Grand Mercure Foshan Country Garden: a review

Firstly, I apologise for some of the photos of the room. My girlfriend arrived at the hotel some hours before I did and I had started dumping my stuff everywhere before I remembered to take photos, so many of the photos feature our stuff, but you should still be able to get the idea.

This stay was booked on the recent private sale, and our total rate was just under CNY 1100 for four nights - a great price! Immediately upon booking, I was sent an email by the hotel informing me that while I had booked a non-refundable rate and provided my credit card details, I would not be charged and would instead pay at the hotel. This was appreciated, as it took the hassle out of the stay - as we all know, some of Accor's hotels do not take prepayment, so this was good.

I arranged a one-way airport transfer from the Guangzhou international airport, priced at CNY 280 one way, which was a decent price for the one-hour trip. It was a tad troublesome to find the driver, but we found each other (hotel provided me with the driver's phone number at the time of booking).

The hotel does not have an executive lounge (despite executive rooms having Business Floor access, whatever that means), so Platinum complimentary breakfast is extended to the restaurant. There was a bit of confusion about this on the first couple of mornings with the restaurant staff, but this was rectified.

The hotel is located in between the cities of Guangzhou and Foshan. If you are looking to travel and spend your days in either city, I would recommend staying in the city itself. It took us at least an hour to get from the hotel into Guangzhou city (closer to 90 mins). The hotel is located two kilometres from the nearest Guangzhou metro station, which is the terminal station of line 6. It is a decent enough walk, if it is not raining. There are buses that go from pretty much outside the hotel to the metro station, but they are always packed, especially on the return leg, as it is a residential area.

The area around the hotel itself is nice. There is a big park nearby, lots of trees and a shopping mall adjacent with some outlet shops, restaurant, a cinema and a Starbucks. There is no direct access between the hotel and the shopping mall.

If you have business in the immediate area, or don't mind a 1 hour plus commute into the city, this is a great hotel.

Check in was fast and efficient. What was bizarre is the amount of yelling and screaming going on in the lobby bar area, as some drunk guests were getting into a yelling match with security.

The lobby is located on the 6th floor, so you need to take an elevator up. If you are heading to your room from the ground floor (guest rooms between floors 8 and 19 or 20), you need to switch elevators at level 6.

I am not sure if we received a room upgrade or not. It was not mentioned at check in and, as my girlfriend had already arrived hours prior, I did not ask about it. The room was good enough as it was. We booked a Superior Room, the base level room, requesting in the event of an upgrade not being available that we be given one of the 'larger' Superior Rooms, as this room type is listed as being between 40-57 metres squared.

We were given a corner room that overlooked the street. Quite a lot of street noise, especially car horns, were easily heard. The bathroom sink is in the entranceway, outside the bathroom, and has a very long bench. The bed is comfortable, with hard and soft pillow. There are two luggage benches, two small sofas in front of the TV and a working desk. The TV swivels out from the cubby to face the bed and has accessible HDMI cables and USB ports. Two 600ml water bottles are provided daily. Turn down service is provided each evening, with some biscuits and melon tea provided, as well as a small card with the weather forecast for the next day. Our room had an interconnecting door with the next room, and this allowed much noise to bleed through into our room, and presumably from ours into theirs. The room also did a poor job of soundproofing from the main hallway. Universal power plugs and USB charging ports are provided at either side of the bed and at the working desk. The night light function annoyingly also activated the bedside lamps on either side of the bed, which kind of defeated the point of the night light when you are waking up your partner with their bedside lamp?

The bathroom has a bath, standalone shower and toilet. There is a window between the bathroom and bedroom and, annoyingly, the shade is somewhat see through, especially when the light is on in the bathroom and the bedroom is dark. The shower water pressure was good, but it took minutes for the water to get hot - perhaps the hot water tanks are on the ground floor somewhere? The toilet seat moved a bit if shifting your weight on it.

The welcome gift was waiting in the room on arrival.

I ordered a Caesar salad for room service one evening, which was small and the dressing a bit watery, but it was tasty.

I really enjoyed breakfast here. It was clear the hotel was very busy, as the staff were struggling to turn tables around, but the food was almost always topped up and the service was friendly and attentive, with staff remembering our room number and tea order after two days. The eggs were cooked to order and very tasty and there was a mix of English and Chinese options. I did not get any photos of the buffet, as I am a bit self-conscious about taking photos in the restaurants, but here is a photo of a couple of plates of food I had on different mornings. As you can see, the restaurant has fantastically colourful plates and placemats, which I really liked.

The outdoor pool is closed seasonally.

The gym is open 24 hours, and I believe is shared with another building or health club. There are four treadmills, two ellipticals, a bike, some machines and some weights. The equipment is very new.

Overall, this is a fantastic hotel that is very well priced. The location leaves a bit to be desired, and is definitely a negative aspect of the property. We really enjoyed our stay.