Mercure Hotel Nijmegen Centre - Nijmegen, Netherlands 

My friend and I went to Nijmegen to visit my son who has been living there for almost a year. He recommended the Mercure, strictly based on it's proximity to the train station. The Mercure turned out to be a very nice place to stay. We expected the room to be small, as we were told most Dutch hotel rooms are, and this room certainly was. It was very clean and the bathroom was a good size. It was also great to be able to open the windows to enjoy the beautiful weather. There was a mini bar and coffee/tea set up. The entire staff was very pleasant and accomodating. A young lady named Ellen who was serving at the breakfast buffet was especially nice, willing to get decaf coffee for me when there wasn't any on the coffee table. There were plenty of choices for breakfast, with several kinds of breads and rolls, juices, cereals and yogurts, along with fresh fruits and a selection of coffees and teas. We also had dinner one night in the hotel restaurant, where although both the food and service was good, we felt it was very expensive. But just about everything in the Netherlands is expensive now. Overall, the Mercure was great. The only minor criticism is that we never knew we could borrow bikes from the hotel. After walking all over the town for 3 days, as we were checking out we found out the bikes were available. It would have been nice if this information was posted somewhere.

Last year my friend and I were over in Holland doing another of our war tours. Without having booked anything we had arrived in the eastern town of Nijmegen around seven o'clock on a Friday night and headed for the railway station, assuming that there would be plenty of hotels in the immediate vicinity. In this assumption we were wrong, there being just the one hotel, the Mercure. This hotel is situated next door to the railway station and, standing alone and being approximately seven stories high, is quite conspicuous. It is a four star hotel which, we thought, would therefore be some way above our budget. However, we decided to make enquiries as to the availability and price of rooms. We were glad we did. The very pleasant receptionists told us (in excellent English of course) that they had one twin room available; it would cost us 95 euros per night and included breakfast. We quickly decided that we take up the offer, which we considered to be very reasonable. The downside, though, was that the room was fitted out for disabled guests and therefore had no bath. This worried us not in the slightest and we were soon making our way to room 401. This room, being suitable for disabled guests, was situated on the fourth floor immediately opposite the lifts. It was L shaped but had adequate room, the sleeping area that had two beds having the dimensions of approximately 5 x 3 metres. There was room for a wardrobe, desk and a television. The bathroom, situated next to the door, was approximately 3 x 3 metres and could easily accommodate a wheelchair, thanks partially due to the sliding door at it's entrance. It contained a toilet and washbasin, with appropriate handrails, and a walk in shower in the corner. This shower had a fold up seat attached to the wall immediately under the showerhead. Overall, we found the room to be very comfortable. The temperature was, at all times, very pleasant, not too warm but not cold either. The TV showed a variety of channels, including Dutch, German and English, including the BBC. There was the usual mini bar, which we found to be well stocked. The only drawback was there being no lock on the bathroom door owing to the fact that this room was designed for use by the disabled. The rest of the hotel consisted of a restaurant, medium sized bar and lounge on the ground floor, four meeting rooms on the first floor, and 104 bedrooms on the second to seventh floors. In addition there was a sauna on the top floor. I noticed that the rooms on the second floor were totally dedicated to smokers. I was impressed by the security arrangements. Entry to the rooms was by the usual card swipe system. This system also applied to the operating of the lifts, meaning that non-guests could not gain entry to the upper floors without being in possession of a room swipe card. There was a wide choice of food at breakfast time, all self service, ranging from cereal, yoghurt and fruit to ham, salami and cheese, accompanied by various forms of bread and croissant. There was no choice of hot food, which consisted of bacon, sausage and scrambled egg, though I wasn't complaining as this was all cooked to perfection. There was a choice of drinks, ranging from tea, milk and coffee to four different fruit juices. What we liked was the fact that breakfast was served until midday, very handy after a very late night on the town. The staff were excellent throughout the hotel; polite, friendly, helpful, attentive and all speaking excellent English. After our first night, when we didn't get back to the hotel until 4 a.m. the cleaners waited until after midday before phoning us to enquire very nicely whether our room required their attention or not. They were not at all put out when we requested that they wait until after 2 o'clock in order that we have more time to recover. My one quibble with the hotel was that the car park at the rear of the building was rather small and crowded, making parking a slightly hazardous occupation. Location wise, the hotel was well situated, five minutes walk from the town centre and right next door to the railway station. On the station was a very good grocery store selling a range of products and thus rendering the mini bar in our room redundant. Overall we were very impressed with this hotel and considered that we received good value for our money. If Mercure's other hotels across Europe are half as good as here I would not hesitate in using their services again.