Detailed review by koshkha
koshkha
Northampton, United Kingdom98%
Unfortunately the hotel where I normally stay in Bremen was fully booked. It was probably my own fault for leaving the booking so late and was not helped by the travel agent 'forgetting' to make a booking. With the Intercity full, I was sent to the Mercure. I had seen the hotel from the outside many times as it's on the Bahnhofplatz, directly opposite the main entrance to the station. Seen from outside the main impression is that this is a big hotel - stretching right from the corner across several shops and bars. My expectation based on too many nights in Accor-group hotels is that anything less than Novotel in the Accor-family is likely to be pretty poor.
I checked in at about 7 pm and the reception desk was empty. The receptionist was pleasant, more or less efficient (she couldn't find my paperwork and getting a code for the internet seemed to be two person job) and friendly. She explained that internet access was €7.95 for 12 hours and was wi-fi but if I didn't want to pay, the public access computer in the lobby was free. €7.95 wasn't too bad, I thought.
The lobby itself is large but bland with little to tempt you to linger. It's an L-shaped room with some seating, the usual racks of 'what to do in Bremen' pamphlets, the small internet area and a tiny bar on the end of the reception counter. I headed to the lifts and up to the 6th floor.
If I'm feeling charitable, I can assume that the hotel must have been pretty full for me to get a room on the only smoking floor in the hotel. I stepped out of the lift and was assaulted by the over-whelming stench of air-freshener. My room was on what I've learned Germans call (without any sense of irony) the 'backside' of the hotel which should have been quieter than the front over-looking the square but was actually horribly noisy. Noisier even than the 'backside' rooms at the Intercity which are so close to the railway station that you can hear the trains being announced. The road noise at the Mercure was much more disturbing and this wasn't helped by the need to keep the windows open. When I arrived I opened the windows because the room was so hot and there's no air-con anywhere in the hotel. At night when the temperature plummeted I had to continue to leave them open because of the smell of smoke and air-freshener.
My room was a single - which for 91 Euros a night room only was a bit of a rip off. I pay 66 Euros including breakfast at the Intercity. The room was small with the floor space split roughly down the middle by the bathroom (and a small lobby with door) and the bedroom. The door was a good idea to keep out the noise from the corridor but that noise was so much less than the noise from outside the windows that the space was effectively just wasted.
The room had a small desk squeezed into an alcove with a table lamp, a TV, a snack tray and a tray with water and glasses. Given the already tiny size of the desk, this left barely space to squeeze a laptop. Between the two windows was a large wardrobe with a spare pillow and little else. The only other furniture was a suitcase stand and the single bed with a bedside unit.
The pillow was worthy of note. I've frequently complained that German hotels have pillows so soft that they give no support and I usually have to steal the pillows off both beds just to get my head and inch or two off the mattress. The Mercure pillow was like trying to sleep with your head on a sandbag - fat and exceptionally hard. This combined with the draft from keeping the windows open all night, left me with a nasty crick in my neck.
The bathroom was instantly recognisably Accor with one of their strange moulded sink units. For a shower-room it was basic but of fair size. The toilet was one of those nasty ones that are historically popular in Germanic countries that is, one where 'what you've done' is retained for later inspection. I find this type of loo very unpleasant. The tiling was old with lots of small chips, the mirror was not particularly well illuminated and the toiletries (with the exception of a small bar of soap) were from wall mounted dispensers.
I had opted to skip breakfast since I thought 16 Euros was a bit steep. Similarly for dinner I'd gone out to the Ubersee Museum just across the road however you won't starve in this part of town as there are plenty of places to eat ranging from the snack-bars and bakeries at the station to lots of restaurants.
Star Inn Bremen Columbus ex Mercure Columbus5
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The view would probably be quite nice on the front of the hotel but on the back there's nothing to see but other rooms.
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