Mercure Duisberg Hotel City, Duisberg

Hotel Mercure Duisburg City Hotel

Introduction

A nicely presented hotel from the outside, located in Duisburg City, Germany. The hotel is located on a side street, just around the corner from Starbucks coffee shop and the City Palais Shopping Centre.

Reservation Process

My brother and I booked this hotel in January 2011, booked just around 2 months in advance of our stay in Duisburg City. The hotel is a 4 star superior hotel, and we booked a room for 2 nights that cost us a total of 158 Euros. At the time of our stay the British Pound bought us around 1.1 Euros which is almost the same money in British Pounds. We also booked the hotel using a cash back website (Topcashback.co.uk) and received 12% off our final booking. The website we used was the Accor Hotel website. The booking we made also included our breakfast during the 2 mornings of our visit. In addition we had noticed that the prices of our stay on websites such as expedia.com and booking.com were slightly more expensive for the exact same travel dates. Booking directly with the Accor hotel website and using the cashback website, saved us a good amount of money in the process. The main alternative we had was a 60 Euro a night stay at the 2 star Ibis Hotel which would have been without breakfast.

Getting There

From Dusseldorf airport we took the S11 train and changed at Dusseldorf Unteraff station, and from there we took the S1 train to Duisberg. The journey time was approximately 1 hour, which included the journey and transfer waiting. The train ticket per person was €4.70 from Dusseldorf Airport to Duisberg City. The alternative would be a ‘Sky fast train’. The taxi would have cost us north of 30 Euros.

Location

The Mercure Hotel is located behind the shopping centre called City Palais, and it is just about a 5 minute short walk around the building. Next to the hotel is a Casino, and after the hotel are business offices. All in all, the location from Duisberg station to the hotel is less than 10 minutes walk.

Check In

We arrived during the afternoon time on the 26th March 2011, and as we entered the hotel the pleasant looking building opened it’s automatic doors to us, and to the left of this was the reception area. We were greeted by two German young ladies who were cheerful and polite in their outlook. We gave them our booking reservation papers and a minute later we received 2 purple cards for 1 room access. We were pleased with the efficiency and also the service received at this stage. We were given a corner room on the 3rd floor which was handy as it was located far from the customer lift area.

The Room

Initially I thought the rooms overall were presentable and pleasant. The rooms had fairly plain carpets with a white and dark pattern. Our room had 2 single beds inside. The walls and ceilings were white in a fairly plain plastered effect. Opposite the bed is a big wooden cabinet with a Phillips HD television. Also on that stand was a bottle of Mineral Water. The cabinet also had an electronic safe box which we found easy to use. We had two chairs inside the room which were comfortable. The cabinet also had a mini bar area although the prices were high in having a bottle of mineral water at 4 euros a time. There were chocolates and mainly drinks inside as well. To the right of the cabinet was a desk which also had a comfortable chair. We did not have any tea or coffee facilities and instead had to occasionally order from the room service telephone. The room had good lighting facilities in the bed room and shower room as well. The room also had climate control facilities which made our stay pleasant. The cleanliness and tidiness of the hotel was immaculate throughout. We could pick up a nice clean pleasant smell of lemon detergent.

The shower/bath area was interesting although nothing special. The shower area had good lighting. The shower floor area was wooden. We received samples of shower and shampoo gel, and some soaps. I did not think much of the towels that were provided as they appeared thin in depth. The shower room also had a toilet. Also in the shower room was a nice big mirror with some lights and also a hair dryer. The actual shower itself was acceptable although I found the water system a bit fiddly and also the water itself to be a bit drizzly. The power shower was not overly powerful and more to say that it was just a standard fitted shower. The shower is definitely not the most luxurious shower you will ever find.

The one thing to note is the size of the room itself which is not that big and would say it is more a compact and user friendly room if anything else. The ceilings in the room and in the shower room were no more than 10ft high. In summary of the room, it is a pleasant enough decorated room with 2 single beds and a shower room. Suffice to say that the room was clean and comfortable without being too plush and grand in décor or the actual beds itself.

The most important thing regarding a good night’s sleep is how dark the room is during the evening when the sun goes down. This room was perfectly dark during the late evenings/nights. The curtains of the hotel definitely shut out all of the light. This made our stay really pleasant.

The Bed

I found the bed comfortable though like the Best Western in Prague hotel it is adequate for a short stay. I would say that the bed quality of the Mercure hotel is slightly better overall. The mattresses were fairly well padded. The duvet was basic in all honesty and from appearance. In addition the pillows were basic, and also the bed itself was dressed up a bit with a frow cloth. The frow could have been doubled up to be an extra blanket if needed. I had no issues with the length or width of the single beds as I am a tall person and the beds were good sized indeed. The bed area also had a head panel which is just for effect. Alongside the side of the beds are spot lights which are powered using a simple white switch.

