It is close to the centre of Douai and thus ticks that box. It is also in a pleasant and quiet square. Our room costs £98 a night which is cheap by today's standards. This was during the rugby World Cup when most hotels were profiteering by charging exorbitant prices of 2-4 times true cost, so that was a plus point and was why I chose this hotel over others.

It is ghastly. Tired, old, broken down and that unique sort of apparent dirtiness in all the public places which probably is not dirt but is down to everything falling apart, carpets being old and frayed, paint scratched and chipped etc. The room was tiny: one had to get round the beds by walking sideways. The bathroom was miniscule, The shower fixture was broken so one had to hold the shower in one's hand. The hanging space was inadequate and the drawer space non-existent. Mould and engrained dirt in the bathroom and things falling apart and not working eg a plug stuck so water did not drain away. The beds were probably about 25 years old and the sheets and pillow cases were not changed over our 4 night stay. I could go on but you get the point, I hope. I have never written a review like this nor ever felt the need to do so. It is awful that any organisation, not least one the size of IBIS, should retain such a dump on their books. But as I said above it was only £98 a night. But only stay here if you truly cannot find anywhere else for a bed.