I like the idea of ultra basic cheap hotels. This one cost £18 a night, which could be split with two others for £6/night. But I'm unlikely to try this chain again.
The problem was not the physical room, but with management. There is no management in the hotel, and little apparent interest from the management in the nearby Ibis Hotel, which is part of the same company. On Saturday night drunk/stoned people rampaged in the halls from 11 am to 3 am. Eventually the police came, apparently. Without a phone number, I couldn't call the desk.
The hotel is ultra basic. Tiny room, bed, basin, desk, plastic chair, tv. Showers and toilets in the hall. Clean bedding, but the rest of the room was starting to get shabby. The TV volume couldn't be turned up, so it was basically useless.
The self cleaning showers worked brilliantly, the self cleaning toilets barely worked at all. Avoid.
The grounds were covered in rubbish. The hotel is on a traffic roundabout fed by several arterial roads. No zebra crossing. Getting to this hotel on foot is hazardous, but there is a bus to the city centre 100 metres from the front door.
People tend to loiter in the public areas, which can be intimidating. The hotel has security gates after hours, but that can't help when you are renting rooms to the people who are causing the problems.
- Formule 1 Hotel Birmingham
