My third stage of my Rock of Ages tour-chasing took me to the Austrian capital Vienna. With the show being held at the Stadthalle, I looked for an accommodation around nearby Vienna West (rail) Station. I finally opted for the Mercure Vienna West Station, majorly due to rather competitive rates at that weekend and its good location. Here is my review of a one night stay at the Accor Group hotel.
Mercure Vienna West Station – Location
Mercure Vienna West Station is located rather nicely, just a few steps North of Vienna West Station. Even though maps suggest that the hotel can be reached by the main road there, the main entrance is on the smaller Löhrgasse. The hotel also drives there a terrace-alike enclosed served area on the road, which is really nice. Most services you need are provided by the station, including two discount grocery stores. You should bear in mind that in Austria, there are no special opening times for stores inside rail station, e.g. in contrast to Germany.
Regarding public transport connections, the Mercure is almost ideally located. The train station offers some regional and national, but even some international connections. Westbahn, for example, connects to Munich in Germany. The station also provides S-Bahn commuter rail services, underground and rail connections. On top of that, Vienna Airport Line offers a forty minute coach connection (with only one stop at Vienna Main Station) directly to Vienna Airport (VIE). The hotel drives an own parking garage for 25 Euro per day.
Mercure Vienna West Station – Room
I booked a Superior Room including breakfast for one night in April 2024, Saturday to Sunday, for 131.40 EUR. Due to the hassle at check-in (see below), I have been upgraded to a suite room. Even though the room has a rather old-fashioned style, it was actually quite nice at first sight. The TV set feels a bit too small for nowadays demand and the aisles next to the bed were really narrow. However, some characteristics really killed me. The room came with an absolute lack of power outets. The only one at the work desk was taken by the lamp on it. There were also no outlets next to the top of both bed sides. The working desk lamp also had open cabling with a slack joint, so that I finally did not use it.
The bathroom with combined shower and bathtub was actually quite nice, the bathroom was spacious. They also had quite a bunch of amenities for the guests, which was very nice. The room was very clean as well – and came with the perk of a free-to-use mini bar. The room also features air conditioning, which worked very well, but switched off completed (i.e. did not reactivate) after a rather short while. If you for example long for constant temperature during you sleep, it is finally useless.
Mercure Vienna West Station – Breakfast
Even though this review is full of issues, Mercure Vienna West Station has a safe haven in regards of hospitality: the breakfast. I really liked the vast variety of cold cuts, fruit, cheese, bread items etc. The buffet could be a bit of stronger on the warm side, but is overall a really nice offer. The restaurant rooms also feels rather cozy, despite it is a comparably large one. I really enjoyed the Mercure kick-off of the day.
Mercure Vienna West Station – Service
Even though the reception staff was really charming, the service and technical quality of the stay was one of the worst I had in a hotel in this class. Waiting in the check-in line took almost twenty minutes, even though there were just five parties in front of me and two check-in desks (the hotel’s max) in service. They ran into multiple bookings which weren’t in their booking system. Later, when I left for the musical, they weren’t even able to issue key cards for the rooms due to technical problems. The WiFi had a great quality, but very frequently broke down completely after a few minutes for a while, which also that you had to again click through the captive of the connection. While the issue kept on during nighttime, it felt improved in the morning hours.
On top of that I got stuck in the elevator for about a minute after the musical. It was really weird as I typically would expect that pressing the alarm connects you to a service center, but I did not hear anything. However, I heard a call when the elevator worked again and took me to the right floor. The desk staff really tried to please the people during my stay, but the hotel’s management was obviously not dynamic enough to handle the situation. Mercure Wien Westbahnhof does not drive a gym or a similar facility.
Mercure Vienna West Station – My View
Bad luck, the Mercure Wien Westbahnhof comes with a lovely building in a lovely location. The staff is great and even though the rooms are a bit of outdated in design, it could be a great stay. The breakfast is another really good feature. However, the hotel does not feel to have arrived in the 21st century. WiFi issues, a ridiculously low amount of power outlets and other technical issues is just too much. I experienced too many issues during my stay and just can go for a sadly poor rating.
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