Grand Mercure Rio de Janeiro Copacabana

The bad smell of Lax? Disinfectant smell is bothering us alot even since first step into the room. I asked at the reception to check the room n he said will mention to housekeeper and will be checked soon. But no one came, time passed and my mother already went to bed. So i couldn't ask againnEven he wasn't busy at all, i was the only one guest talking to the staff. N no queue.nSo we had to open the window a few hours for refreshing airs and I still can smell it.nBetween i complained about it n went to the gym here .nnWell staff were nice n friendly. Gym n souna thing is great.nnJust I disappointed on their service quality

Facilities are old, weak wifi.nOnly one man in the front desk is working. Others just BEEN THERE, maybe not realize they're in a services industry, or even not realize they are ON DUTY.nThey don't care the long queue in front of them, they won't ask anyone if there's any help they need, not even a smiling face.nKey card lost functions in midnight, after we coming back from the samba show. Just thos simple favor to reconnect it, takes us 15 minutes stand there. A male and a female staff in the reception refuse to help and make fun of this situation.nCockroaches crawling in the lobby, no one seems to see them, they just stand there and playing cool. As the previous description: most of the staff just don't notice they're at work.nIf you don't care about the vaule of your cost, you may try it. But in this budget there are a hell lots of choices.

The Grand Mecure Copacabana is located right on the southern part of the world famous beach at a first row top location.nnCheck-in was frustrating because the receptionist did not speak much English and our room was not yet ready (note: regular check-in time starts at 14:00; is was 13:30, but we're Accor gold members with an early check-in option being only 30 minutes early). Speaking of being an Accor gold member: neither did we get a room with an oceanview (instead: view to the back street), nor a welcome gift or even the welcome drink. Also, the water in our shower ran off super-slowly (so the shower-time was limited by the height of the border on the shower floor), and we had problems setting up the in-room safe (an error message appeared), but the latter one could quickly be solved through the help of a technician. After explaining our disappointment later to another receptionist, Leticia, she took care of it and turned the disappointment around: communication in English was no problem with her, she promised us a room-change for the next day - one with oceanview, it even had a shower that ran off properly (l'Occitane amenities included), we also received a voucher for welcome drinks from her; and a welcome gift (nuts and beers) appeared in the room.nnThe only thing that remains a disappointment and a mystery: the executive lounge (club lounge). It always seemed out of order/closed and not very inviting, located in the middle of the building with no windows. We were not able to use it even once, and it was a total waste of money to book an Executive room (that should have granted access to the lounge access). Our original receptionist at check-in did not even know about it, and always confused it with the restaurant on the top level; however that could also have been a language problem.nnSpeaking of the restaurant/bar at the top level: It has an absolutely amazing view over Copacabana, super-friendly staff and tasty mini burgers (in fact they were so delicious, we ordered them on two separate occations) and awesome Caipirinhas. The pool is also located by the restaurant and seemed to be very relaxing but also super-tiny. Great atmosphere up there!nnBreakfast is on the 2nd floor: selection is huge, with many local specialties, we totally recommend it. It was absolutely fantastic.nnAll in all, it was a mixed experience, a bad start turning to a happy ending mostly thanks to Leticia.nAt the very end, however, there was another downer: mini-bar items we had never touched were shown on our bill, but at least they were removed without discussion.

Staff friendly, rooms a bit dated.nCeiling tiles in hallways damp and covered in black mould.nHad lunch at the restaurant by the pool - avoid at all costs. Cold chewy steak... Better food at the restaurant downstairs. Staff offered no compensation.

We mainly chose this hotel because the Mercure brand has a good reputation and the prices were low in combination to the location.nWe weren't unhappy with our stay, but it certainly did not live up to our expectations.nnWhat's good:n- the breakfast buffet is super. There's a lot of choice and you have a view on copacabana beachn- the location is great, right in between Copacabana and Ipanema. Only the center (Lapa etc) is a bit further awayn- There are free towels to use if you want to go to the beach. If you are lucky, there are free beach chairs available as well.nnThe bad:n- the room was very small, with old furniture and and ugly view from the window.n- we found an old sandwich and pieces of pizza in our fridge from the previous visitors. After 2 days we cleaned it out ourselves.n- they don't clean very thoroughly. There were some drops of bloods on the floor in the hallway and they stayed there for the whole week. In our room you could see very clearly what they did and did not clean.nnI think the hotel was previously owned by another brand and Mercure acquired it, they still need a whole lot of work to refurbish the place because there is nothing grand about it.nnWe did have a great time in Rio though and personnel was friendly.