Mercure Albi Rives du Tarn — Hotel in Albi

This is a 4-star hotel with an excellent location, offering views of the old town, the old bridge, and the church. However, as a 4-star hotel, the facilities and bathroom arrangements fall short of the standard.

🛌Room Facilities: The bed is relatively soft, but the pillows are too thick, causing discomfort and neck strain. There is air conditioning. Guests need to bring their own plug adapters.

🚿Bathroom: The bathroom doesn't provide complete separation of the wet and dry areas. The shower and toilet are placed too closely, making it impossible for two people to use them simultaneously. They provide hand soap, a 2-in-1 shampoo and body wash, and shower caps, but there is no conditioner, facial cleanser, slippers, toothbrushes, toothpaste, or combs. The missing items make it more akin to a standard guesthouse and not what one would expect from a 4-star hotel. It is recommended that they learn from Japanese hotels regarding what should be provided in the bathroom.

The shower experience is somewhat better. There is plenty of hot water, a strong water flow, and fast water speed. Guests with long hairs can enjoy a hot shower. However, the shower area is not completely enclosed, leading to water splashing onto the toilet area.

🍮Restaurant: There is a limited selection of main dishes for breakfast, and for guests who do not eat pork, there's only one option, a raw salmon slice. Freshly squeezed orange juice is available.

🛀Cleanliness: The rooms have carpeting, which effectively prevents dust from sticking to the floor. However, there is a large insect in the bathroom. See images.

The hotel offers a private parking area, which is filled with a variety of peculiar and low-riding vehicles, attracting more visitors to take photos than even the...

We reached the hotel from Albi Ville, the train station. We were going to get a taxi but there weren't any. Good thing I got instructions from google map on how to get to the hotel on foot. It took 20 minutes, less time than taking the bus. Buses do not run very frequently on the weekends. You go through the city center, through Place Saint Cecille to cross the bridge, then toward the right to get to 41 Rue Porta (don't go to Rue Port, which is a street before you see 41 Rue Porta). You need to walk through the arch with the number 41 to get to the hotel entrance. This hotel is owned by a major hospitality company. The room was clean but with very few amenities. There was a tea kettle to heat water but there weren't cups! There one bottles water and suspect they don't replenish it if you stay more than one day. The front desk gentleman was okay. He was helpful but not very friendly. I don't think you'll get the charm of Albi from this hotel but sufficient to rest for the night. FYI, we lucked out on the visit because they had a festival during Sept 18-19, Journees Europeennes du Patrimoine. Had a parade, bonfires and concert. Veey fun,...

This hotel is top notch for it location, views and service. There's a very nice terrace dining area with terrific views (weather permitting) as well as a popular inviting lobby bar. At first, we had a quite small room (#302) with a partial view of the river/bridges but they upgraded us to a fantastic large corner room ($310) with windows on two sides that could even open. From there, the vistas of the beautiful Old Town of Albi plus the river, three different bridges and the Cathedral were simply great. Hotel had a very nice diverse breakfast (extra). It seemed the best option as nothing too much right nearby. Dinner meals were more mundane and somwhat repetitive menu. OK if too tired to go out for dinner but it was really quite a close walk across the river to where an abundance of nice restaurants were (near the unusual huge old brick cathedral). The address our GPS sent us to couldn't access the hotel and we went around in a few frustrating circles untile we found the parking entrance on a different street. Parking lot is inconvenient for dropped luggage so drive to the end and down a level to drop bags. Would definitely...