Review of Mercure London Bridge 4*

My wife and I again chose the Mercure London Bridge for its high standards of cleanliness and friendliness of staff as well as good access to the places we wanted to go in London. We were a little disappointed that our towels were not very clean on the first night and that the extractor fan in the bathroom did not seem to work. We reported this to the reception staff first thing in the morning and were surprised to find that nothing had been done about this when we returned to our room shortly after 2.00 pm. When we reported this, our room was cleaned straight away and we were given a voucher for the bar so that we could have a drink while we waited. This was all dealt with very well by the duty manager, who could not have been more helpful. We got the impression that the chap in the morning had not really understood our concerns and issues with the room but we certainly had a much better experience in the afternoon. Perhaps the language issue is one that seemed to cause the staff in general to be less friendly than we remembered from our previous visit. They also seemed to be far more interested in their laptops than the guests at times. They were perfectly polite but often slow to make eye contact or even acknowledge our presence. We have stayed in many Accor hotels over the years, both as a couple and as a family when our children were younger, and the experience has always been really positive. We did not have breakfast at all at the hotel as it had been really disappointing the last time but we ate well at various nearby cafes and restaurants. We still really enjoyed staying at the Mercure but we feel that the overall quality has slipped just a little.