Great location, very clean & quiet, complimentary water, tea & coffee
Room small but has everything you need
Great shower, hairdryer & toiletries provided
Staff very helpful especially American gentleman in their sister hotel where you check in
Held luggage free of charge when we checked out
Was trying to find something not in the very heart of tourism and did well with chic&basic. It was clean and nicely appointed. Bathroom was lovely, too! Bed was comfy and, once you closed the balcony doors, room was quiet. There was coffee across the hall and bottled water, no extra charge. The odd thing is that reception is literally around the corner (on another street) from the hotel entrance, which is basically the entrance to the apartment building in which the hotel rooms are housed. Staff couldn't be friendlier. Reception had a cafe/bar where you could grab a drink or bite and sit inside or outside, both equally charming settings. I would def stay here again.
Stayed with another couple we had a great time and we choose this hotel for location close to Born and good price.
The hotel needs some public area and room care as there are some maintenance issues and also floors are quite dirty so bring your own slippers.
Staff were really smiley and happy and welcoming!
Getting to the hotel itself is an absolute farce. There were no instructions in our booking telling us that we had to go to a different location to check in. Eventually after finding the Chic&Basic Zoo, thanks to the very helpful little postcard sized note above the intercom with badly written instructions, we headed around the corner to the main Chic&Basic main hotel only to find we couldn't get in there either. Turns out reception for the two hotels is in the cafe next door. The Chic&Basic Zoo has a reception of it's own but it's unmanned, someones clearly trying to cut costs. After you check in and get given a bewildering set of instructions and an array of keys, one for the front door, one for a side door on the hotel floor that you may or may not need and an old style punch hole key card for the room, you then have to haul all your luggage back around to the other hotel, you're not offered any assistance at all.
Our initial impression of the room was quite pleasant. Good sized room, looked all clean and tidy and there was bottled water on the bedside table. Unfortunately once you spent a little time in the room you start to notice it's not quite as clean and tidy as you think. The bathroom had a damp smell reminiscent of cat pee, if you leave the door open to let the steam from the shower out the entire room smells of it. All the edges and seals were dirty, the glass shower separator had a large crack in and we found cockroaches in the shower each morning. The bedroom itself had brown stains on the duvet cover, rips in the pillow cases and what I will politely refer to as "bodily fluid" stains on the headboard.
The free tea/coffee making facilities are in a communal area out in the hallway. When we arrived only one of the two fridges was working, the following day neither were. I wouldn't like to imagine how long the milk and other produce was sitting there unchilled.
You can see that the hotel was probably quite nice once and with a bit of care, attention to detail and a little financial investment it probably could be again but I won't be going back to find out.
The hotel advertises air-conditioning on their website, but when we arrived in May and turned on the air conditioner in our room, nothing happened. We stopped by the front desk on our way out and asked how to operate correctly. The agent at the desk informed us that the air conditioning would not work, as it was not yet turned on and that were still "trying to figure it out". She also informed me that I could open my window at night to cool the room. Ordinarily, I would accept this response. However, opening our window at nighttime would not be a safe option for us. Our room had a gigantic window that is right off a public access balcony/staircase. I easily climbed in and out of the window, so it is possible other people could too. We frequently saw Hotel Employees coming and going through this door and staircase. So sleeping with the window open was a safety issue for us. Repeated emails to the hotel to address my concern have gone unanswered.
Wi-fi did not work 95% of the time during our stay and shower was moldy. Also if you do not have cell service, there is no way to reach the front desk from your room. You must walk around the corner to the desk at Born.Walls are very thin and could hear people coming in all night.
The only stars I'm giving are for location and complimentary bottled water in the common area.
