ibis Madrid Aeropuerto Barajas (Review)

There is a huge variety of airport hotels around Madrid-Barajas. In early December, I chose the ibis option, which is very closely located to the Melia Hotel Barajas I recently reviewed. Of course, the ibis hotel is aiming for very different clients – this may have certain pros and cons in case you decide to stay there. Here is my review of ibis Madrid Aeropuerto Barajas / ibis Madrid Barajas Airport.

ibis Barajas – Location

ibis Madrid Aeropuerto Barajas is located on the central tip of Barajas, more or less across the Melia hotel mentioned. There is a small, but nice supermarket in the same building and other stores, bars and restaurants around. There is also a McDonalds in close walking distance.

The hotel offers shuttles from to and from Madrid Airport, which are done together with the other Accor Hotels in the region, the Novotel and the Pullman close to Madrid trade fair. More details see below.

ibis Barajas – Rooms

You might not be too surprised by the room pictures – one of ibis characteristics is that the rooms more or less look the same. I felt this one was comparably spacious, though. It could have more power plugs, though. The TV set is comparably small and still in 4:3 format – which makes it even smaller if you watch nowadays movies. The bathroom was comparably large as well. The room was spotless clean.

ibis Barajas – Breakfast / Restaurant

The breakfast area also serves as a restaurant, which serves some nice, but rather simple dishes. The buffet is compact, but offers a reasonable selection of different breakfast items. It is, of course, not overwhelming. The breakfast services are also quite fine. Another nice feature are the early breakfast times – you may already have the “continental” breakfast from 4:00am, the “hot breakfast” is starting two hours later. Honestly, after several visits in the hotel, I still cannot spot the difference.

Next to the reception, there is also a nice bar area. All these services are driven by reception staff as well, so you might have to wait a bit if a shuttle bus arrives. With my Accor Hotel status, I received a free drink at the bar, which I always highly appreciate.

ibis Barajas – Services

The hotel offers complimentary WiFi to all customers. I felt the speed was in absolutely reasonable range. Housekeeping was very good as well, the reception services very good.

One of the key features of an airport hotel is the airport shuttle of course. ibis Barajas shares with this service with two other Accor Hotels. The Pullman and the Novotel are close to the Madrid trade fair and next to each other. The shuttle starts from these hotels, goes to ibis, then heads to Terminals 1, 2 and 3 before going to Terminal 4. Guests are brought to the hotel on the vice versa route, i.e. starting at Terminal 4 and finally ending at the Pullman and Novotel. The service runs every thirty minutes from 6a.m. until midnight. In general, the service works fine. During popular times, though, the bus may become full and you have to wait for 30 minutes.

ibis Barajas – My View

The ibis is not as posh as the Melia – but very often, it may be very posh to your purse. I would not fully recommend it if you arrive from Terminals 1 to 3, as you may run into the shuttle trouble, but it is a very reliable and overall well driven option. The early breakfast is a nice add-on as well. The rooms are even comparably spacious and Barajas Metro station is not too far away, so you also have a nice connection to city center. I also like the small supermarket nextby.