Location

Hotel Mercure Salzburg City is situated in a quiet neighbourhood in Salzburg, east of the Salzach River. It is about 15 minutes from the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof and 20 minutes from Getreidegasse in Altstadt. Due to the quiet location, there weren’t many amenities around the hotel other than a Thai restaurant opposite the hotel and a small supermarket about 7 minutes away in the direction of the train station. There is a bus stop by the main road, about a 2-minute walk from the hotel, with buses running to the Altstadt and Salzburg Hauptbahnhof. Despite being a little far from sights and amenities, we liked the tranquillity of the hotel’s location.

The Room

Mercure Salzburg has only three room types and no suites. We checked into the biggest room in the hotel, the Deluxe Room, which has a total floor area of 25㎡.

Entryway

The entryway of the Deluxe Room in Hotel Mercure Salzburg City is only furnished with a set of hooks on the wall and a small two-panel wardrobe with a full-length mirror mounted on its single-panel sliding door. The wardrobe space afforded by this wardrobe is very limited. On the left side of the wardrobe, we can only hang at most four sets of clothing in the designated hanging space. It didn’t help that the hotel only provided us with four hangers in the wardrobe. Despite having two shelves fitted on the top of the left side of the wardrobe, one of these spaces is occupied by bathrobes. The other half of the wardrobe has six open shelves but is equally packed with things like the mini fridge, the in-room safe and additional bedding, leaving only the bottom shelving for us to use. A shelving panel extends from the wardrobe, where the hotel places mini bar items like Nespresso coffee machines, kettles, glasses, and tea bags. We used the excess space here to place smaller items to maximise the limited storage space in the room. The entrance to the bathroom is also found in the entryway, opposite the wardrobe.

Bathroom

For the small space allocated to the bathroom, I thought the space utilisation in the bathroom was very designed. The bathroom looked bright and sizeable thanks to the use of white to deck the bathroom and the bright lighting. The use of black marble tiles and a strip of green light running under the semi-open walk-in shower gave it a modern look. Installing only one sink in the bathroom reduces clutter and gives us a good amount of space on the sink countertop to place our toiletries. The toilet bowl is tucked in the corner opposite the sink, which seems out of the way, reducing the feel of clutter in the limited space the hotel allocated to the bathroom. A large walk-in shower occupies the space next to the sink and is fitted only with one regular shower head. I like how Hotel Mercure Salzburg City mounted some ledges in the walk-in shower to provide users with additional space to stow their toiletries. Hotel Mercure Salzburg City supplies its Deluxe Room guests with elemental herbology branded shower amenities, which exude a natural and woody scent.

Sleeping Area

The main bulk of the Deluxe Room is allocated to the sleeping area that extends from the entryway to the balcony. The design of open-mount shelving that ran from the wardrobe to the glass doors to the balcony gave us a lot of space to put away small items. I like that Hotel Mercure Salzburg City did not furnish the Deluxe Room with unnecessary furniture and flushed everything to the side, resulting in a huge amount of space for us to move around in the sleeping area. A large flatscreen TV is mounted on the wall facing the King bed. However, we couldn’t get much entertainment from it as most channels were in German. A small work desk with a plastic chair placed beneath the TV gave us additional space to stow smaller items and also provided us with a space to do some work. The addition of the purple-coloured single-seater armchair in the corner of the room, which can be converted into a sofa bed, gives us additional sitting space and a place to put our backpacks.

The king bed sits by the wall opposite the TV in the sleeping area, with a large motif of Salzburg City on its headboard. This motif gave the hotel its city identity. The king bed had excellent sleep quality, but the pillows were too soft for my liking. It did not help that the hotel did not provide a pillow menu for us to choose from. The bedside table comes in the form of a small round wooden table on either side of the bed, which I found sufficient for us to stow our lifestyle devices at night. It is a shame that the hotel only fitted a power outlet on one side of the bed. I like how the hotel maximised the limited space afforded on these bedside tables by mounting bedside lighting onto the ceiling.

Balcony

I was surprised to find an indoor balcony attached to our Deluxe Room, which was not advertised on the hotel’s website. This balcony is perfect for us to hang out and enjoy the cold winter breeze on the two deck chairs that look out into the street.

Breakfast @ Le Sel

Breakfast was a simple affair in the hotel’s only restaurant, Le Sel, located on the hotel’s ground floor. The food selection for the buffet-style breakfast was rather limited. There is only one small counter in the centre of the restaurant with only three hot food options (ham, sausage and scrambled eggs) and some bread and cereal selection for breakfast. Despite the limited selection, we had a hearty breakfast at Le Sel. I particularly liked the croissants, which were crunchy on the outside and puffy on the inside. However, given the limited selection, I thought the €25 charged for breakfast was not worth the money.

Service

Despite being early, we were warmly welcomed by Rina, who was manning the reception desk. As we visited the hotel during the quiet low season, there wasn’t a queue at the reception. Rina was very efficient in processing our check-in, and we got our keys in under 5 minutes. Rina also informed us that as Diamond members with Accor, we were able to enjoy a complimentary breakfast on Saturday, the day we checked out. The staff checking us out was also friendly and jovial. He efficiently processed our checkout, checked with us during our stay at Hotel Mercure Salzburg City, and invited us to breakfast at Le Sel. He also got his colleague at Le Sel to take care of us. The staff at Le Sel was also very friendly. He took the time to orientate us to the food selection for breakfast. He jumped in to assist when he observed that we had difficulties operating the butter machine. Overall, I thought the service at the hotel was good. The staff are friendly and welcoming.

Overall

Before staying at the hotel, I had little expectations of the room as there were very few reviews on the hotel. I was pleasantly surprised at the spaciousness of the Deluxe Room, afforded by the practical design and the small balcony that came with the room. Despite being a tad far from the city centre, we liked the quiet neighbourhood where Hotel Mercure Salzburg City was located.