Ibis Styles Saint Étienne Gare Châteaucreux

“Nice Budget Hotel in Saint-Etienne”

Stayed here for 3 nights during the Rugby World Cup to see Fiji v. Australia. Came in by train - so VERY handy as just across the road. Also handy for the Fan Village and Stadium - 25 minutes walk. Now rebranded as an Ibis "Styles" Hotel since the last review (TRIPADVISOR - take note of the name)… more

Stayed here for 3 nights during the Rugby World Cup to see Fiji v. Australia. Came in by train - so VERY handy as just across the road. Also handy for the Fan Village and Stadium - 25 minutes walk. Now rebranded as an Ibis "Styles" Hotel since the last review (TRIPADVISOR - take note of the name) and presumably smartened up a bit. We found it clean and friendly - rooms were OK and bathroom a just about decent size. Beds were comfortable and soft pillows supplied when requested. And the Air Conditioning worked! A bonus as the weather was gorgeous and still quite hot. Nice breakfast supplied in a funky downstairs area. BIG bonus was being attached to the Maire Kanter restaurant and bar on the ground floor - great atmosphere on the outside tables with all the rugby folks coming and going. Ate in the restaurant once - pretty good. Saint-Etienne is a very nice town to walk around - lots of wide boulevards with squares and cafes to while away a lunch, and some interesting sites to visit (we didn't make it to the Mining Museum unfortunately). We probably won't get back to Saint-Etienne but if we did - then yes, we would stay at the Ibis again.

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“Interesting”

This hotel saw better days days ago,but girl at check in make us to forget surrounded are.We received such excellent help and service.Unfortunately I forgot her name and that Ibis manager for this hotel find out who was on duty little past 6 pm and at least tell her,she deserves more. Check on Sept… more

This hotel saw better days days ago,but girl at check in make us to forget surrounded are.We received such excellent help and service.Unfortunately I forgot her name and that Ibis manager for this hotel find out who was on duty little past 6 pm and at least tell her,she deserves more. Check on September 10

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“Car park and wi-fi are problematic”

I suspect that this is a hotel that Ibis has recently acquired from another operator, and they are still in the process of bringing it into line with normal Ibis standards. The room décor is not in conformity with some of the photos that are displayed on the Accor and Trip Advisor websites. Maybe … more

I suspect that this is a hotel that Ibis has recently acquired from another operator, and they are still in the process of bringing it into line with normal Ibis standards. The room décor is not in conformity with some of the photos that are displayed on the Accor and Trip Advisor websites. Maybe only some of the rooms have been redecorated, and the process is ongoing. The other possibility is that Accor are using the same photos for multiple Ibis hotels. The internet is not the normal Accor branded Wi-Fi network, you would expect to find in an Accor hotel. Probably, this came with the property and they have to keep using it until the existing contract expires. The network is OK with most websites, including secure sites. However, I was not able to connect to my CCTV cameras at home. In addition, I was not able to connect to my stock brokerage account with Interactive Brokers. If I managed to connect, I found that I got logged off prematurely. Usually I was unable to connect. After entering passwords and security codes I kept getting looped back to the log-in page. Initially I suspected that there was a problem with my broker's website, but when I contacted them, I learned that the hotel's network was using multiple IP addresses with load balancing software. This meant that the IP address was unstable and kept changing. If the IP address changed mid-session, then IBRK's website would automatically log me off. If the IP address changed during a log-in attempt, (which it usually did), then I would have to start all over again. The hotel's internet is therefore totally unsatisfactory for anything that needs a stable high security connection. The underground car park (which costs €9 per day), has some very nasty angles and restricted manoeuvring space. The best area to use, which is least problematic, is directly ahead of you as you go in on floor -1. Do not turn left and park near the elevator unless you have a very small car. If you do, you will find that driving into a bay is not too problematic, but you will have difficulty when you want to reverse out, if another car has parked close to you. You will not be able to steer until your front wheels are clear of the adjacent car, and you will be hitting the wall behind you before this happens. If you try to reverse into the bay to avoid this problem, you will probably need to turn around to do this. In fact there is very little room to manoeuvre, unless the big disabled parking bay happens to be empty. If you choose to drive down to -2, you will experience difficulty re-entering the ramp when you want to come out. Going down is easy, but you cannot re-enter the ramp in one sweep coming back up. Because of these problems it is highly improbable that I will choose this hotel again. I normally use the Mercure, but it was not available for this visit. Accor are opening a new Novotel in St. Etienne on 15/03/19. Maintenance does not appear to be very good. They initially gave me a room where neither the TV nor telephone worked. I had to call reception with my mobile to complain. The problem was that the girl who answered seemed to be totally confused. The cause of her confusion, was that she was working in the other Ibis at St. Etienne. They had actually given me a room key that bore the address and telephone number of the other Ibis hotel. TV reception was not good. Some of the French channels only worked on an intermittent basis. Fortunately BBC World worked most of the time. The breakfast fruit salad was disappointing. There were no orange or pink grapefruit segments. The hotel staff did their best under the circumstances. Obviously they cannot work miracles with a sub-standard property. The rooms themselves, had all the usual Ibis facilities. The hotel has an arrangement with the adjacent Maire Kanter's restaurant. Hotel guests get a 10% discount, but you have to ask the hotel for a voucher before you go to eat. The restaurant offers a lot of choice at reasonable prices. Their speciality seems to be Alsacienne cuisine.

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“Good for a night”

The hotel is right on the main square across from the train station. Good location. Checkin was friendly and efficient. The rooms are fine, the bed is comfortable and everything is very clean. But it is a bit dated and needs a reno. Internet is fast. Property has a very good restsurant onsit… more

The hotel is right on the main square across from the train station. Good location. Checkin was friendly and efficient. The rooms are fine, the bed is comfortable and everything is very clean. But it is a bit dated and needs a reno. Internet is fast. Property has a very good restsurant onsite and since it was a Sunday there werent manyoptions open in St Etienne. Hotel guests get ten per cent off.

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