Property: Mercure Welcome Melbourne
Status: Accor+Platinum
Room booked: Standard Room, 1 Queen Bed
Room upgraded/type: No but did get upper floor (11th of 12th)
Rate: $103.35/night average (5 night stay)
Early check in/late out: 1 PM late checkout requested and granted
Welcome drink: Yes (2)
Welcome gift: Box of cakes
I'm in Melbourne this week on a writing retreat for my PhD work and decided to stay at an Accor property given they were amongst the cheapest rates when I was booking. There were a number of options available to me well under $100/night including the ibis Styles Kingsgate and several other such ibis properties. However, I noticed that some more upper end Accor properties, namely the Mercure and Signature collection hotels were showing rates in the low $100 range including the Mercure Welcome Melbourne which I ended up booking. Location wise it was perfect since it was close to where I normally work when doing these writing retreats in Melbourne (i.e. RMIT campus).
The hotel itself is a shared space hotel meaning half of the building is Mercure Welcome Melbourne whereas the other half is the Pullman Melbourne Centreville.
I ended up getting into Melbourne on Monday night around 8:30 PM so no need for early check-in. Check-in was prompt and without any worries. I was given my room keys and most importantly 2 drink vouchers which were later redeemed (more on that later). The room I got was on the 11th floor (out of 12 floors at this hotel). One thing that was mentioned to me was that house keeping would only come by every 3rd day at the hotel, however you could request additional linens and supplies as necessary. I'm not a huge fan of this and was surprised a mid-tier property like a Mercure would have such a restriction.
Other than the higher floor, the room provided seemed identical to what I have booked so not much of an upgrade. The room itself was a bit on the small side and somewhat basic too. Don't get me wrong. It has everything you need from a mid-tier hotel: a full sized desk, a comfy bed and showers with decent amenities. In terms of welcome amenity, I was a bit disappointed in that all I got was a box of cakes and a card from the management welcoming me to the hotel. For those worried about encountering the dreaded shub (shower/tub combo) don't be - my room had a proper shower (not pictured):
Breakfast was served on the restaurant on the first floor and consisted of the usual Mercure standard buffet spread which consisted of a number of hot and cold food options including scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, hash, Asian breakfast option, croissants, variety of breads, cereal, yogurt and a variety of fruits. Coffee was provided via a Nescafe machine (i.e. lower tier automated coffee machine) and there were also various juices available too. Breakfast is served Monday to Friday from 6:30 AM to 10:30 AM and on weekends from 6:30 AM to 11 AM. A couple of times visiting the restaurant, I had to mention that I was Accor Platinum and/or show my physical Accor Platinum card to ensure I got the free breakfast perk:
Late check-out was requested yesterday (i.e. on my final night at the hotel). I've learned to always request such checkouts late since hotels aren't really sure whether they can satisfy such a request several days out as the case may be if you have say a 5 night stay at a hotel. Reception asked what time I'd like and I requested 1 PM which was provided without any issue. In other words, if you want to stay at an Accor hotel that provides a decent late checkout option for elites, this may very well be the one for you!
Now on to the last bit, the drink vouchers. So the Mercure doesn't have a restaurant. Well technically, the restaurant on the first floor of the Mercure only provides breakfast to guests in the morning. For all other dining needs you would actually order from the restaurants at the Pullman which would also be how you redeem the drink voucher. The Pullman has two venues you can redeem the vouchers at. The first is Eva's Restaurant and Bar located on the Mezzanine level (i.e. take the stairs up on the ground floor) and that's open most of the day. There is also Blossom's Rooftop Bar which is open from 4 PM to 11 PM and has an outdoor patio.
I ended up using my first drink voucher at Blossom's yesterday:
And today after checking out from my hotel I went to Eva's Restaurant to get a to go coffee:
Overall, I would recommend this hotel provided it is in the $100 range as you are certainly getting more than your money's worth. With that being said, if the hotel was priced say in the $200 range, I'd find it hard to justify, particularly if you could book a Pullman or Sofitel for a better experience and a comparable price.
As an aside, this should, hopefully be my last Accor stay of the year which puts me at a total 95 status nights (75 nights at Accor properties + 20 nights from holding Accor+ membership). As others have pointed out, I earned my status from nights and not status points (that balance is presently 9,732) which I think proves the point that even bottom feeders like I can earn decent status if they are strategic about their bookings. Most of my bookings this year came within the $100/night range, with many of my stays occurring in the CBD of capitals including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.