Hotel Mercure a Amiens

We have stayed here many times, mainly because it is bang opposite our favourite restaurant between the channel and Paris (Les Orfevres) and it makes a convenient stop to and from our home in the south. It has never been a joyous experience, and it is both more expensive and less generous than some other hotels in the group which we often use. However, usually, it has been fine for an overnight convenience. This time it really fell short of what’s acceptable. For the second time running, the air-conditioning in the room that we were allocated didn’t work. On the previous occasion, we realised in time to change rooms, but this time it was too late to do so without huge upheaval and in fact it mattered more because it was a warmer night. Result: a very poor night’s sleep. But what it shows is that although the whole hotel is supposed to have AC, the maintenance is so bad that it’s actually a complete lottery as to whether you get it or not. Also whatever the ambient weather, it’s only ever been switched on in the core summer months. The other major issue was the breakfast. We arrived at about 7.30 to find almost every unoccupied table covered with dirty plates and the dishes of scrambled eggs and bacon already almost empty. They remained unreplenished when we finished more than half an hour later. Not that they were very attractive anyway. The bacon was undercooked and sitting in a pool of oily water and the eggs were pale, grey and unappetisingly watery. The coffee (only one machine to serve the whole hotel) was coarse and bitter and there was only one croissant on the buffet. In France! The staff seemed more interested in demanding room numbers than ensuring that there was actually some breakfast to eat!! This Mercure also offers the worst gluten-free options of any hotel in the group: just some dispiriting tasteless little white rolls cooked from frozen. They are just about edible when hot from the oven but, if you make the mistake of ordering them in advance, they arrive cold and are absolutely dire! On this occasion I brought a couple of slices of own home-made bread and toasted it. It was the highlight of a disappointing stay! There’s another sense in which they fall short of other Accor Group properties. Regular customers with sufficient accumulated loyalty get a free welcome drink, often a very nice wine or even champagne in Reims. Here it’s the cheapest plonk on their list and frankly undrinkable. Moreover, although the rule is strictly one drink for the cardholder, not for his companion, most hotels offer two drinks. Here it’s meanly one, even for customers who have stayed in this very hotel a good dozen times in a year. We’ve noticed a steady decline in maintenance over the recent past and maybe this isn’t unconnected with the fact that the hotel manager considers it appropriate to chain his own massive motorbike in the doorway.