very clean and very big rooms, shower is awesome and beds are very comfy!
they have free shuttle to/from airport, so very comfortable if you have late/early flight
definately reccomend!

I needed a hotel in the CRL airport area on a short notice (2 days), and this hotel turned out to be the only one available, not counting in variants such as F1. Given other options, certainly this one was not cheap, even on Expedia.

Walking out of the airport into the cold and freezing night (December), I tried to call them at least 5 times during a 30min period, until they picked up the phone and informed me that it would be another 35 minutes for their "shuttle" to arrive, an information which was not posted anywhere outside the terminal or on the Internet. It didn't make much sense, because on GPS their location showed as being located 280m away from the airport. However, there was a solid fence and a motorway plus a lot of snow, which made walking impossibe.

Meanwhile, a shuttle from much cheaper hotels did at least 3 go-arounds, picking up luckier guests, while our group was standing outside in freezing cold. When the Balladins shuttle finally arrived, it turned out to be some kind of contracted taxi driver, who was holding only a small sign in his hands, and definitely wasn't parked in front of the "exit 2 area" as the hotel advised over the phone. The shuttle schedule actually does exist, but it's posted only on the wall in the reception (Thank you guys, I'll keep that in mind).

Checkin people are polite with good English, yet I do frown upon the practice of making photocopies of my passport. The hotel's fine and new, all right, but small touches make you feel that costs are being slowly cutted down. For example, nobody bothered to remove stains from the walls in my room and the free wifi was slow.

The morning shuttle was a good thing, however the driver made an impression of a guy who doesn't want to speak English and who doesn't like to do his job at all.

Given other options, I would not recommend this hotel to anyone without a car or a lot of patience due to the bad "shuttle" experience. The taxi won't take you because of short distance, there are no trains or buses, walking is impossible, yet still they don't bother to make their guests feel a little bit welcomed.

On the way by car from Germany to the Netherlands, we happened to pass through Charleroi and were looking for an overnight accomodation. Nearby the airport, there are several hotels and we checked in the Balladins Hotel. Although there was some kind of promotion offering a special price, we were charged a relatively high price of EUR 95.70, including a set dinner and breakfast for two. The room itself was quite small, the whole appearance of the hotel is like Ibis, but at a much higher price.

The front desk staff, both when we arrived and in the morning, were friendly and helpful. We were given a spotlessly clean room right at the end of a corridor, with a window looking out on trees and hedges. Apart from some muted rock music, possibly emanating from the room above, it was blissflly quiet; nobody trooped noisily past us in the night. The shower was fabulous - very modern and room enough for two.

Some small negatives:

- the hotel is exceptionally hard to find, in the back of beyond behind the airport and marked only by small, almost invisible notices pinned to road signs, that you see only at the last moment.

- the pillows were exceptionally thin and soft - I ended up having to put a sweater under mine.

- the bar area is one of the least cosy I have ever seen. It's glaringly bright, uncomfortable, right next to the main door, and dominated by an enormous TV. And beware: the drinks are very expensive!

Overall excellent value, though. Most people -like us- are just passing through.