Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel - Singapore

[IAHSQ Guy]

I'm staying here currently on a SIA Training Trip. Not a bad hotel, I like how all the hotels in Singapore are quite eco-friendly and you have to leave your key in the slot by the door to activate anything in the room. Must save quite a lot of electricity since people can't leave the room with everything running.
Hotel itself is quite decent, nice lobby, polite and helpful staff. Haven't checked out the restaurants, but they seem to be very upscale.
Only thing I noticed that wasn't really good was that they stock the minifridge in the room hoping that you'll open the drinks/noodles and consume them before reading the menu to find out that a single canned drink is $8. Most people would have already consumed at that point and can't do anything about it. Also the internet is $18 for 24 hours, which is insane. Most hotels allow their guests to surf for free or for a very small fee. $18 is not pocket change to browse the web.

[Gunnar Smithsen]

As the resident "Accorian" - I believe that's what Kyo referred to me as a few weeks back - I'll add a few comments here...

I'm a little bit surprised (pleasantly I might add) that you're enjoying Grand Mercure Roxy... I'm personally not a fan of the place.

It's not really that 'eco-friendly' to have the power savers, I mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you can keep one key in the slot and take the other one with you - which in a climate such as Singapore's keeping your room cool when you're not in there is key. I digress in theory the power savers are a good idea.

As for the mini bar pricing, nothing out of the ordinary here and definitely not restricted to Accor properties, mini bars have been notoriously overpriced for years however prices are becomming more and more inline with other outlets within the hotel...

Paid internet - the bug bear of the majority of business travellers the world over and the bug bear of the majority of leisure travellers from the US the world over! Paid internet is/was a fact of life for most in the Southern Hemisphere - $18 for 24hrs I have to say is quite reasonable, I know of other properties where prices are upwards of $25 for 24hrs access.

Yes, there are arguments that this cost along with breakfast, car parking and any other ancillary service in the hotel should be included in the cost of the room - for example ibis Hotels in APAC are running a $1 deal, your choice of $1 breakfast, wifi or parking on top of the room cost.

I can't however see this becomming the norm anytime soon. It may begin to occur in new build hotels where customers are not accustomed to the rates, but hotels that are long established and where the slightest increases in rate causes uproar and rebellion. There's always two sides of the coin, I'd personally love to see increased room rates - not grossly increased - to cover and include these costs, unfortunately you are always going to see the otherside who cry 'poor' saying "But what if I don't what breakfast, why do I have to pay for something I'm not having?" "I'm not driving, so why should I have to pay as well", "I'm not bringing a laptop, why do I have to pay?"

Everything costs and nothing is valued!

Whoops, boy did I go off topic!

Glad you're enjoying Accor's hospitality (yes yes my vein attempt to bring my post back on topic )

[jhm]

I'm sure the power savers were installed not for eco reasons but for the hotel's bottom line. I dislike them particularly when (in at least one hotel I can recall) the power sockets all cut out as well! I shouldn't need to jam a piece of paper/card in there in order to recharge my gadgets when I'm out of the room.

I understood from reading elsewhere that - apparently (!) - minibars even with their exorbitant pricing actually make a loss in some hotels; and as a result, some hotels are removing them altogether. I don't mind a minibar - like most people, I know that the items inside are not free - but I don't like the automated ones where a removed items gets automatically charged. (For one, I can't temporarily clear out the minibar to hold any goods I might buy which need refrigeration!)

In my experience of Mercures, they seem to vary. I've stayed in some nice stylish ones (e.g. Palermo comes to mind) and some rather more basic ones in the middle of nowhere in France. As I understand it, Mercure seems to be positioned somewhere between Ibis below and Sofitel above ?

[KeithMEL]

In my experience of Mercures, they seem to vary. I've stayed in some nice stylish ones (e.g. Palermo comes to mind) and some rather more basic ones in the middle of nowhere in France. As I understand it, Mercure seems to be positioned somewhere between Ibis below and Sofitel above ?

The ones I've stayed at tend to be rather basic. But still heaps better than some of the small hotels/motels I've come across in the middle of nowhere in various parts of country Australia. I think it goes Ibis<Mercure<Novotel<Sofitel. Some of the nicer Mercures have 'Grand' in their names. There are also various smaller brands like M Gallery and Pullman which fall somewhere in between Novotel and Sofitel.

[Gunnar Smithsen]

Accors hotel structure work like this

Sofitel - Luxury Leisure
Pullman - High end corporate
M Gallery - Boutique
Grand Mercure - For the most part are serviced apartments exceptions do apply - The Roxy being one of them
Novotel - Middle of the road corporate/leisure
SuiteNovotel - These apartotels are predominantly found in Europe and are much the same as Grand Mercures but more focussed on corporate.
Adagio - Can't say I know enough about these as they're again a Europe focussed arm Mercure - Slightly less middle of the road corporate/leisure
ibis - economy corporate
All Seasons - economy leisure
Formule 1 - Budget

Then there's Club Med - which is probably a class unto it's own

Mercure's will by the by not have mini bars, as jhm alluded to mini bars often run at a loss due to low turnover of items which then go out of date and guest dishonesty. ibis hotels also don't have minibars for these reasons.

