Short review
Value for money: 3.5/5
Services: 4/5
Bedroom: 4/5
Sleep quality: 5/5
Bathroom: 2/5
Facilities and amenities: 3/5
Pros
- Spacious room
- Beautiful architecture
Cons
- Poor toilet design and problem with water temperature in the shower
- Limited Internet quota
- Gym is not free
Long review
I had high expectations of this 4.5-star boutique hotel, particularly because of the Grand Mercure brand. My family and I stayed here for 3 nights. The price was reasonable as I only paid $197 per night on average and this price had already included breakfast for 3. The day before I stayed in the hotel, I requested a baby cot for my 4 months old via an email. The hotel quickly responded to my email and said that it would be provided in my room. So far so good.
Arriving in the hotel, I was pleased to see that the car park was quite large. During the entirety of my stay, I could find parking easily. The hotel had 2 storeys and 97 rooms. The English Tudor architectural style of the hotel was unique, making the hotel highly photogenic. For information, Tudor style was famous during the Tudor period from 1485-1603 and it marked the final development of the medieval architecture in England.
Check-in was quick and welcome drinks were provided due to my Gold status with LeClub Accor Hotels. My room was large. It had 1 queen, 1 single bed, the baby cot that I requested, a small sofa and a table and still didn’t feel cramped. The beds and bedding were also comfortable. The amenities were standard, but unfortunately slippers were not provided. I think the TV was a bit too small for such a big room.
The bathroom was where the problem started. There was no bathtub, which was not the end of the world, although I did expect a bathtub in a Grand Mercure hotel to be honest. The water pressure and water temperature in the shower were problematic. It seemed that the pressure was not consistent so that the water temperature was slowly increasing when I took a shower. The worst thing about the bathroom was the toilet. When I lifted up the toilet seat, it could not remain in place because of the water tank. This is an embarrassment for any hotel I must say. What a joke design.
Now let’s talk about WiFi. During check-in, I was told to use my room number and surname to access the free WiFi. It didn’t work when I reached my room, so I had to contact the receptionist again. She then did something on her computer to grant me access. This should have been done automatically without me needing to report it. Once accessing the free WiFi, the registration page told me that I only had a 1000 MB quota per 24 hours. If I needed more, then I had to pay. This is unacceptable for a 4-star hotel in my opinion. I have stayed in many hotels and I’ve never experienced this before.
Before booking, I found information about this hotel online. I was happy to find out that there was a gym there. I enquired about the gym to the receptionist during check-in. I was told that the gym was located next to the hotel and guests received a discounted price to access the facility. Basically I had to pay $8 for every visit to the gym. I was rather livid and shocked, although I didn’t say much. How could a hotel charge their guests to use a gym which was one of the hotel facilities? Outrageous! I didn’t bother to check the gym because I was in a bad mood at this stage.
There was a swimming pool in the hotel. It looked beautiful when I saw the photos online. The website also said that it was heated. I again didn’t bother to check. The temperature was still rather low because it was early spring in Australia.
In terms of location, there are restaurants and shopping centres within a short drive from the hotel. I am not aware of any restaurants or shopping centres within a walking distance from the hotel though, so a car is a necessity when staying here.
At least breakfast was reasonably good. The range of food and beverages was as expected from a 4-star hotel.
Overall, my wife and I were disappointed with our experience of staying in the hotel. Before choosing this hotel, we were considering staying at Mercure Penrith. We stayed there once some time ago and we did enjoy it. We should have stayed there again.
