Hotel Mercure Brussels Centre Midi 4 estrelas

Mercure Brussels Centre Midi is well located for the station but the area is quite rundown and there was a lot of work going on immediately outside (large excavations on the pavement as new piping was being installed). Hotel is in same block as a striptease club.

The room was very nice and big, the breakfest was good, the distance from the hotel to the city center is about 15 minutes walk, the internet was fast, also the hotel is near the bus station that goes to Charleroi airport

The area where the hotel is situated is very rough and it felt very intimidating and dangerous The hotel was average but the worst part was the greeting of the receptionist. We arrived and she was looking at paperwork which she continued to do for at least 1 minute without looking at us then she answered the phone. After 3 minutes she looked at us and without any apology said 'yes', not a great start!!

My benchmark of worst stay remains Mercure Barcelona Condor … closely followed by this one. It is also a good example of how a single employee can create such an emotional distress to bring you to the point of hospitalisation. I checked in on the evening of Sunday 12th May. I was already in Brussels the previous Friday and handed to the hotel my suits-case (hanging suit bag) . Of course I got a receipt and supposedly they stored it in their luggage room. Upon my check-in I asked for my suits-case and handed over the receipt. The indifferent clerk checked the luggage room and told me relaxed that she can't find it. She even started questioning me if I indeed had given it to them. She pretended to also check in the managers office with no result. I asked her to check again in their luggage room, she did and again said that there was not any luggage of mine corresponding to the receipt I handed her. You can imagine the emotional distress when she told me that it is not her problem … and I had a business meeting on 09:00 on Sunday morning. I asked her to go and check myself their luggage room … and guess what … it was there … instead of hanging … rolled and placed inside a small square self. The incompetent lady of the reception mumbled something like "they moved it … so I couldn't see" …. NO EXCUSE … NO APOLOGIE. After this incident who left me shaking, I checked in the spacious room and went out for a walk. You can reach Grand Place in 20 minutes passing through literally an Arabic ghetto. The people, their dressing, language, music, shops is literally as if you are in Egypt or Tunisia, beautiful countries... but when you are tourist there you don't get that type of looking at you, checking you out like predators. Hotel has a relaxing jacuzzi, sauna and steam bath. Bed had a stiff hard mattress, with no overtop memory foam, therefore sleep comfort was bad. Check-out was super-friendly and efficient. As much as I consider a benchmark of worst employee ever the lady on the check-in on Sunday night, the lady on front-desk on Monday morning 13th was a benchmark of efficiency and friendliness. I hadn't used my voucher for welcome drink, I asked for an orange juice ... and she run to the breakfast room to fetch a freshly squeezed one instead of bottled. Long story short: I will never select it again due to inconsistent service, bad sleep comfort and terrifying neighborhood.

I paid upfront by debit card for my 2 night stay. On top of that the hotel put a hold on my credit card for funds equalling 125% of my full stay I paid in advance. I understand the need of putting funds on hold for guarantee purposes but I would have appreciated being notified the funds on hold were greater than the value of my stay. I only found out later when checking my finances online. The source of my grievance however is that the hotel did not bother releasing the hold in a timely manner. I am not talking about delay due to transaction going trough the banking system., no. I did call the hotel (international rate) 3 days after returning home to be told that they have not initiated the fund release yet but they will will be doing so shortly. I am still waiting but as a precaution I have alerted my bank and forwarded them the evidence the full stay was paid for upfront by debit card.. And needless to say there is nothing warranting the hotel holding any funds. The hotel itself is OK, clean and spacious rooms but it is located in a rundown area. To summarise, I don't feel comfortable at all with 3rd parties messing around with my money so will definitely not be returning here.