[kapitan]

Have you checked out the basement bars?

[lingua101]

Accors hotel structure work like this

Sofitel - Luxury Leisure
Pullman - High end corporate
M Gallery - Boutique
Grand Mercure - For the most part are serviced apartments exceptions do apply - The Roxy being one of them
Novotel - Middle of the road corporate/leisure
SuiteNovotel - These apartotels are predominantly found in Europe and are much the same as Grand Mercures but more focussed on corporate.
Adagio - Can't say I know enough about these as they're again a Europe focussed arm Mercure - Slightly less middle of the road corporate/leisure
ibis - economy corporate
All Seasons - economy leisure
Formule 1 - Budget

Then there's Club Med - which is probably a class unto it's own

Mercure's will by the by not have mini bars, as jhm alluded to mini bars often run at a loss due to low turnover of items which then go out of date and guest dishonesty. ibis hotels also don't have minibars for these reasons.

I thought there is Sofitel Luxury and soon So Sofitel. In my opinion Accor is the most confuse brand.

[Gunnar Smithsen]

lingua101,

If we dive into technicalities - it becomes Sofitel Luxury Hotels and Resorts... Semantics really

So by Sofitel as it was originally intended has been tweeked slightly and is now Sofitel So XYZ (XYZ referring to the location of said property, currently only one and not due to open in BKK until the end of the year)

I also forgot to add that there's numerous properties that are XYZ Hotel managed by Accor...

and if you'd like more confusion - there's also the 2 QF F lounges in SYD & MEL that are operated by Sofitel as well

I wouldn't say we're the most confusing brand out there, all the big players have their quirks... IHG, Starwood, Hilton... They've all got them...

[lingua101]

lingua101,

If we dive into technicalities - it becomes Sofitel Luxury Hotels and Resorts... Semantics really

So by Sofitel as it was originally intended has been tweeked slightly and is now Sofitel So XYZ (XYZ referring to the location of said property, currently only one and not due to open in BKK until the end of the year)

I also forgot to add that there's numerous properties that are XYZ Hotel managed by Accor...

and if you'd like more confusion - there's also the 2 QF F lounges in SYD & MEL that are operated by Sofitel as well

I wouldn't say we're the most confusing brand out there, all the big players have their quirks... IHG, Starwood, Hilton... They've all got them...

I thought Sofitel So Bkk suppose to open by this Nov?

Well IHG and Starwood have multiple brands due to consolidation and I think they cannot remove the brand as the brands are quite strong like Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien. Also there are more clear cut.

As in IHG, Intercon is always the 5 stars, follow by Crown (??) Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn express.... I think....

Well may be I think Accor is quite messy as I know "too much" about it compare to other brand

[Gunnar Smithsen]

By end of the year, I mean 'december', but then again it was originally slated to open last year, however BKK being BKK

OT everytime I look at the Sofitel So BKK I think of the Capitol Records building in LA...

If you'd like me to delve into IHG's and Starwoods (IIRC, there's a Starwood brand lurker on this board, who, if they're honest with themselves should concur with what I mean) 'lesser' known brands I shall, they get pretty much as 'messy' as Accor, granted I don't know the inner-workings of said 'lesser' brands but they are there...

Actually, you don't even need me to get into it, take a look at their respective websites, it's there for everyone to see..

[Kyo]

I'd love for you to delve into Starwood's lesser brands in particular, Gunnar Smithsen

[9V-JKL]

Have you checked out the basement bars?

OT: which one do you recommend?

[Kyo]

There's a fair few interesting ones down there (we once had to attend a wedding dinner in the ballroom in the basement opposite)

[KeithMEL]

The core Starwood and Accor brands are rather clear cut in their market positionings. It's the sub brands that are divisions of the core brands (eg "Elements by Westin", "Aloft, a vision of W", "M Gallery", various random Accor brands in specific markets) which can be confusing.

Look forward to hearing more about Sofitel So BKK. We're booked to BKK next Easter (great MH sale fares!) and are currently looking to stay at the new Aloft. But more than happy to switch to Sofitel So BKK if it opens as scheduled, unless the W BKK miraculously opens in time.

[Gunnar Smithsen]

Kyo,

I've got a lovely diagram that perfectly illustrates this, I'll have a hunt around for it and post it, but KeithMEL's pretty much beat me to it in summing Starwood operations up

KeithMEL, I'm pretty confident of the December mark for the Sofitel So BKK, the building is complete and AFAIK they're just fitting out the inside..