REVIEW
Accommodation: Mercure Pattaya Hotel
Location: 484 Moo 10, Pattaya Second Road Soi 15, Pattaya, Thailand
Room Type
Booked Superior 1 Queen Size Bed
Loyalty Program or Deals Used
Le Club Accor Hotels / Accor Plus
Research and Booking
We’d heard about Pattaya and nearby Jomtien beach from friends and other tourists who’d been there… And we also read up about it on various websites and blogs.
Paul and I always take reviews, comments and feedback with a grain of salt… Everyone is different. Everyone’s likes and dislikes differ.
Yet, despite the bad wrap we’ve heard several times, we were curious to check out Pattaya…
Now, if you don’t know anything about Pattaya, I guess to describe it to you in short… It’s known as one of Thailand’s most seediest Red Light Districts. Yet, it has gone through changes to help “clean up” it’s image and surroundings.
As usual, I checked the Le Club Accor Hotels App.
Several hotels popped up in the search results. We wanted somewhere central… where it was easy walking distance to shops, bars, restaurants and the beach.
We ended up choosing the 4-star Mercure Pattaya Hotel. We booked for 2 nights, as our plan was to head to Jomtien beach after that for a longer stay.
For 2 nights the total rate was 3,050.78 baht (about USD $97) – pretty cheap, right?
This also included complimentary buffet breakfast. Yet this was because of our Accor Hotels Platinum Member status.
NOTE: The price of buffet breakfast if you choose to pay separately is 360 baht ++ (about USD $11.50++) per person.
The Location
Pattaya is about 150 km south east of Bangkok. To get there we booked a private car, which ended up being a Toyota Camry. The cost for the both of us from the central area of Bangkok to Pattaya was 1,300 baht (about USD $41).
The trip price and time will vary based on the day, time of day you go, and what type of transport you choose to use.
We left late morning on a Sunday. The total trip time for us was about 2 hours.
The Mercure Pattaya is about 500 meters from the beach front… and walking distance to a heap of bars, restaurants and shops.
Check In
Upon checking in we got a warm greeting from the concierge, who offered to take our luggage for us.
The reception area was open… and you could feel the heat despite ceiling fans furiously rotating. It wasn’t a great first impression.
Yet, once we got to reception it improved. The staff were pleasant and efficient. While we were checking in, we noticed there was a TV screen with our name on it, welcoming us.
It was different and something I don’t recall seeing before. So points to the Mercure Pattaya for thinking outside the square. Yet , I prefer to not have my name splashed across a screen in full view of everyone!
We also received welcome drinks as we were checking in. I’m not sure if that’s for everyone, or because we were Le Club Accor Hotels / Accor Plus members.
My only other gripe with the check in was regarding breakfast. As I mentioned before… Le Club Accor Platinum members receive complimentary breakfast at many of the hotels in the loyalty program.
On this occasion, the staff member old us breakfast was not included… although she knew we were Platinum members.
Accor – train your staff please! It’s happened a number of times where we’ve had issues at breakfast time about having to pay!
Anyway, we headed towards the lifts to our room. As soon as we stepped out of the lift it was like a smothering of overwhelming heat. It felt like someone had turned the heater on! With sweat starting to drench our bodies, we reached our room…
The Room
One of the first things we noticed was the room had a musty smell. The room had a balcony so we opened the sliding door so that smell would hopefully escape!
And after that, we checked out the room and the amenities…
There was a hand written note to welcome us… accompanied by a couple of green colored drinks and treats.
There was the queen size bed with 4 pillows, side tables, a desk with 2 chairs…
There was also a small balcony area with 2 lounge chairs and small table…
Opposite the bed was a flat screen TV, long bench area with lamp, and a couple of drawers…
Next to the bed was a cupboard with a small safe and other areas to store belongings. Unfortunately the sliding door didn’t close fully!
The Bathroom
Once you open the door to the bathroom, here’s what we saw…
There was a hairdryer, towels, tissues, and a range of amenities. To the left of the basin was the toilet area…
To the right of the basin area in a separate section was the shower cubicle. There was a rain head shower… as well as a hand held shower head and hose. There was no door or shower curtain for the shower section.
Dining
As part of our Accor Hotels Membership, we got a voucher for 2 free drinks. We chose to use it in The Aqua Bar for a wine and beer…
It was extremely quiet and we were the only ones there. I guess everyone else had already hit the streets!
They have different food promotions such as buy 1 pizza get 1 free. I would say it’s hard to get many customers to eat here at night, so the deals may help to woo people in. Yet, there’s plenty of options outside the hotel to explore.
It also looked like there was a mosquito/insect zapper on one of the walls in the bar… And if it was, it sure wasn’t working. The mosquitos were in attack mode!
So rather than get eaten alive, we quickly downed our drinks and hit the bars.
Buffet Breakfast
The next morning we had buffet breakfast, which is on the ground level of the hotel.
