The only reason I chose to stay at this hotel was because I had in my possession several 50% discount vouchers for any Accor hotel and my first preference was all booked out. Using the vouchers, I got a excellent rate of AUD 110 (approx. USD 55) per room per night. The telephone reservation operator was helpful and very friendly and I was pleased with my choice. Of course, that was until I actually got there.

The Mercure is on the very edge of the city but I figured it wouldn't be a problem as Central Station seemed to be next door. That's what the maps showed at least. It's at least an 8 minute walk to the station, depending on the route you take (the underground passage is fastest). The hotel overlooks a major bus interchange, which is good if you want to travel by bus but it's not the nicest view I've ever seen. You could easily walk into the centre of the city or even all the way to the Harbour, but the stay would have been a lot more pleasant if the hotel were closer in.

Breakfast was moderately priced at AUD 18 (USD 9) for the continental. The surrounds were a bit boring and the service was a little slow but I was impressed by the array of goodies they had on offer in comparison to some of the better hotels I have stayed at. They have two restaurants in the hotel. One is more of a cafe and is located in the lobby. It seemed to be closed a lot of the time, in which case you could go to the second restaurant on the first level, where breakfast is served. Room service was moderately priced and arrived within half an hour of ordering. Once during our stay our room began to fill with the stench of fried food. We went outside to investigate and found a finished room service tray had been left right outside our door. It wasn't removed for another 2 hours.

The desk staff were really friendly and helpful as were the maids and porters but their cheer didn't make up for the depressing feeling of the rooms. They seemed as bare as hospital wards and exhibited the same decorative flair. The bathroom was quite small, but adequate, as was the wardrobe. The worst thing about our stay was the dirty sheets and dirty feeling of the carpets. We stayed in a twin and both sets of sheets were covered in brown marks. My friend even thought she had been bitten by something in her bed. We called housekeeping and asked for the sheets to be changed and they had been by the end of the day.

The Mercure is said to be rated at 3 to 4 stars and you'd expect that at that level they'd manage to wash the sheets properly and have the rooms vacuumed once in a while. I was pretty unimpressed with the hotel overall but I figured at the rate we were paying we couldn't really expect much more. If I had been paying the rack rate of AUD 220 (approx. USD 110) then I would have definitely said something. And if I were staying any longer than 4 days then I would have considered moving to a different hotel.

I'd say this hotel is best for business travelers, if anyone. I wouldn't recommend it for families as the thought of dragging kids all the way into the city is horrendous. The Accor Hotel Deals website (http://www.accorhotels.com.au/hotdeals/index.asp) offers some bargains but I'd recommend you'd look at other hotels in the chain including the Novotel at Darling Harbour or the Grand Mercure Apartments ahead of the Mercure.

Recommended: No