Hôtel Mercure St Malo Front De Mer

We wanted somewhere with a view and an easy walk into the Old Town of Saint Malo, safe parking was also a criterial and the Mercure fitted our requirements. We arrived on a warm and busy Sunday afternoon, we had arranged parking in advance directly emailing the hotel (they have an arrangement with the Ibis round the corner. I was impressed with how quickly my email was replied to), when we arrived there was street parking directly outside that was free and which we used. Some of the hotels in the centre of town feel a bit more claustrophobic with access and parking presenting a problem. We had been travelling for a month and had a lot of things in the car, but didn’t want to empty everything for just one night, we felt the car was safe on the street immediately outside. The member of staff at reception was friendly and the check-in process was quick and within no time we were in our sea facing room on the second floor. The rooms are not huge, but absolutely adequate and clean and the bed was comfortable. There was a kettle with some sachets of coffee/tea and a bottle of water. The bathroom had a bath with an overhead shower. It was well ventilated and bright. The really star of the show was the fantastic sea view. We had the windows open so we could enjoy the sound of the waves below and we loved the views towards Île de la Cézembre, Fort de la Conchée and le Fort National. The Seaview rooms get to experience spectacular views of the sunset. In the morning were were able to watch our ferry coming in - good to know it was on time. Although there is a road directly outside it was not busy at night and we were not disturbed by the any traffic noises. It is a 10 minute walk into the old town from the hotel along the seafront. St Malo is busy, so worth doing your research and maybe booking a restaurant in advance. We were only here for one night, but if you have time, definitely walk along the seafront and/or beach and explore the old town. We decided not to have breakfast which is served on the ground floor, instead we found a local bakery and sat on the beach with a croissant and coffee.

Why only 2 stars? I stayed at this hotel ten+ years ago and thought it was nice. and a good location. So months ago . as an Accor member. I booked a "Classic Room with the Sea View" for three nights. I really enjoy watching the sea, especially in Northern France with 6+m/18ft+ tides. So our room is actually on the third floor with a small window view. Large windows are on the 1st and 2nd floor.. At the reception, they say they are fully booked (no surprise) and some guy behind the counter (not the receptionist) gives me some attitude and says I should have requested a big window. Excuse me, but the big window is in the picture!!! On top of that, this room has a big support post in the middle of the room, next to the bed. A real nose breaker in the dark. So BEWARE... If you want a good sea view, order a room with a large window. Staying longer than the average guest doesn't mean anything. Otherwise, the hotel is OK. Clean. People are friendly, Good breakfast. Slow internet.

Follow up to the owner’ response: Lowing the rating to 1-star as it is very disappointing to see the owner is twist the facts instead of trying to improve what they do: 1- the client is not responsible to clean up the hotel room: it is supposed to be a 4-star hotel costing 200£ a night instead of staying at friend’s home. The room it self is super discomfortable with air con not working. No sanitary package, no anything making a stay at 4-star level. Their response shows exactly how absurd they treat their client. When I pass through the reception desk, I hear a lot of complaints, I encourage all the clients abused by this “4-STAR” “HOTEL” to put their review here. 2- yes it is difficult to recover from the pandemic, but this is not the only hotel that we stay, but it is definitely the worst, due to the owner/management. We’ve been staying at 5/4 stars hotel and if I need to give this hotel 1 star, then Ibes will worth 5 star and all the hotel we stayed all worth 10-star+. 3- they have put a super bad quality bench in the room and I sat on it and it is broken. They they are trying to say it is a table but not a bench and ask me to pay for that. I haven’t argue with the management knowing their attitude but how can they claim something the night of my knee a table?! It is super unsafe and I received NO APOLOGIES from it, instead I was asked to pay for that. I am writing this here to help the other travellers, if they check the detailed reviews, they should see the similar messages. I have submit the formal complaint to Accor and I hope they will address the issues with this pretend to be “HOTEL” properly. Original comments below: ———————————— original comment below ————————————— Location was great. (And this is the reason why I give it 2 stars but not 1) Room was below average: the worst of Mercure that I have ever seen. It is not better than any Ibis. And the room was still dirty after cleaning (see pictures). Air-con doesn’t work properly. Service was a disaster: it is incredibly understaffed during the august high season. There is often a queue on the reception desk. The receptionist is also the bar man/women. It seems that there is no additional staff outside the breakfast time. If you have any questions/requirements for them, you can expect the answer: “no, I can’t/I don’t have time/we don’t have this”. Staff just ignore you when they see you. Facility is a disaster: 1- they often claim that they have a parking shared with Ibes, in reality, they only have 5 spaces and no one get parked there (wondering if their staff uses the parking personally?). 2- no restaurant/dinner They treat Accor members as a s**t: as we were not happy with the room so we mentioned “we are gold member with Accor, is there anything that you can do?”, the receptionist cut us off by saying “there is diamond member staying here and we can do nothing for them”. Overall it is the worst experience I have ever had with Mercure or Accor in general (as Ibes is better than this Mercure). Anyone should avoid this hotel to save your holiday. Any average hotel/Airbnb would work better. The booking is not under my name, if Accor want to investigate further, we can share the booking detail.

No way this is a 4 star hotel! I wouldn’t even rate it 3. Mercure 4 start without even a mini bar in the room? Honestly, it rooms looks like Ibis Budget. €200 euros a night without any comfort. There isn’t even shampoo or conditioner. Only hand wash available. Very uncomfortable bed. I really wouldn’t recommend this hotel to anyone. I regret booking it trusting the Mercure brand. I spoke to the receptionist and I was old this hotel is not owned by the franchise, so probably why there’s no quality control.