Hotel Mercure Vienna First — Hotel in Vienna

An honest review as an American that spent four nights in March at the Mercure Vieanna First.

THIS HOTEL DOES NOT HAVE AIR CONDITIONING.

Before I go into this, I want to be perfectly clear that this is only my second time in Europe and both times I have experienced issues with temperatures in the rooms. I purposely booked in March this time to ensure cooler temperatures, knowing that AC is not a thing in Europe and that I would have to sleep with the window open. This leads to the real issue with this hotel. If you like to sleep at night, like most people, and intend to leave the window open, you will not be sleeping. The three bars in the courtyard seem to attract hooligans and frat parties or something. Every single night until about 3 am you will have yelling, singing, hooping and hollering at the top of their lungs, and you will NOT be able to ignore it. It's loud. It's so loud that I will never stay here again, ever. While I know this is not the fault of the hotel, refusal to add AC and sound proof windows is totally in their control. The location is great for tourists and for walking to locations. It's close to the train, subway and other transportation, all of this is great. Plenty of shopping and restaurants in the area. Oh yeah, bars too, did I mention the bars? Moving on.

The beds and pillows are simply terrible. They seem like air mattress beds and the pillows are stuffed with antimatter that flatten to about paper thin if you put your head on them. Plan on asking for additional pillows when you come, and also expect they will tell you that the hotel only has 4 total extra pillows (We came as a group of 6). They have no floor fans to offer you either when you complain about the temperature and not being able to leave the windows open. Did I mention the bars?

The rooms are very small and the single elevator seems to be powered by under fed squirrels. My advice is to ask for a room on a lower floor, facing the back side of the hotel and then just use the stairs.

The staff we encountered were polite and did what they could, this is not a knock on them.

If you want a peaceful night's sleep, this is not your place. If you party with the college kids until 3 am, you should be fine, since you will be too drunk to care about the things I've mentioned here.

..and that's all that I have to say...

We arrived at this destination by taxi. Apparently in the afternoon/evening you cannot access the plaza in front by car. I wish somebody had told me this before we arrived with several suitcases in the late afternoon. I walked around the corner and found reception. They do not have anybody to help with the luggage. I walked around the corner and found reception. They do not have anybody to help with the luggage. They do have a little luggage cart you can roll over the cobblestones yourself.||The plaza seems quaint and quiet but it turns into a bustling night spot for young people in the evening. If you’re looking for pubs and excitement and a youthful crowd, this might be a great choice of a hotel for you.||We were very nicely greeted by reception. Our first room did not smell good and was right next to the elevator on the second floor, so I requested a change. We switched to a room on the third floor. The room was very small, but clean. There was very little room around the bed. The bathroom was fine, small but clean.One amenity I wish it had was hair conditioner. ||For breakfast, they charge 30 a person. It is very easy to go around the corner and get your own breakfast at a shop for less. ||The hotel is in a convenient location for taking a stroll by the water or going to Stephensplatz.||With so many hotel options in Vienna, I do not believe this one has the amenities to be...

Beware - Don’t stay here, they will scam you!

Location is solid, rooms are ok. Biggest problem is they lie to you and do not honor what they say.

When checking in they told us explicitly that breakfast was included in our booking. Upon check out they had changed their mind and charged us 200 euros for their honestly terrible breakfast! I never would have eaten it if they hadn’t told us explicitly it was free!

When I brought this up to the front desk, they did nothing and told me I needed to provide documentation they told me it was included, as if I should be fact checking every thing each employee tells me and getting documentation for it.

Really bad hospitality and they will scam you. If you decide to stay, I guess you have to get everything they tell you in writing and notarized?

Oh also the shower was clogged the whole time and they never came to fix it.

Edit to address the issues in the hotel’s response: the words I am using are accurately describing what happened your front desk employee told me it was included while I was checking in, not “one of my colleagues” I did pay for it at checkout not sure why you would come on here and lie some more, this should have been an easy solve for someone in the hospitality industry, just honor what you tell...