Grand Mercure Rio de Janeiro Copacabana — Hotel in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

I was a first time visitor to Rio de Janeiro and although Copacabana probably wasn’t the best part of the city for me (turns out I’m more of Santa Teresa kind of girl), I still had a fabulous time.||While not my personal cuppa tea , I can totally see why Copacabana is a good location for a vacation. That’s the first good thing about this hotel. Here’s my full list.||The good-|- the location. The hotel is across the road from the beach and walking distance to everything you could need - restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, supermarkets, pharmacies etc|- the staff. Nice and welcoming. English isn’t always spoken, it helps if you can speak a bit of Spanish, but in general they were very helpful. Even when I had issues, which unfortunately I had a few.|- the L’occitane products in the bathroom. Nice touch!|- the rooftop terrace/pool area. Only went up there once but it was gorgeous!||The not so good -|- upon arrival, after an 11 hr overnight flight, I arrived to learn that there was an issue with key cards and that I wasn’t able to get one for my room. It was strange, the bellhop was able to let me into the room but yet I was not provided with a key card of my own. Thankfully i wanted to relax for a few hours anyway so it was not a problem however when I was ready to out I had to go back to reception to query when I would be able to get a key. It was an unnecessary inconvenience.|- the room (1150) while a good size, unfortunately smelt a bit mouldy and musty. The toilet also didn’t smell great and I had issues with small flying insects in the shower. I mentioned this to reception and Alexandre almost finished my sentence before I’d completed it - he knew what was I going to say. It seems the flying insects are a known issue. On top of which the room got no natural light, my window looked out to buildings, I couldn’t even see the sky. Very disappointing.|- there was only one rubbish bin in the room, in the shower room. I had to ask - on 3 different occasions - to have a bin also put in the main bedroom. What if I am sat at the table eating? I have to get up and go all the way to the toilet to put food into the bin? Very strange.|- there was some confusion regarding me being charged for a breakfast and a water that I did not have. I had to explain that I had only had breakfasts at a cafe around the corner (SO_Lo Copacabana, it was great) and that I bought my water from external shops. The only thing I’d eaten from the bar was bao buns on my first night and I paid for that in cash right then and there. I was shown a receipt with a signature and I had to explain it was not mine! I asked to speak to a Manager but thankfully the situation was de-escalated thanks to them checking my signature upon arrival and seeing it did not match the signature on the breakfast receipt. Unnecessary stress. I was not happy.|- last but not least, I wasn’t aware that they would be placing a hold on my card of 1,000 BRL (approx £132) “in case of incidentals”. I knew I would not going to be eating breakfast there, or using the minibar or beach towels it felt like a waste of time and an inconvenience. I managed to get the hold lifted early (which is when we found out I had been incorrectly charged for a breakfast & water)||As you can see, overall it was not a great hotel experience for me. I’ve had much better elsewhere. I would definitely visit Rio again, I would just find a...

I was a first time visitor to Rio de Janeiro and although Copacabana probably wasn’t the best part of the city for me (turns out I’m more of Santa Teresa kind of girl), I still had a fabulous time.

While not my personal cuppa tea , I can totally see why Copacabana is a good location for a vacation. That’s the first good thing about this hotel. Here’s my full list.

The good- the location. The hotel is across the road from the beach and walking distance to everything you could need - restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, supermarkets, pharmacies etc the staff. Nice and welcoming. English isn’t always spoken, it helps if you can speak a bit of Spanish, but in general they were very helpful. Even when I had issues, which unfortunately I had a few. the L’occitane products in the bathroom. Nice touch! the rooftop terrace/pool area. Only went up there once but it was gorgeous!

