Hôtels Mercure à Belém

Overall, we got a very cheap deal for 8 nights and for the price we paid, it was ok. However, there is still a lot they can improve on. We know Belem is not the most internationally oriented city. However, when booking a Mercure, you would expect the guest-facing team to speak English. Throughout the stay we met 3 receptionists with 75% English. The other team members 0, which made communication quite hard. We booked a Superior Room, as from reading other reviews, we could figure out these were quite recently renovated. Being a global company and French brand, you would expect a renovated room to have universal power sockets. Unfortunately, they did not. It was our first time in Brazil and we are from Europe. Our phone chargers fit in the power socket just fine, but the laptop charger did not. We never knew there was a difference. Strangely enough, the hotel only had adaptors from Brazil to Europe, not the other way around. Already quite annoyed, we decided to purchase one ourselves outside. Unfortunately, that also turned out to be an impossible task. Could not find it anywhere. Next day told reception we would look for it ourselves as well, but if they could please ask their purchaser to find an adaptor. We still did not find it ourselves, the hotel did not even bother to look. So, on the third day I got quite upset, as I was not able to work on my laptop. I asked the receptionist if I could speak to the manager. One lady came, we never were told her name or job title, but then the receptionist had to translate as even the manager did not speak English. We gave her the actual charger to keep with her so they could find a suitable adaptor. When returning in the evening there was an adaptor in the room with a handwritten note stating they found us the adaptor we need. NOT, it was the same one from Brazil to Europe. We actually gave the charger, and still we got an adaptor which does not fit. Of course, immediately we went down again. Then one guy from the Maintenance team looked at it and said he would sort something out. He came very happy to the room after 15 minutes. He actually melted the holes in the adaptor to make them bigger so our charger would fit. Melted!! Huge fire hazard, but ok it worked. Breakfast was in a meeting room due to renovation of the restaurant. That can happen, but there was absolutely no atmosphere created in the meeting room. At least play some background music! Although the variety of food at breakfast was not great, the quality of the items was good! Problem though is that there is no system for refilling empty items on the buffet. Especially scrambled eggs were often unavailable, as they would wait for it to be empty, then inform the kitchen to make more. There was also no registration at breakfast, so they would never know how many more people were still supposed to come for breakfast. Each day there were 2 different fresh juices, from fruits only known to Brazilians we guess. We did not like any of them. Can