There’s no restaurant staff to greet you and take your room number at the front door. Instead, they’re about half way down the restaurant. That seemed a little strange, yet I think I understand why…
Once the staff greeted us with their Thai smiles and asked for our room number… they took us into a smaller room called the M Lounge. Now, I suspect that’s because we are Platinum members.
That was a really nice touch and it was very cool in this room, which was a bonus. The main area was OK. But sometimes when the doors had been left opened… it allowed the heat and humidity to compete with the air conditioning.
We liked the VIP section, yet it was buzzing with mosquitos!
In this M Lounge area there were some food stations set up…
A quiet breakfast in the VIP M Lounge area!
The staff would ask if we wanted coffee and eggs cooked. The service was actually very good, especially from one of ladies there. I can’t remember her name (sorry!) but she went above and beyond to check in on us to see if we needed anything else.
Paul ordered an omelette…
So after having some of the food in our VIP area, we ventured out to the buffet area…
There was also a dining area outside. Yet for us it was too uncomfortable…
On the first morning, we were surprised at the range of meals and lots of vegetarian options…
And this curry was so delicious!
Apart from the attack by mosquitoes, overall the buffet was a pretty good experience.
Mercure Pattaya Hotel Amenities
There’s a big pool next to the restaurant, with lots of lounge chairs and seats. By about 10am it’s really busy.
Next to the pool area is a kids room…
And next to the kids area is a beach volleyball section if you feel energetic…
There’s also a gym yet it’s quite small. So not set up for a serious workout. For me it I could get by! There’s a small fridge with complimentary bottles of water. Next to the fridge were some fresh hand towels.
There are lockers you can use too if needed…
Lockers in the gym
Around The Mercure Pattaya Hotel
Pattaya beach is about 500 meters from the Hotel…
To us, the beach didn’t look very inviting so we didn’t swim in it. The sand is quite rough with many broken shells, cigarette butts and rubbish around. There are beach lounges during the day, with food and drink stalls.
We didn’t laze around on the beach so not sure what the costs are for beach lounges. From other Thai beaches that we’ve been to, it’s only a few dollars per lounge. Otherwise it may be free if you buy food or drink from the owners.
There’s a Villa Market a couple minutes walk away. Plus there are some shopping centers nearby. These include The Avenue, Mike Shopping Mall, Central Festival and the night markets.
I wouldn’t bother with The Avenue unless you want a cheap food hall. There aren’t many shops for a shopping center! Mike Shopping Mall is OK for a look around and maybe grab some souvenirs in an air conditioned building.
If you want a more modern shopping center and brand name stores, then head on over to Central Festival.
There are massage places galore. Depending on what sort of “ending” you want, the prices vary!
There are heaps of bars and restaurants too. The world is your oyster with many different cuisines, and from cheap to expensive meals.
If you want to bar hop without having to walk too far from place to place… then you can easily do that at Pattaya. We can’t guarantee the quality of each place though!
There are Happy Hours at various times throughout the day and night. Beers are cheap here in comparison to say Bangkok or Hua Hin, and even in parts of Chiang Mai.
Happy hour beers can start from around 55 baht (around USD $1.75).
Of course, if you go to one of the “girlie bars” expect to pay much more!
TIP: The Baht Bus…
You may have heard of the song theaows in parts of Thailand… Well, there’s plenty of them here in Pattaya. Depending on how far you want to go a short trip will cost you a measly 10 baht (about USD $0.32)!
If you don’t want to walk around in the sweltering heat… and you don’t mind sharing a ride with other people, then this is a great option.
There are other touristy things to see a bit further out. We didn’t check them out… After a couple of serious headache, pull your hair out moments, we cut our trip short in Pattaya. More on that another time!
We Drink Eat Travel Wifi / Internet Speed Test
The wifi/internet speeds at the Mercure Pattaya Hotel is not great.
The download speed we clocked up was 5.74 mbps. The upload speed was 2.65 mbps.
We got better speeds as some of the tiny bars!
The Pros and Cons of the Mercure Pattaya Hotel
Pros
- Separate breakfast area for certain guests
- Breakfast generally was good with various options
- Mostly, the staff were attentive, and overall service was very good
- There was a balcony with a couple of chairs and table
Cons
- The reception area is hot and uncomfortable
- A moldy smell in the room, which kept coming and going. This was a MAJOR negative for us.
- Very slow internet speed
- In many of the public areas it felt uncomfortably hot
The amenities are OK but it didn’t have the feeling or quality of other 4 star hotels we’ve stayed in.
Would we stay here again?
No.
Further to that, we probably wouldn’t stay in Pattaya again… Yes, it is a major red light district, yet that didn’t bother us. There’s an atmosphere about it that didn’t appeal to us.
Whilst it was an easy walking distance to the beach… the beach wasn’t inviting.
Like This? Share it and comment on it!
Note: All of our reviews are our opinions and no-one else’s. Even if we receive complimentary goods or services we share our opinions honestly.