Completely renovated, the Mercure center hotel in Montpellier wants to make its four stars shine

Karène Capoen, the director of the establishment, with her deputy, Frédéric Mercier. Midi Free – DORIAN CAYUELA

Five months of work, several million euros of investments: the new Mercure center will be inaugurated this Tuesday, June 11.

A restaurant and its terrace not only reserved for hotel guests. Midi Free – DORIAN CAYUELA

"We redid everything from the basement to the fifth floor." The director of the Mercure center, Karène Capoen, believes in her new setting. Brand new after five months of work and renovations in depth and on the surface for a total facelift of between  6 M€ and 10 M€ ; the investor wishing to maintain a certain mystery. And a theme highlighted: culture. Also a monumental treble clef adorns the ceiling of the reception, the floor of the semi-gastro restaurant is an open book and the decor of all the rooms is based on a show wall with a passageway for lighting. Among all the details that lead back to art.

119 rooms, 185 seats

The Mercure center has 119 rooms, including 56 "privilege", accessible from 119 € &agrav; 300 euros. The bar is à available to customers and businesses who wish it every evening, with music, tapas, cocktails…

The restaurant, semi-gastro, with 85 seats indoors and 100 on the terrace, offers daily menus of starter-main course or main course-dessert & ; €24.90. Example: swordfish and avocado tartare or marinated pork ribs.

The hotel is located rue de la Spirale, & behind the Polygon, for pedestrians. Car access is via Boulevard d’Antigone.

“The establishment dates back to 1970. It was bought in 1994 by the SA Bancarel group. The last renovation was in 2000, when the hotel became Mercure, explains Karène Capoen. Why the theme of culture and art?? We are close to the Comédie, museums, the world of artists comes to us, ministers, also filming of Un si grand soleil. They turn but they also stay to sleep." Or the greening of the MHSC footballers.

A Bancarel company establishment

SA Bancarel is a company that is very much from Montpellier, dear to Bernard Bancarel and his son, Mathieu. It has four hotels: the Mercure centre, the Mercure Antigone, the Ibis Polygone and the Ibis budget Millénaire. By the end of 2025, all of the group's establishments will have been renovated.

The hotel has particularly taken care of the common areas: the hall, but also the bar, the restaurant, the terrace, the six seminar rooms and the 110-seat amphitheater. Normal when you know that the majority of its customers are business customers, who come for three days to take advantage of the facilities of the place and the proximity to the city center.

Culture theme in the rooms with a performance hall wall decoration and a passageway for lighting. Midi Free – DORIAN CAYUELA

But management also wants to develop two areas. Better become known locally for this establishment, with bar and restaurant with terrace, ideally located between Polygone and boulevard d’Antigone, but in a rather confidential rue de la Spirale. "With This renovation, we want to put ourselves more forward", underlines the director. And put the Mercury center back on the 4-star map, as are the Pulmann, the Crowne Plaza and the Mercure Antigone (the last being part of the same group).

To continue the culture theme, a monumental treble clef adorns the reception area, above the reception. Midi Free – DORIAN CAYUELA

Finally last development and not least: the tourist map. "We have 119 rooms, explains the manager, including 56 privilege rooms. We have just created 40 twin rooms, that is to say with two separate beds. The goal is to bring groups. We work with travel agencies. We have already welcomed Germans, Italians…"And, rather unusual, the hotel works well with Koreans. For Karène Capoen, there is no doubt, the central Mercury is in the right place: "We exist! We're coming back! Here we are again!", she smiles. 

Fourteen hotels in the stars

PANORAMA The territory of the tourist office has four five-star hotels, including two classified Relais et châteaux: Richer de Belleval, dear to the Pourcel Brothers, and Verchant (which is completing its expansion). To which are added La Plage, in La Grande-Motte, and Coste, in Palavas.

The metropolis of Montpellier also has ten 4-star establishments : the Mercure center and Antigone, the Novotel-Prés d’Arènes (also under renovation) and Antigone, the Pullman Polygone (recently renovated), the Crown Plaza (Joffre), the Courtyard (town hall), the Grand Hôtel du Midi (Comedy), Belaroïa (station) and the Biar estate (Lavérune).

GOOD SIGNAL As for the tourist office, the director, Marie-Dominique Bellamy does not highlight the ;high-end hotels but the entire sector: "We have a beautiful harmony between the hotels. When they renovate, it’s a good signal sent to clients, you have to have money but also boldness. This proves that our hotel industry is doing well. Over the past year, there was a 3% drop in occupancy but revenue per room increased. They are in balance. This is very good."

Also read: The only 5-star hotel in La Grande-Motte, the La Plage hotel has been completely renovated

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