Stayed here 2 nights in early September 2011 having travelled down from Dinan in the first few days of a 3 week road trip in France.

We picked Ibis RSY simply for its location; we wanted some time on the Atlantic coast (St Jeans de Mont / St Gilles / Sables D'Olonnes) and also for its relative proximity to the Puy du Fou 'Cinescenie' on the Friday night (a stunning night out, 20,000 spectators and 1200 actors - do not miss it if you are in the area!). So we saw little of the hotel on the Friday night, as we came straight in from the coast and left barely an hour later for Puy du Fou, arriving back at RSY about 1.30am.

Given the various good reviews for their restaurant, we planned the Saturday so that we could eat there on the Saturday night. However, on returning to the hotel in the late afternoon, we were disappointed to find a handwritten sign in the reception area explaining that the restaurant would not be open at all that evening 'due to unforeseen circumstances' (we never did find out why, exactly)...

This meant we had to trawl RSY for a place to eat. The town is (as has been noted by others) 'unremarkable' in that it is a good location for visiting other places locally but has little of interest aside from that. In the end, with the clock ticking and tummies rumbling, we settled for Bistro Yonnais, which is attached to the Mercure hotel in the town centre.

So; three 'issues' with Ibis RSY: the sudden unexplained 'loss' of the restaurant on the Saturday night; the beds were comfortable enough but were falling apart (!) in that the legs were very loose (not something you could miss when cleaning the room, surely?) and we felt that the bathroom was still a bit dated (even though the blurb for this Ibis stated that bathrooms had all just been revamped). Perhaps Accor see this as a 'stopover' hotel and decided to spend the money somewhere else?

On the plus side, we had breakfast there prior to leaving for La Rochelle on the Sunday, and it was excellent. Plenty of variety, everything fresh, well laid out and restocked constantly, good humoured service - a cracking start to the day!

Had the restaurant been available and lived up to expectations we would probably have given a 4 (very good) rating, but with all considered we think the 'Average' rating is about right.