My overall view of the beds is that they were on the good side, but I was expecting better from the Hotel especially regarding the pillow provided. It was just too flimsy and was not firm enough. Like the bed and the room décor itself inside failed to really match and convey the elegant reception/shared room area which was the main slight disappointment.

Breakfast

Breakfast was between 6:30-10:30 in the morning. The breakfast bar and bar area were nicely decorated areas. The fixtures of the wooden tables and chairs were good. The chairs we sat on were comfortable. The breakfast area had a main ‘Restaurant buffet table’ in the middle of the room along with side rails just across the main food table. The work surfaces were of a cheap looking granite surface although I do not think for one minute that it was made of granite. For breakfast there were scrambled eggs, small pieces of bacon, sausages, pancakes, croissants and bread. There were 5 different types of jam, along with thin slices of processed liver, ham and turkey. There were also coffee jugs along with some milk on the table. I think that there were a few types of fruit juices as well, along with a good selection of different Kellogg’s cereals.

My view of the breakfast is that the breakfast itself was sufficient in quantity and quality. I enjoyed a good start to the day and again this saved us a few Euros in avoiding the need to wander around Duisburg city to find snacks from food shops.

Service

We asked about the swimming pool over the telephone on the desk in our room. We were given helpful service regarding usage. In addition we asked for extra towels which we were given to us within a few minutes. Secondly we used the room service facility to order 2 teas. After a few minutes of ordering we received a knock on the door from a most pleasing and attractive young lady who gave us our tea and took our small payment.

In addition we enquired about joining the Accor hotel loyalty card system and I gave my e-mail address where I had to write my name and e-mail address. I used the free internet computer at the hotel to check this. My only criticism of the service at breakfast time, was that at times they were seemingly slow at replenishing main foods such as the scrambled eggs and pancakes.

Furthermore, the cleanliness of the rooms were spotlessly clean and there was a good cleaning service by the chamber maids, that had made up the beds and tidied up the room on the second and final day of our visit to the Mercure Hotel in Duisburg.

Extra Information

-The hotel does not have an indoor designated smoking room, although they have a small enclosed area next to the breakfast area.
-A good point is that the hotel has a small swimming pool and sauna area. The sauna areas are private rooms. One sauna room are for females only and the other is for males.
-The hotel has a restaurant which was did not order evening meals because we found a better value deal at a restaurant in Duisburg called Hazienda which is an Argentinean steak house (Highly recommended).
-On the ground floor, there was a desk which had a computer and a printer. The Internet computer was free to use. I also enquired about Wi-Fi and I was told that there was a €9 charge for 24 hours access.
-The hotel also provide guests with an additional extra of massages. The prices varied and as the menu was written in German I could not fully understand the descriptions of the types of massage i.e Head, face, body massage.
-The hotel facilities in general are not geared up for children so this affects my rating of the family friendliness although they too could use the swimming pool to occupy their time. I would more recommend this hotel to single males and young couples.
-Also there were customer lifts and also a set of stairs from the reception floor to the breakfast bar/dining area which was also a good aspect of the layout of the hotel. Opposite the reception area was a nice seating area which had comfortable chairs and also had a desk with newspapers. The decor of this part of the hotel was really good.

Conclusion

I thought overall, that this is a really good hotel that is well located and provides a good level of service throughout. As a leisure traveler, I would stay again at the Mercure because of its location and for the breakfast. I thought this was a reasonably good value place to stay. It was a clean and comfortable stay at the Hotel Mercure Duisburg. The décor was fairly plain in the rooms but still this did not spoil our stay. The facilities in general were excellent. The only thing I found a bit disappointing was the pillow on the bed. For around 75-80 Euros a night this is definitely value for money and well worth staying at this hotel.

Personally I found the location to be really good because it gave us a taken opportunity to see Duisburg itself, along with a short visit to Cologne, Dusseldorf and Aachen. The location, made the best use of our 2 night stay at the Mercure Hotel, as we paid for a day ticket on the German rail network. This gave us the chance to see these cities and the price of the ticket for 2 people was just €36. In Aachen we saw the city centre and made our way to a hydrotherapy spa venue which cost us €11 for a 2.5 hour stay. Also in Cologne we saw the main Cathedral which is just around the train station. We visited Dusseldorf city centre on our last day and really enjoyed seeing their river which had clean water, and Dusseldorf had loads of cafes and restaurants. On a tourist price basis, the prices of meals and drinks restaurants and cafes in general are reasonable compared with expensive tourist destinations such as Amsterdam.

The hotel Mercure and the cities mentioned are definitely recommended places for leisure travellers. I have taken and added pictures of the Hotel taken from my camera on 26th March 2011.