Ibis Douala

Consistently professional and friendly staff, ideal location for business and security, high praise for breakfast variety and quality, and pleasant surprise in cleanliness.

I'm not aware of any other hotel chains with a presence in Douala besides Ibis where I stayed 2 nights. It was a bad experience before I even arrived. I e-mailed them to arrange the complimentary airport transfer and was met with radio silence. It was only after I reached out to Accor Customer Service and much follow-up that Ibis Douala finally responded to me. (Kudos to Accor Customer Service!) After I got to my room, I noticed a pesticide smell but I put it off as something that would go away but it didn't and was affecting my sleep so I went to reception to enquire about the odour at which point the attendant referred me to a piece of paper on the bench which mentioned that the hotel was undergoing hygiene treatment on the 2 days I was there - this was the first time I was shown this notice! They changed my room to another one - on the same floor - because the air con in my initial room couldn't be turned off, but the smell of pesticide remained but they said it was the same throughout the hotel. Luckily, the odour was less pungent on my second night - which makes me wonder why they couldn't have either 1. scheduled the treatment outside of the Christmas busy period or 2. timed the treatment so that certain floors were treated on the first day and the remaining floors the next day so that guests can stay on floors less affected by the odour - which may be harmful to one's health! The hotel room was tired and dated with dull green coloured tiles on the bathroom floor. Also, the hot water tap needs to be turned on for at least 10 minutes before there is any hot water. There was no variety to the buffet breakfast - it was the same everyday. On the plus side, the hotel is within 20 minutes walk of 2 supermarkets.