Mercure Shanghai Hongqiao Central

Did a 3N stay with the hotel & definitely Mercure Hotel requires many areas of improvement. - the carpark gantry does not open for incoming vehicles hence I had to alight outside & lug my luggages all the way into the hotel front desk to check-in. (Absence of staff even at the hotel lobby to help out with luggages) - front desk : as my friend & I arrived separately, I provided her the booking details & she managed to check in an hour before I arrived. Upon arrival, I’ve presented my passport to the staff & explained to them my friend has arrived & is back in the room. They explained they needed to give her a ring in the room (even though the hotel booking was registered under my name) & he flustered when my friend picked up the call & spoke in English & the call ended abruptly without him speaking. The level of English proficiency is certainly lacking for an international hotel chain. - housekeeping : daily housekeeping does the essential of room pretty well but they do not mop / clean the floor. Some chunks of hair remain there throughout the stay. - Broken dryer at laundry room : 1 or the dryer at the laundry room is broken. On 1 of the nights when I was there, I left my clothes in the dryer for almost an hour & it remained (very) wet. I had to bring back to the room & air it before heading down to the dryer next day to continue. As I was checking out that day, I stood there & waited for it to complete the 10 mins of drying cycle & noticed the dryer door auto open itself after 5 mins; this happens a few times while I was there (by then, the other dryer was available & I had changed to the other unit. That explains why my clothes are wet (always)! - non-smoking property : even though it’s listed as a non-smoking property, the corridor which I’m staying (Level 18) as well as Level 2 (laundry & gym floor), constantly reeks of cigarette smell. Not sure if anyone ever does sanitized the air but it definitely smells bad when you’re standing at the corridor with only 2 lifts operating for the building. - turning off AC & switching over to heater : on my 1st 2 days of stay, AC was working perfectly fine (except it’s slow to cool down the room) but on the 3rd night, it was unusual warm so we thought the AC requires longer time to cool & waited for 4 hours. It became very uncomfortable as we were already perspiring in the room & the room temperature reaches almost 28 degrees. Upon calling the front desk, they notified us that they have turned off the AC & switched to heater mode on 5th Nov. the only resolution given to us was - open the window and / or the hotel will provide a fan. For such a drastic change, the hotel missed out to provide the memo for their guests. I do not accept this without proper communication. If I had not made the call, I would have continued with such an uncomfortable situation throughout the entire night. When the hotel staff arrived the room with their last fan & told us to open the window to allow better air circulation. I’ll honestly love to enjoy the cool air by opening the window but the air quality in Shanghai remains extremely poor on the day I was there. I do not wish to inhale a night worth of air pollutant at the expense of my health. - Service wise, they definitely need to pull up their socks under the Accor group branding. I’ve experienced way much better service & experience with local hotel chains & will definitely not reconsider if they fail to upkeep their brand.

The hotel was nice to stay for a night or two. The location was close to some restaurants. The room smelled a little smoky.

Location is decent. If there would be a free carpark, it would be even more convenient.