Is there anyone out there who has travelled throughout Europe using the Formula 1 Hotels?

They are actually called Formule 1 - and as they only have 5 hotels in the UK you might want to get the tag removed.

The ones I've used are VERY basic - even the loo and shower wasn't part of the room. I think of them as one step up from camping.

The name is now just F1. They are ultra basic and ultra cheap (and also ultra clean). I think that Accor has stopped opening new ones and now is concentrating on Etap and higher grade hotels.

I still use them on rare occasions, when I know that absolutely all I will be doing there is getting in late to sleep and leaving early the next morning. Nevertheless, the self-cleaning toilets and showers in the hall have never bothered me. As far as I'm concerned, it should only be an issue for people who sleep in the nude and who need to pee in the middle of the night. While men can always make do with the sink in the room, women do not have this option.

In recent years, most of the F1 places seem to be used by tourists from the less affluent Eastern European countries and also by 'workers' (construction, etc.) who have nearby jobs and only go home on the weekend.

But do not hesitate to go to one if it is in the right place at the right time.

I have stayed in all but one in the UK and have stayed in several in France and Belgium. Again, they are cheap and toilet/shower are down the hall. I have found that the cleaness is up and down. The cleanest one was in Liverpool and the dirtiest was in Belgium. However, if they every got a manager for the Belgium one, it should be cleaned up by now.

The breakfast for 7Euro, is . . .. not sure. You get bread, coffee, hot chocolate, tea, milk, juice, yogart, cheese and jams. You could probably do better at a cafe or brassarie. The saving grace is free refills of coffee, juice, milk, etc.

Thanks for the replies.

The breakfast is 3.70€ not 7€.

>>Nevertheless, the self-cleaning toilets and showers in the hall have never bothered me. [...] While men can always make do with the sink in the room, women do not have this option.<<

My well-meant advice:
You may want to reconsider staying with a hotel chain whose male clientele finds it o.k. to pee into the washing basin.

"You may want to reconsider staying with a hotel chain whose male clientele finds it o.k. to pee into the washing basin."

Does this bizarre phobia about body fluids extend to a boycott of hotels whose clients menstruate or have sex in hotel beds or sweat while sitting on chairs? How about those with customers who sneeze?

There really has to be a point where people grow up and understand that the world's swarming with germs and bacteria - and humans are designed to deal with them.

Where in the world did I indicate any phobia concerning germs?


You are making assumptions - apparently interpreting the post under a bias that is simply not applicable or jsutified here.

I am quite grown up and not too concerned with germs. I also happen to find peeing into a washing basin quite uncivilised and generally don't expect to enjoy a respective environment.

I do appreciate that standards of etiquette vary - and if yours allows for peeing into a washing basin, I salute you. Your world is maybe quite exciting.

It takes all kinds to make a world - and I am all for tolerance and peaceful co-habitation. But sometimes leaving people alone is the best way to ensure that goal is reached. Simply for that reason I would rather not stay at Formule1.

We have no problems staying in the Etaps and Premier Classe, but the one Formule 1 we stayed in we found to be really a bit disgusting. It reminds one of a prison ( more so that the others with a loo in the room).

"It reminds one of a prison "

I've stayed in a prison in Prague, had the cell next to Václav Havel - though admittedly quite a few years later

Oh, this is straight out of Tartuffe.

I have used the F1 I think 2 times and found them very clean and perfectly fine. The showers and toilets down the hall are really no problem. The F1 would be my last choice but I will do it again if I have a reason.

Also I would not avoid any hotel chain because of the possibility that someone may have pissed in the sink because a maid at a much more upscale chain of hotels told me once that people have pissed in the coffee pots at her hotel. Just something to think about.

Larry J

That's exactly what I was thinking, Larry. I have known some former chambermaids as well, often in some of the most expensive hotels, and what they have had to clean up makes the mind boggle. Just pray that people choose the sink to do certain things. Sinks can be cleaned very easily.