I go to Le Mans every year for a 24h skating race, and the first time I saw this hotel was about 5 years ago when my team were booked into the Hotel F1 (now Ibis Budget) next door. It was cheap and cheerful but at night the entrance was through the Mercure hotel, which is waaaay nicer! I distinctly remember thinking "What!? I would have stayed here if I knew it was next door!"
The last few times I either camped or stayed at Chateaux in the area but we were back in town recently and the Mercure was the obvious choice because I remembered it from before.
On to the hotel itself then...
There is a huge bowl of delicious boiled sweets at the reception desk. These are particularly handy if you are checking out and about to depart on a long road trip. Score!
The service is friendly, there's free parking, it's convenient for the town centre (which is pretty dead unless it's the weekend of the car race) and it's only about a 20 minute drive from the famous race circuit.
The rooms are clean and comfortable, the beds are good, and by all rights this hotel should get 5 stars.
Why have I knocked off 2 stars then? Toilet roll. Or lack thereof. Instead of a toilet roll and the reassurance of another roll hanging around somewhere should the main one run out, this place has those weird dispensers that dispense single sheets. You end up sitting there like Sylvester Stallone swearing at the ticket machine to get all the tickets in Demolition Man! The 3 sea shells would have been more convenient...
So yeah, 5 star place let down by weird toilet paper. I'd still stay there again though :) read more
