Mercure Mannheim Am Friedensplatz 4 stars

After reading plenty of bad reviews we were concerned about our organized trip to the BUGA 23 (we had no choice of the hotel). ⭐ Location ⭐ : Mercure is right in front of the main entrance "Luisenpark" to the BUGA 🌺🌹🌻 Perfect for us 👍 Walking to the nice Wasserturm & city centre takes around 25 minutes. Good PT options very close by (Tram 6). Check in: fast and friendly, check out also. Room: on the 4th floor, kind of worn out/abgewohnt but clean enough. Some items missing (towel, glass) , but quickly solved with front desk. Soap and shampoo ok. Restaurant: BF was ok, fresh food and enough choice. Buffet dinner for our group was good, especially the anti pasti/hors d'oeuvres buffet, which had an Italian/French touch👍 Service: restaurant&bar, very friendly and caring German waiter who served us (Bier&Weissburgunder) with a smile.... even late in the evening after we came back from the Joy Fleming musical 👍 Wifi: perfect, no problem with connection/data usage.

There was chaos on check-in which was a repeat of what happened on a previous visit 3 months earlier. Having booked a double room with sofa, my wife and I were allocated a room with 3 beds all made up and with nowhere to sit. So, we traipsed down to Reception to be confronted by a surly receptionist who informed us that we had to wait 15 minutes for the room to be changed. Given that it was past the 15:00 check-in time and that we had already been travelling all day, I objected. Only then, did we receive a change to the correct room, albeit grudgingly. We had been travelling all day from home in Switzerland and were tired (hence our frustration regarding the room chaos) and hungry. I asked about the restaurant and was told that it would be open at 6 when we wanted to dine. However, I was not told that the menu was in effect a very limited, bar menu. Had your Reception taken the trouble to answer my query intelligently, we could have found a proper restaurant elsewhere but, instead, we decided to "grin and bear it". Mercure Mannheim need to upgrade the quality of their staff and customer service - its currently more what one might expect from a 2 star hotel, not one with 4 stars.

The chaos on check-in was a repeat of what happened on my previous visit 3 months earlier. Having booked a double room with sofa, my wife and I were allocated a room with 3 beds all made up and with nowhere to sit. So, we traipsed down to Reception to be confronted by a surly receptionist who informed us that we had to wait 15 minutes for the room to be changed. Given that it was past the 15:00 check-in time and that we had already been travelling all day, I objected. Only then, did we receive a change to the correct room, albeit grudgingly. Mercure Mannheim need to upgrade the quality of their staff and customer service!

We had a superior room which the app said included the mini-bar, however on check in no one mentioned this. We only found out when we checked our rate with our reservation upon leaving. There were no bath mats for when you get out of the shower and on the second day they had no clean towels ( when we arrived there was only I hand towel). We tried to go to dinner in the restaurant however they were closed due to having a banquet going on, we were told it will be open tomorrow. Go back the next night and No ala cart meals, only buffet. I’m not hungry enough to pay for a buffet. All in all, very bad experience.

The hotel is as you expect. However there was a lot of noise on my floor. Dogs barking down the corridor. An annoying alarm that started at 6:00 and continued every minute until I vacated the room at 9 o'clock. Poor sound proofing on these rooms