Review Mercure Nice Promenade des Anglais

This was a 2-night stay. France is not anymore in lockdown but we have a curfew in place from 20:00 to 6:00 and all bars /restaurants are closed including in hotels. But hotels which have a restaurant usually still serve room service. 

I choose this hotel because of its perfect location on the Promenade des Anglais facing the sea, but I should have paid attention that it doesn’t have a restaurant. It is in the same building as Le Méridien hotel, which is occupying the majority of the building and the Mercure is only occupying 3 floors (the building on the right on the picture below). 

I landed in NCE and was 20 min later at the hotel. I arrived post curfew time (we are allowed to be out during curfew time when coming from/going to train station or airport). When you know how this city is usually full of people even in winter time, it was so sad to see the streets totally empty with everything closed apart the take-away food. It was like if an atomic bomb stopped all human activity.

Check-in by a courteous agent, but no recognition of loyalty. There is no restaurant in the hotel/ no room service, so I had to order something via Uber eats :(. Drink voucher was not given and I didn’t even bother to ask for it because bar is closed. I had booked a privilege room and got that (there is no higher category).

Room was of very decent size, facing the sea. Unfortunately the weather was awful in Nice (rain, rain, rain) which was contributing to the very depressing Covid ambiance in town (despite very nice Christmas lightning in the streets - see at the end of the review). Minibar content was free (still and sparkling water, fruit juice, Coca Cola), Nespresso machine. Privilege room comes with bathrobe and slippers. 

Sound proofing was poor. Not much noise from outside (but there was very little traffic due to curfew), but I was hearing clearly the conversation coming from the adjacent room. 
 

View from the room:

Breakfast was free with the Diamond status. It is delivered in room and you need to say the evening before at what time you want it and what kind of hot drink you want. They deliver it in carton box + the coffee and orange juice in carton cups. Qualitatively and quantitatively, there is nothing to complain about (there’s even way too much - as I knew that any unconsumed item would be thrown away because of Covid measures, I put everything unused in the box and gave it to a homeless person in the street). This is really a very bad way to serve the breakfast. You have no plate, even a carton one, to eat your food, put butter or ham on bread, etc. Not hygienic at all as it is unavoidable to have food on the desk at one point. Plenty of crumbs everywhere. They should serve this on a tray, as it is done in many hotels, or at least give you some carton plates. Very unpleasant, room is dirty after. 

Housekeeping is optional, I requested it and I can tell you it was light (no vacuum as plenty of croissant crumbs were still on the carpet when I came back. 
 

Overall, it is certainly a decent hotel, but better to wait to be in non-Covid time. The poor soundproofing remains nevertheless a structural issue.