Grand Mercure Agra 5 stars

Nice welcome, great room, good food.

Always Very good experience with my stay . Often visit agra and prefer this hotel.

Extremely nice hotel and food. Loved your signs in the buffet telling if the food was spicy or not. Great pool with view to the marvellous Taj Mahal

My spouse and I stayed at Grand Mercure Agra from 15th May 2026 to 16th May 2026, in Room No. 427 during our visit to Agra. We had chosen your property with high expectations because of the reputation of the Accor Group and the overall positioning of Grand Mercure as a premium 5-star hospitality brand. While the property itself is aesthetically impressive and some members of your staff tried their best to assist us during our stay, there were several deeply concerning experiences that compelled me to write this detailed and honest feedback. To begin with, Grand Mercure Agra is a quite modern 5-star luxury hotel. Its interiors and rooms give you the feel of premium and flagship Marriott properties. The staff members, like Santoshji at the restaurant, Riya, and Mukeem at the reception, tried their best to be at our service, but... ...what was seriously disappointing was the kind of food that was served in the restaurant. Alarmingly bad! It was very clear that the cooking oil used was of the cheapest quality palmolein oil. To make matters worse, this oil had been reused to such an extent that we could clearly smell and taste it in almost all the buffet items, and even in à la carte dishes like the biryani. Even roadside street food vendors do not reuse cooking oil to this extent. They may use the cheapest version of palmolein oil, but they still do not use burnt and repeatedly reused oil. My spouse and I developed serious stomach disorders. On our way back, we had to halt our vehicle several times because we both had to throw up and take medicines. We clearly mentioned this to Santoshji at the restaurant and even to the chef (I forget his name). But all we received in return were deadpan expressions. They were clearly cornered and therefore tongue-tied. A property of this stature and pedigree should not be indulging in such dangerous and cheap practices in the name of innovation and under the guise of cost-cutting. We could sue the property for this. Someday, someone definitely will. The other desperate and shabby cost-cutting was visible in the buffet dishes themselves. Did you really think your guests would not understand what you were trying to do by adding dead, dried-out broccoli from previous days’ salad counters into the upma? Dried, stale broccoli in upma?!? Completely dried out and moistureless boiled eggs from days before, etc. You actually think this was smart and intercontinental-ish? The sambar was watery, and its taste was an insult to sambar itself. It seemed as though it had been cooked either for a foreigner unfamiliar with authentic taste or for a patient on a bland diet. The coconut chutney and tomato chutney were over even before most guests had eaten breakfast. Clearly, everything, right from the papads and starters to the main dishes seemed like leftovers from banquets that had taken place two or three days earlier. I could go on and on about every dish, but then it would start sounding excessively harsh. Please do not do such things. Do not take your customers to be fools. You may fool those who have just started visiting star-category hotels, but not every guest. You have such a beautiful property and a reputed name to maintain. Instead of taking shortcuts, do something ingenious and fair. Do not play with the health and trust of your guests in this manner. We had originally planned to extend our stay in Agra and at Grand Mercure for two more nights. But because of the unhealthy food that made us sick, we had to quickly rush back to our hometown. I would also like to point out something about the welcome drink. What exactly was with the “half a glass” of Rooh Afza? That too in a tiny, single-sip kind of glass? Such obvious and on-the-face cost-cutting even while welcoming guests? We have never witnessed something like this in our lives. There is a limit to the 'lala mentality' that can exist in an elegant 5-star property like yours. In the restaurant, one of the chefs and the waiters were arguing over some topic in front of the guests. How is all this allowed?? As if this was not enough, the toxicity of the bathroom water was another shock altogether. The moment we took a shower, our eyes started stinging and rashes appeared on our bodies. It genuinely felt as though untreated and heavily chlorinated swimming pool water had been redirected into the bathroom water supply. Is this your idea of sustainability? We informed the housekeeping staff as well as the restaurant staff about this issue too. But all we heard was, “We will look into it.” There were no explanations, no apologies. Nothing! What kind of cost-cutting is this? Is the property being run by fly-by-night crooks? And I am not sorry to use these words. Guys, what kind of a show are you running in the name of a 5-star hotel chain? And all of this is happening under the banner of international Accor Group? I genuinely find this difficult to digest. Since when and how did the Accor Group turn into a 'lala group'? I do not like giving such reviews, but I will always tell the truth and call a spade a spade. And before you post any typical copy-paste response or explanation, let me inform you that I, too, belong to the hospitality industry. I consult star hotels and resorts like yours on how to become market leaders and generate strong revenues without compromising on service and quality. I also had the mobile number of Grand Mercure’s General Manager, Mr. Vivek Mahajan. I could have directly called and informed him about all these issues. However, for the benefit of everyone, I chose to write a detailed review to the top management as well as public so that the top management of the Accor Group becomes aware of the dangerous practices allegedly taking place at one of their prime properties in a tourist-heavy city like Agra. I hope this honest review will be respected and genuinely worked upon for the good of the Accor Group, its guests, and the hospitality industry in India, which is booming.

This is our second stay at the hotel and we loved the experience