ibis Styles London ExCeL

2.8

Rating

2.8/5

Flyctory.com Pros

Nice location for ExCEL and O2

Flyctory.com Cons

Weak internet
Feels crowded, esp. at peak hour breakfast

After I stayed at the ibis Styles London ExCeL during the Country 2 Country 2018 already, I chose the hotel as my overnight while taking pictures at Vic Allen’s appearance at the London Write Like A Girl songwriters round in June 2019.

ibis Styles London ExCeL- Location

The hotel is located right across the ExCeL exhibition center on the East side of the city. Thus, it is right at the Custom House DLR station and has good connection to London’s attractions. The hotel will significantly profit from the opening of Crossrail / Elizabeth Line, as Custom House will then directly be connected with Oxford Street / Tottenham Court Road, Paddington Station and Heathrow Airport.

The hotel is in close proximity to London City Airport. To connect to the airport by DLR, you need to change lines at Canning Town, where I recently stayed at an ibis hotel. There is no direct connection to the airport apart from taxis.

ibis Styles London ExCeL- Rooms

I felt that the ibis Styles Room was quite nice. I like the friendly decoration and design. The work desk was sufficient for the stay.

The bathroom in the hotel was absolutely fine. The toilet was a bit narrow, but no major critics here.

ibis Styles London ExCeL- Breakfast

The breakfast room on first floor is quite huge, but it can be quite crowded during peak hours. The breakfast selection is basic, but reasonable – no breakfast you will remember some days later, neither for being very good nor very bad.

There is a pub, which belongs to the hotel and also offers snacks and similar. Once the pub is closed, there is no more vending of food and snacks.

ibis Styles London ExCeL- Service

The welcoming in the hotel was okay. Like in other Accor stays I had recently, the phone in the hotel is replaced by a WhatsApp service. However, the WiFi was a mess. Even during night hours, I had to connect to the internet via Tethering of my mobile phone.

The internet broke down completely during the late evening hours at my stay. When working, it offered reasonable speed. In the morning hours, I tried to catch an elevator from fifth floor to breakfast. The elevator could not start as it repeated failed to close the door. I reported it to the breakfast staff, where I found out that the same issue has been reported by other guests already in the evening before. In worst case, I feel, you have to switch off an elevator completely before risking people are stuck in a defect one. I could not understand the hotel management behavior here.

ibis Styles London ExCeL- My View

It is very hard to rate ibis Styles London ExCeL to me. It is a reasonable basic accomodation with a decent location (it will be a great location once Elizabeth Line is operating). Having these significant internet problems and making guests riding an obviously not fully functional elevator are tough arguments in my point of view, which make my rating drop below the average. There is more potential in this place – and as there are some renovations ongoing, they may take more of that potential very soon in the future.