Detailed review by proxam
proxam
Livingston, United Kingdom88%
The hotel (a 3-storey building constructed in 1999) is in the village of Fleurus, North-East of Charleroi city, and 5 Km from the airport - they have a shuttle service. Take Exit 15 on the E42-A15 motorway, and it's 300m towards Charleroi on the N29, Chaussee de Charleroi.
It's a relatively busy road but, as it's essentially a residential area, the traffic is fairly light in the evening.
Parking's not a problem here as the hotel has more than enough spaces for all the guests.
Checking-in was swift and painless and took no more than a few minutes. We were attended to immediately and the guy behind the desk was pleasant and friendly.
The reception area was clean and functional, with a few sofas strategically placed around. The restaurant and bar were adjacent, as were the stairs (no elevator).
Ibis rooms come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing they all have in common is the fixtures and decor. If you've stayed in one before, you'll know exactly what to expect so there should be no nasty surprises. This one had 44 rooms - not a great deal, but we only wanted one.
Our room was very clean and not tired looking in any way. As per usual, the room was decorated in the company's standard fashion - pale tangerine and light green (I know, it's sounds absolutely horrendous, but trust me, it's not nearly as un-tasteful as it sounds). There were two twin beds which were firm and comfortable, although they seemed rather on the small side to me - it might have been my imagination though, because the room was a decent size. There was shelving around, and in between, the beds - which was convenient, otherwise there would have been nowhere to keep the phone, clock/radio etc. Reading lamps were fixed to the wall above both beds.
There was a work station-come-desk-come-dr esser with internet link and plenty of bright, and adjustable, lighting. There was also a reasonably large, open-plan wardrobe with full length mirror, lots of shelves and adequate space to store luggage.
The room had cable TV with around 30 channels in a variety of languages but more importantly for us, it had the British channels BBC1 and ITV1 - don't you just hate when a hotel's concession to English language channels amount to CNN and BBC World?
The room had A/C and heating.
The bathroom was roomy enough and had all the usual trappings one would expect in a room of this kind (including bath tub), a powerful shower, inexpensive, but adequate toiletries, a hairdryer, and plenty of towels gently cooking on the heated towel-rail. The bathroom was tiled throughout, as clean as a whistle, and there was a reasonable sized vanity area with a large, well-lit mirror.
We were at the front of the building and, as the room was soundproofed, there wasn't much noise. I don't think Charleroi Airport operates on a 24hr system anyway, but the motorway is quite close.
The facilities, such as they are, consisted of a couple of conference rooms, a small bar and a restaurant, and not much else - no swimming pool, no fitness room and no fancy night-club.
We didn't try the restaurant but I must confess to sampling a beer or two in the bar, just for research purposes. As with amy bar in Belgium, they had a good choice of some excellent beers.
The area around the hotel could hardly be described as picturesque...even by a blind man, although the village of Fleurus has a few decent restaurants and bars.
The suburbs of Charleroi consist of a sprawl of former coal mining villages and it's a rather depressed area. Charleroi city is not a whole lot better - it's one of the ugliest places I've ever seen. There's quite a bit of dereliction and the south of the city is almost entirely made-up of huge steel mills, chemical works, and forests of belching smoke-stacks.
No, it's not my idea of a tourist destination.
In conclusion: This isn't somewhere I would pick to stay for a pleasure trip, but if you have an early morning departure from, or late night arrival at, Charleroi airport, then it's a good bet. A taxi won't cost more than a few euros, but as I've already said, there's a free shuttle service to and from the airport - so the smart thing to do is nix that taxi fare and splash out on a couple of beers instead. You know it makes sense.
The hotel is modern and clean, and has everything you need for a stopover.
proxam2004
Ibis Charleroi Aéroport7
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