where ( as children do ) riding round and round the car park , playing football ...no respect for other guests . The worst thing was that a charity van came round each lunchtime and evening to feed them in the small restaurant area and it felt a bit intimidating to be sat there . The price i paid was 58 euros and i would have expected better for the price .

[borisface]

F1 no way. Rooms are basically a prison cell. Horrid.

[ANTONISH]

F1 is OK for an overnight stop but not near large cities as others have noted.
IBIS is quite good and (generally) you can put a bike in the room.
IBIS budget is usually OK same applies for putting bike in room ( we have occasionally been refused ).
Campanile is OK as a B&B but has declined over recent years - I cannot in all honesty recommend the restaurant.
The advantage of the chain hotels is that it's easy to book and you know fairly accurately what you will pay.
The downside is that if you can't put a bike in the room they often have little other storage space - on one occasion we had bikes outside chained up under a tree - on another in the lock up with the waste bins - and once in a Premier Inn the we had two bikes squeezed upright into a broom cupboard with the cleaning equipment.
With all the online booking sites now available it is easy to book other hotels - I prefer the "Logis" and they are usually good at finding space for bikes.

[whoof]

Just starting to plan a two week tour in France (WW1 end to end) and am looking at hotels.

IBIS and F1 often come up on the search sites and they have also been recommended on this forum. Before I start booking does anybody have any advice re these hotels, or any other budget ones.

For example, are of their reward schemes worth using; is it best to book direct or via someone like booking.com; general availability mid week and weekend; anything to look out for re bike storage; etc, etc?

Perhaps if you said what route you were planning and possible stopping points as from the post above there's seems to be some variation between individual hotels within a chain.

From memory I've stayed at the F1 in Toulouse Airport (Blagnac) and Lyon Saint-Exupéry (airport).

Also Premier Class at Geneva, which is 200m over the border into France and Nice again opposite the airport.

All have been fine and I've not experienced any issues with safety, security and people who I felt were undesirable, although one had a party of school children and I'm not that keen on children.
None have been near the centre, Toulouse there's a handy bus to centre and in Nice one euro for a Bike Bleu hire and it's a nice ride down the Promenade des Anglais into the centre. Geneva being across the border was actually good as we could stock up at a French Le Clerc ride down to the lake or the city and didn't need to spend 10 euros for a sandwich.

[simonhill]

"tour in France (WW1 end to end)" - sorry maybe a bit cryptic, but it is an end to end of The First World War Western Front, from the Swiss border to Nieuwpoort on the Belgian coast. Google WW1 Western Front map for detailed route.

I wasn't looking for any specific recommendations, just general stuff. I will book a couple of hotels on the net before I head off then play it by ear. Possible booking a day or two in advance or using local tourist offices. Terrain, weather and sites of interest will determine (vary) the daily distance.

I'd rather use small local hotels and I think I have one for my first night, but sometimes the chains are easier to source and book.

As I said, I have now got a feel for the different standards in the Accor range plus some other options, so thanks for the replies.

[robing]

They are all OK and most importantly bike friendly. F1 are basic, only a basin in the room, or en suite urinal as
I like to call it. Premier class are a bit better and ibis budget better still. Most have automated check in where you just get a 6 digit pin for the room. As far as how you book, doesn't really matter. Have used booking.com and the Accor hotels app

[MartinBrice]

you can't beat camping for flexibility and cheapness. and tbh it's usually quieter than a F1. I like Ibis hotels, they're excellent - clean, quiet, cool with aircon, reasonable restaurant and good staff - but i couldn't afford them very often.
a lightweight tent, bag and mat won't weigh much, say 3k max which is the same as three litres of water, and you can eat in restaurants/supermarkets etc as if you were in a hotel. And the muncipal ones are normally inside the town - unlike F1 hotels. if the weather was very bad, you can opt for hotels.