Hotel Mercure Marseille Canebière

Had my second stay here, this time in a lovely top floor room with views out across the city towards Notre Dame. Huge LG TV, lovely Nuxe toiletries, monsoon shower, and excellent housekeeping - everything spotless. Good North-African themed tapas in the hotel restaurant, and the guy in charge there was particularly helpful/friendly, recommending which bits of the city had good street art when I mentioned that was one of the main reasons I came to Marseille (Cours Julien fyi, which also has some fab cafes and vintage shops). My only gripe was the handling of the bill (as follows). My debit card was pre-authorised on arrival (and in excess of the actual cost of the room, but I assumed this to be an additional security deposit or similar, do didn't really feel too concerned at the time). When it came to checkout, it was agreed that we would let the pre-authorised amount stand, and I would be refunded the difference between that and the actual, final bill. However, when I checked my bank balance 3 days later I was shocked to find that I'd been billed for the full amount again, and the pre-authorised amount had not been released - so essentially I'd been charged twice (or twice and a bit, when you allow for the fact the first billing was an over-estimate anyway). This follows on from a cancelled pre-paid booking the previous year (due to Covid restrictions) that was supposed to be fully refundable, which I also really struggled to get back (it was eventually repaid but quite belatedly). So, I'm not saying don't stay here, because it is a really nice hotel in a very vibrant area (lots of cafes with fab Oriental pastries, markets etc) but you will really need to be on top of the financial side of things to ensure you aren't left out of pocket.

After having a not-so-great hotel experience in Marseille several days earlier, this hotel more than exceeded expectations. it was clean, comfortable, and centrally-located. I would absolutely stay here again! Plenty of parking garages nearby, and a very short walk to Vieux Port, restaurants, and shops.

We had a really good stay. Hotel is clean and A/c was working. Location is central and rooms quite spacious Would like to highlight how helpful Riyad at the front desk was to us. Our luggage went missing on our way to Marseille and Riyad saw I was struggling to get through to the lost baggage number. He kindly offered to take over and called 5 times till he got through and convinced them to deliver it that night as we left the next morning. He made such a difference to our short stay. Give that man a raise!

It was hot in my room - which had windows on two sides - but the air conditioning was locked at 21 degrees C and I couldn’t turn it down (or up). I even called reception and they explained that all the air con in the hotel had been locked in this way and it wasn’t possible to adjust it. So I sweltered (the air con couldn’t cope and the temperature was higher than 21) until the sun set!

Three days in Marseille from the 16th to of April, the stay started nicely with a warm welcoming by Seheno who explained us everything we needed to know for our stay. The room is really great, it’s difficult to find anything to criticize…. The location is perfect for a short visit. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed but we found amazing food nearby with great advice from the staff. Thank you again Seheno for everything, any hotel exec should be proud to have such professionalism in their staff.