Good central location, we had a very large clean room for a ibis hotel and no smells but it was on a noisy road during the day but was quit at night, we were told the rooms are having an upgrade next year. The hotel has a very nice inexpensive restaurant and bar and we had a very enjoyable meal (try the Flemish beef stew) when we arrived after a long days driving. Brugge is very beautiful and the canal trip on the boat is a must do. Very safe public car park under the hotel and not expensive.

I stayed at this hotel for 3 nights. The first thing that hits you in reception is the appalling sewer smell (which the hotel denies exists). However, several people were complaining about this, so it wasn't just me and the smell didn't just seem to be in reception, it extended to several bedrooms. Unhelpful reception staff who pretended not to acknowledge the smell. Decor in reception fine (if you could put a clothes peg on your nose, it would be acceptable to sit there), the bedrooms resembled holiday camp/very much budget hotel decor. There was no shampoo/bubble bath. No tea/coffee making facilities. The corridors were echoey and noise travelled into hotel bedrooms. Only good thing about this hotel is its location, but there was a Novotel opposite, which I would suggest anyone stays in rather than this place.

As my husband works in Brussels we often visit Bruges as we adore it and its only about an hour away by wonderful Belgian trains. Last month we decided to stay over a night so we could go out for dinner and have a couple of glasses of wine - and we booked the Ibis as we knew how central it was, and from the outside it looks really nice. The hotel is just a short walk through the gorgeous Minnewater park from the station, and we arrived earlier than check in, but we were pleased to be able to check in immediately - however our pleasure soon disappeared when we walked down the stairs to room number 1. The smell that greeted us was appalling - rancid sewers at their worst! When we went in the room the smell was a little less strong but still very evident. The room itself was cramped and dark - we seemed to be below ground level - and the decor was very tired. We went straight back to reception to ask to be moved, but apparently even in late January the hotel was fully booked (!) . The receptionist told us that the smell permeates through the walls from the canals and is unavoidable but we've stayed in Bruges at least half a dozen times before and never smelt this before! As we were only staying one night we put up with the smell, but any more than that would be completely impossible. My advice if you are looking for a budget hotel is to stay at the Novotel opposite!!

My lovely Fiancee and myself were looking forward to our stay in Brugge which we had read much about and the city of Brugge was better than expected with wonderful sites to see from almost anywhere we walked. We hired bike each on day two and cycled (would have been great in the summer and not through the snow like we did!) along the canal paths up to Damme (not much to see here when here but the small town square is nice to look at) where we had something to eat before cycling back-a great time. The car rental trip from Brussells main train station was fine and we stopped at Ghent which is well worth the effort as it is also a wonderful city with much to see-make the effort if you can as you won't be dissapointed! The Ibis Hotel was easy to find off the motorway and parking in the underground carpark next door to the hotel was easy though a little expensive but there is seemingly no option to park elsewhere unfortunately. Then the trouble started as we booked in. My fiancee (a travel agent herself) had spoken to a women at the hotel who assured her that a travel agent discount would apply (the hotel would only charge us for one person and not two...not much of a saving but something which would have been nice)...it seems you have to pay a surcharge here if more than one person is staying in a room which is crazy, surely if you pay for a hotel room for a night with a double bed then one charge should apply like everywhere else I have stayed in the world-but not here ! The guy behind the desk checked our booking (he seemed very put-out that we did not want to pay the extra for the over-priced breakfast on offer-we went about 300yards to the right down the road at a nice modern looking place that was exactly half the price) and told us our room number but on asking he said that they do not give discounts at all! We then asked to see a manager as this had definately been arranged already and a women appeared from the office. The tallish women immediately became rude and stern..."It must have been me you spoke to and I do not give discounts!" There was no "Good afternoon-can I be of any help"..We told her that the women who we spoke to assured us a discount would apply otherwise we would have booked in the Novatel opposite we said. "Well I would like to know who you spoke but I can not give you any better price...this is the price you must pay!" she insisted. There was no...I'm sorry for any problem and I'll see what I can do for you...nothing...just complete disregard and rudeness. If you want a polite service from a hotel reception staff member then don't come here for sure!! The lobby area looked clean and modern but as we exited the lift on the third floor for our room we could have sworn we were in some cell block or prison! The corridoors were gloomy and very bland, in fact it looked so dreary were already thinking that we had made the wrong choice! Entering the room we could not beleive how small and cramped the room actually was and for the price the hotel was charging we were extremely dissapointed. I have stayed in many places at a good deal less than this price for rooms so much better and bigger with tea and coffee etc all included but not here....nothing! In fact, I have stayed on the strip in Las Vegas at a top hotel for half this price with eveything you could want in the room-no lie! It was only that we were given the disount that we both agreed to stay here as we had thought about staying elsewhere-a lesson learned. The bathroom was thankfully pretty nice and clean and probbably recently re-newed as it did look ok. No face cloths though...the 1st hotel I have stayed in where you have towels but nothing to wash you damn face with...unreal!! Also, if you were taller than 5 foot then you would have extreme trouble sitting on the loo as your legs would be bent away from the wall as the wall was so close to the unit...a crazy situation!! Once in bed all you can hear are people in the coridoors which echo like never before-the noise seems to be amplified a hundred times between the walls...terrible, thankfully we were away from the cobbled street which we heard is mind-blowingly bad with car noise. Our advice would be if you don't care about anything and just want a night to rest and sleep then ok but we would not recomend this hotel at all for anything-its way over priced, very rude and unhelpful management, extremely small rooms with no facilities (no tea/coffee making, ironing board/iron etc), noisy outside the room door-the only thing good was the on-site beer and the location. Never again and it has put me off ever staying at an Ibis Hotel again if all the managers are like here-be warned!!!! Happy and safe travels, Barry