The not so good - upon arrival, after an 11 hr overnight flight, I arrived to learn that there was an issue with key cards and that I wasn’t able to get one for my room. It was strange, the bellhop was able to let me into the room but yet I was not provided with a key card of my own. Thankfully i wanted to relax for a few hours anyway so it was not a problem however when I was ready to out I had to go back to reception to query when I would be able to get a key. It was an unnecessary inconvenience. the room (1150) while a good size, unfortunately smelt a bit mouldy and musty. The toilet also didn’t smell great and I had issues with small flying insects in the shower. I mentioned this to reception and Alexandre almost finished my sentence before I’d completed it - he knew what was I going to say. It seems the flying insects are a known issue. On top of which the room got no natural light, my window looked out to buildings, I couldn’t even see the sky. Very disappointing. there was only one rubbish bin in the room, in the shower room. I had to ask - on 3 different occasions - to have a bin also put in the main bedroom. What if I am sat at the table eating? I have to get up and go all the way to the toilet to put food into the bin? Very strange. there was some confusion regarding me being charged for a breakfast and a water that I did not have. I had to explain that I had only had breakfasts at a cafe around the corner (SO_Lo Copacabana, it was great) and that I bought my water from external shops. The only thing I’d eaten from the bar was bao buns on my first night and I paid for that in cash right then and there. I was shown a receipt with a signature and I had to explain it was not mine! I asked to speak to a Manager but thankfully the situation was de-escalated thanks to them checking my signature upon arrival and seeing it did not match the signature on the breakfast receipt. Unnecessary stress. I was not happy. last but not least, I wasn’t aware that they would be placing a hold on my card of 1,000 BRL (approx £132) “in case of incidentals”. I knew I would not going to be eating breakfast there, or using the minibar or beach towels it felt like a waste of time and an inconvenience. I managed to get the hold lifted early (which is when we found out I had been incorrectly charged for a breakfast & water)

As you can see, overall it was not a great hotel experience for me. I’ve had much better elsewhere. I would definitely visit Rio again, I would just find a...

I booked this hotel for 4 nights in April of 2025 for my family and I. Here are the facts: Day one: Took nearly 30 minutes for checking in, even though there was no line waiting. The procedure is simply too long. I was informed in the check in that the crib for my daughter was already in the room. Upon asking what was the price of having breakfast, I was informed that the breakfast was free of charge (keep this information for day 5 at checkout) Upon entering the room for the first time, the baby crib was not there, the TV was on with a high volume with no remote control to be found, some towels were missing as well. I called reception and it took about half an hour and 2 people to turn off the TV and to supply us with a working remote control. The crib arrived some minutes later, only for the hotel staff to realize that the crib wouldn’t pass the door. They took apart the crib before installing it to our room. All of the above happened while we were in the room with our baby. At night, while all of us were sleeping, between 2 and 3 am, the TV turned on out of nowhere with the max volume waking us up, and of course, our 10 month old baby. We turned off the TV but it kept turning on during 1h, not allowing us to sleep. Day two: We complained at reception about the TV problem and they told us they would fix it during the day (spoiler alert: they didn’t) Housekeeping brought some extra towels (from the missing towels complaint), only to remove and not replace the hand towels (?). The toilet paper support broke down while we were using it. The hand soap dispenser was empty (even after the housekeeping cleaned our room, it was not refilled). We complained at reception only to be delivered a half empty (!) soap dispenser. Day 3: We arrived at the hotel after a day out exploring (at around 6:30 pm), only to arrive at a dirty room. The day before we had gone to the beach and the floor was quite sandy and towels were dirty from the beach. We called and complained, and they sent somebody to clean our room at 7 pm (!). We had to leave the room and give dinner to our starving baby at the reception because of this issue. The air conditioning remote control stopped working (we guessed batteries), which was fixed only the day after.

Not enough space to write about day 4 but it was bad.

Check out: again, a very long process for checking out and the outstanding surprise that the breakfast was indeed not free. I mentioned to the receptionist that I was told it was free at check in, and that we would not have taken it if it was not the case (as there were plenty of good cafés nearby). After a very dry exchange, I was told it was not free indeed. After all these terrible experiences we had during our stay, I expected that at least the breakfast would be offered as courtesy, but, of course, it was not. Summing up: it looks like a fancy hotel but the service is very bad overall (kitchen staff was nice, regardless). After several complains of basic stuff such as asking for a clean room, towels, TVs that don’t turn on during the night waking up the entire family, and etc, the service is not at all what even a basic hotel would offer, it’s very bad. I don’t recommend this hotel to anyone, and this will refrain me from booking any mercure hotel ever again. What...