Mercure Albury 4 étoiles

We stayed here one night while in transit from south Victoria to Sydney; and quite liked the hotel and the location. Our Platinum status was acknowledged, drinks vouchers were provided, and breakfast in the restaurant was a welcome combination of ordering from the menu, and the buffet. The room was well sized and comfortable, the bathroom was ok; no complaints. Location-wise this is in the city, and close to many restaurants and cafes on the main street. Parking was plentiful, free and convenient. the staff at the front office and the restaurant were friendly and professional. I'd stay here again, if in Albury.

The publicity for the hotel claims that it is ‘funky’. The only funky thing that I could see about the hotel was the coloured lighting on the external walls. It really is a very basic hotel, albeit very clean and tidy, but the rooms are exceptionally plain with no character. The staff are efficient but couldn’t be described as friendly or welcoming. Even with my Accor Gold membership they simply didn’t care and even didn’t want to give me my complementary drink (let alone a room upgrade). The food in the restaurant is good. Finally I have to say the lift is quite scary him the way that it stops and ‘bounces’ at each floor. This hotel is not Mercure standard, more Ibis in my opinion and definitely not worth what it costs.

Not the best motel. Wouldn’t stay there again. So many things that make me rate this motel poorly. • Glass on the coffee table was’nt secure. • phone on the wall is a cheap light piece of black plastic that doesn’t even work so you can’t call room service. • Walls are thin! We could even hear a man in another room having a shower & clearing out his nose. • Noisy old elevator • The shower is in the spa bath…. Ewww! • tiny bit of shower screen so a lot of the shower water goes on the bathroom floor and the floor drainage is terrible • Main light in the bathroom doesn’t work and out of the 2 mirror lights, only 1 worked. So 1 mirror light for the whole bathroom. • poor bathroom ventilation • TV in the bedroom area constantly glitches so you can’t watch anything! • The grout around the spa is gross • “Breakfast included” means only continental breakfast. You pay extra for a hot breakfast or decent coffee. • Mini bar snacks included 1 chocolate bar & 1 pkt chips?? Bit useless when there’s 2 of you?? • Toiletries - A complimentary sanitary bag is provided, shampoo, conditioner, liquid soap & lotion are in pump bottles. A complimentary shower cap would have been useful, as would a box of tissues. The positives about the motel • Good blockout curtains • Comfortable bed • Staff in the restaurant were very nice and welcoming and provided great service.

Our bad experience started when we arrived at hotel and was told lift wasn’t working. (We understood that wasn’t the hotels fault) but they could’ve rang and let us know before arriving, especially when we were on the fourth floor We climbed up the four flights of stairs with our suitcases to arrive at our very outdated and depressing room We arrived at breakfast early when it opened , there were only 2 other couples there and waited 20 min for my order. One waitress finally came over and apologised saying a new staff member had forgotten my order. As we had a long drive ahead we had to leave and couldn’t wait any longer

This hotel is well below par for a Mercure and we would suggest you stay elsewhere. Rooms need an overhaul, staff need to clean the rooms properly and the manager has very poor customer relationship skills. Accor should review the branding of this as a Mercure as most $100 a night motor-inns set a higher standard. We booked 2 rooms for our business stay and after checking in at 8pm on the first night and paying for the 4 nights we were told the lift was out of action - only useable for bags - and we had to use the fire stairs (accessed from the garden outside the front) to go up and down to our 3rd floor rooms (7 fights of stairs). We asked staff about it a day later we were advised it was out of action for a week before we arrived and it was sill not working when we left 4 days later. There was no communication from the hotel about the outage until after we paid for the room and not even mentioned the week before we checked in when we booked the second room on the phone. We asked about compensation/discount for the inconvenience and the request was referred to the manager who on the last day declined all requests for compensation, saying we could have cancelled our booking without charge before checking-in and stayed elsewhere. Ridiculous statement given we were only advised of the issue after we checked-in and paid for the full stay. The outside of the hotel looks modern but that is where it ends. One room was a Deluxe Spa Suite - to say the least it was not clean and very tired with broken curtains, damaged table, el-cheapo robes and bedside tables, uncomfortable lounge and a bathroom badly needing to be renovated. We wiped out drawers as is our habit before using them and they were filthy with black dust/grime. The venetians between the lounge and bathroom were also filthy - looked like they hadn't been cleaned for years. Staff only fully make the bed every 3rd morning so they just pull-up the sheets the other days leaving the bottom sheet crumpled-up. The bathroom needed a total renovation. The toilet is around 50mm off the side wall so you can't even sit on it square. The shower is over a really old spa bath that is built in about 40mm above the tiled surround, so water from the shower pools on the tiles around the top of the spa and you have to mop the water up with a face washer after every shower as it can't drain away. The wash basin was cracked and the hot tap missing its H cap. The towels are old and need to be replaced - wafer-thin and some with holes worn in them, and this is the first hotel we have ever stayed that doesn't provide any tissues in the room. We ate at the restaurant once a few years ago (when not staying at the hotel) and it was good, but this time our one and only dinner there was only average, so we ate elsewhere the other nights. Our recommendation is to stay at the Mantra - we stayed there before and it is much better, and should have this time but have the Mercure a try as we are Accor members.