The Mercure Grosvenor Adelaide is a mid-scale hotel in a central location and offers basic rooms. The hotel is older and while the rooms are clean and look modern, they could use new carpets and paint here and there. The Mercure shares the building with an ibis hotel and they have parking and a restaurant.
Location: The central location was my main reason for picking it: You are across the street from the Adelaide Convention Center and the train station and the Rundle pedestrian mall are less than 10 minutes walk away, so you can explore the city easily on foot! The Adelaide airport is about 20 minutes by car or 30 minutes by bus. The underground parking (paid) is convenient.
Service/Rewards: Check-in was quick and staff was friendly, giving us information about the property and Adelaide. Housekeeping prepared our room each day and restocked amenities as appropriate.
As a Accor LeClub Platinum member, we were upgraded to a big Suite, which was a significant upgrade at this hotel. There was no welcome amenity or drink provided though and there is no lounge for breakfast!
Room: The suite was large and you enter through the living room, with a seating area and a bar cabinet with tea/coffee facilities. You walk through a narrow hallway to the large bedroom, in our case with two double beds.
There’s also a work desk with chair and small wardrobe, as well as a table with two chairs. The bed has a large black & white photo as the headboard. A colorful bed throw and pillows are a nice touch and follow the latest Mercure design guidelines. The photo of the bed is the best view of the hotel and the one shared on their web site. Unfortunately, the rest of the room looks drab, almost barren. The carpets are old and beige. There is no further artwork and the furniture looks too small, almost out of place. The living room of the suite was uninviting – we didn’t spend any time there.
The bathroom is equally large – and equally bland. It has a basic shower, toilet and sink and is held in white wall tiles and pain and dark floor tiles. It’s all clean, but again feels more like a budget hotel than a suite at a midscale hotel.
Everything in the room was functioning well, although the equipment and fixtures also showed their age.
Restaurant/Facilities: The hotel has a restaurant, but we didn’t try it during our stay. The parking underground is convenient, as we rented a car for our onward journey to the Great Ocean Road!
Bottomline: The Mercure Grosvenor Adelaide scores with its central location and is good value at a price of $100/night (find current rates here). The service was good and we were pleased with the upgrade to a suite. While it’s hard to pinpoint the reason, we were still underwhelmed by the stay: Despite the old building it resides in, it feels soulless, corridors seem endless and barren, the rooms are a little old, need some renovation and are uninviting. This also shows in the middling online reviews other people have given. If you just want a clean room in a central location and have status with Accor LeClub, the Mercure Adelaide will work fine, but don’t expect to be wowed!