Grand Mercure Izmir

“Aegean Sea magic”

Izmir is a delightful town and the Movenpick Izmir is only a block away from the Aegean Sea. We were here for two nights and enjoyed walking along the seaside promenade taking in the sights in both directions. There is a market area about a kilometre in one direction (near the clock tower) and a re… more

Izmir is a delightful town and the Movenpick Izmir is only a block away from the Aegean Sea. We were here for two nights and enjoyed walking along the seaside promenade taking in the sights in both directions. There is a market area about a kilometre in one direction (near the clock tower) and a restaurant strip about the same distance in the other direction. There are a couple of supermarkets within a block as well and looking over the Aegean Sea is magical. Izmir is also one of the warmer spots in Turkey in March. Our room 415 didn’t have a sea view but was quiet even with the windows open because it was away from the main roads. The room had a queen bed and queen size doona. There's a luggage rest and hanging space, large desk and chair as well as a comfortable arm chair with leg rest/stool and small table. It had a small TV, bar fridge, coffee and tea making facilities. Lighting in the bedroom is three lamps, two bed head reading lights, a desk light and a light in the hanging space. Power points are by each side of the bed and above the desk. The bathroom had a shower over a bath and a decent sized sink with mirror. The hotel WIFI login starts with the option for member login, next you can login with phone number before, at the bottom, the option to login with just room no and surname can be found. Just a note that a mis-capitalization of the surname had to be resolved by reception to allow a future attempts to connect to work. There is an air conditioner / heater in place but, as in common in Turkey, it is a central system which can either heats or cools the whole building so no cooling is available in winter. The double glazed windows can be opened which we needed to do when the heating rocketed up to 31 degrees after we tried to change it from 24 degrees to 21 degrees. We were given a fan, opened the windows and turned the heating off and managed to get the temperature down. It was then we realised it was the same in most Turkish hotels but still don't understand why lowering the thermostat resulted in the such extreme heating here! Lesson learnt. After this, in Turkish hotels we just turned the air conditioner / heater off completely. There was a bar on the 11th level with sea views but we didn’t try it. The buffet restaurant for breakfast had a range of hot foods, cereals, breads, etc and the food was nice. They always had some Turkish specialities and supplied sparkling water and Bircher muesli we hadn’t seen elsewhere. The restaurant had views at ground level so you can people watch.

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“One of the best in Izmir”

The staff were great. The food was great as well but the selection was small. The beds were high above ground. On the other side everything except 2 water bottles, you had to pay for and the prices were high (KitKat = 120 TL). One of the best hotels in Izmir in my opinion. The location was also one… more

The staff were great. The food was great as well but the selection was small. The beds were high above ground. On the other side everything except 2 water bottles, you had to pay for and the prices were high (KitKat = 120 TL). One of the best hotels in Izmir in my opinion. The location was also one of the best, next to the sea.

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“Good facilities but staff service could be better.”

Our group was greeted with a young waiter handing around a refreshing lemon drink. The sort of thing I have seen in many other good quality hotels I have stayed at. That initial greeting setting the tone for the stay. Unfortunately this young waiter got bored part way through the job, put the tr… more

Our group was greeted with a young waiter handing around a refreshing lemon drink. The sort of thing I have seen in many other good quality hotels I have stayed at. That initial greeting setting the tone for the stay. Unfortunately this young waiter got bored part way through the job, put the tray down and meandered away. There was no obvious entreaty to his time by anyone senior - but just an abandonment of the duty. We were to have a set menu that evening. Our group entered the restaurant and were shown the general area to sit. Salad bowls were already on the table - standard salad with a vinaigrette dressing. We were served a tasty broccoli soup. Next up came some main courses. There were four tables in a row for our group. A number of our party do not eat meat but do eat fish with one or two being vegetarian. Fish - salmon on a bed of vegetables came out. Two staff were calling out the names of our group who were pescatarian. Unfortunately they only asked the first two tables. Those of us on the other two tables had to call the staff people back and ask for our fish. The person who got the vegetable stew was not that impressed with it and sent it back. I had to call a member of staff over to ask to have a drink. The staff did seem to be having a good time. It was good to see them enjoying their job - but it would have been even nicer if they had engaged with us in more depth. There was a sign on the lift door which said the Breeze bar had a happy hour between 6 and 8. It looked decidedly shut at 7pm. In fact a lot of the downstairs looked bereft of staff. The room was clean and as you would expect of this quality of hotel. There was a kettle and some tea bags. I was surprised when I tried to shut the curtain and it came off of the runner. I called reception and they said “oh you’ve pulled the decorative curtain”. So it might help those of us ignorant to such decor to both have a sign to say they are decorative and to put a stopper in the runner to prevent them coming out. The facilities were good as to be expected of a 5 star hotel but the staff could have been a lot more attentive. Lovely people I’m sure but not entirely focused on customer service.

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