ibis budget Paris Porte d'Orleans in Paris

The room is relatively small; it's a bit cramped for two people. There's no hairdryer available; you'll need to go downstairs to borrow one.

Please, when booking this place, consider the 'Budget' aspect of the brand. This part alone defined my experience.

One night, I woke up, clutching at my chest, fanning myself as I experienced what one could describe as drowning in my own sweat. I felt my shirt cling to my skin as my half-asleep body struggled to comprehend the situation at hand. If you don't know what the placebo effect is, now is the time to learn - their air-conditioning system is a prime example. On the highest possible setting, it produces the most noise; however, the temperature of the room and the effectiveness of the appliance remain at the same level as without the air conditioner. It is so hot in the room that I now take frequent trips outside of my room, where I feel the cool ventilation that comes with being in a public setting. (Many take this for granted, but after this experience, you will definitely not be one of those many.) I hope that if you are lucky enough to experience this hotel's microclimate, you are in a room with a functioning window, allowing you to breathe the outside air.

I am what some call a 'social butterfly', and so I was honoured when given the opportunity to stay in a room with two of my other comrades. I was very excited, until I stepped foot in the room, realising there was as much available floor space as that of my homeland establishment's spare bathroom. To live comfortably for the week we had ahead of us, we rearranged the beds to accommodate ourselves, which was very successful, and we hope that the hotel continues to use the layout which we discovered - I will describe it below for any staff looking to improve.

The original layout (in the sleeping area, excluding the bathroom and entryway) consisted of a bunk bed, and perpendicular to that lay two single beds pushed together to form a double bed. I am not very keen to sleep in such close proximity to my colleagues (who I do not know so well as to roll over and look in the eye every night), so this would not do. We slid and shoved the lower single beds so that there was one directly below (and in line with) the bunk bed, and the other opposite, with around 30cm worth of mattress resting underneath what I would assume is a desk. The new layout is much better for non-intimate workplace relationships such as my own, and I hope the hotel can continue providing rooms like this for other clients.

In the end, as I write this, I think over my stay. "It wasn't actually that bad," I recollect, because there were no lies told, no beliefs altered, just the basic necessities needed to call your building a 'hotel'. The budget experience that is the Ibis Budget Porte d'Orléans.

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