Narbonne – Hotel F1 Narbonne Sud

Hotel F1 is the cheapest brand of hotels in the Accor chain and they’re mostly, but not entirely, located in France following some rebranding of many of these locations as Ibis Budget. The remaining Hotel F1 locations are normally just outside of town centres and they’re keenly priced with plenty of car parking (not that this element matters to me).

The rooms are similar to Ibis Budget hotels, but they have shared bathrooms. As shared bathrooms go though, these are some of the best as it’s clear which ones are in use and there are also so many that there isn’t usually any wait. The rooms, like Ibis Budget, have bunk beds and are relatively small in size.

Hotels in France are usually expensive, so these locations offer a much affordable option. This particular hotel in Narbonne cost around £28 per night, as opposed to the nearly £100 per night accommodation options in the town centre. This hotel was clean and well presented, with the staff members being helpful and friendly. It’s all rather basic, but it’s well managed so that it’s still sufficiently comfortable. There’s also free wi-fi offered at the hotel, and it was surprisingly fast.

The breakfast costs around £2.50 and allows for unlimited bread, jams, cereals, orange juice and coffees. It might be one of the most basic breakfasts offered by Accor hotels, but the price means that it’s still excellent value for money.

The F1 hotels routinely get poor reviews, so perhaps they’re not managing expectations particularly well. This hotel is 20th out of 21 accommodation options on TripAdvisor for the town, and I sometime wonder what people actually expect.