Generally friendly hotel with a very nice breakfast and happy hour scene where many of the guests socialize. The friendly atmosphere makes up for the substandard physical plant.
The crowd is very mixed and international, ranging from very young party boys to more mature gentlemen and from sophisticated professionals with varied interests to pure TPT, worthy of the Cableman's coterie. This was my first time there and I made some good friends. I will consider returning, but will ask a few questions beforehand to ensure the physical plant and security has not deteriorated.

I stayed in the Mercurio from June 1st until June 13th and had a great time. The hotel is a small rustic Mexican hotel. As others have said if you are loooking for a 5star experience then I suggest you stay with one of the chain's at Marina Vallarta or Nouva Vallarta.

I dont want to repeat what others have said about the hotel other than to say I was very impressed. If you read some of the other reviews you will see concistancy with what I found as a guest. My room 102 was small, basic but clean. I had no problem with the hardness of the bed, although i did find the pillows a bit on the soft side. The free internet and free phone calls were a great bonus.

All the staff were great and super friendly.

This was the first time I have stayed in a gay hotel and was a little apprenhencive of what I would find but have to say I made the right choice and have made several new friends out of this trip. Traveling alone can be a pain but by the end of the holiday I had people to chat to and to party with.

If I go back to PV next year then the Mercurio will be my top choice of a place to stay.

Gracias

I booked the Club/Spa package. A premium product, but worth the extra, as I don't speak Spanish,and was visiting an unknown area. Everything worked seemlessly, from the Taxi rep meeting me in the baggage hall into a waiting air conditioned car, (complete with bottle of chilled water) through to a warm welcome at the Hotel Mercurio with my room awaiting me.
The hotel is small, and kept very clean. My room had both ceiling fan and air conditioning, satellite TV, fridge, two chairs and a table, safe ($1 a day extra), and was well appointed with quality sheets and toiletries. All staff were friendly, and appeared to meet to have a good command of English. There was also free use of internet, and also free use of a phone for making internatioanl calls by the pool area. The pool with loungers was small but adequate. In this area breakfast is served from 0800-1030, and drinks are served through the day and evening.
The Spa element of the package involved a 2 minute (escorted)walk to a local health Spa, where I had three very pleasant treatments in very clean premises.
Local information on bars, clubs, beaches (3 mins away) were readily available from the Mercurio staff. This is not a 5* hotel, and does not pretend to be, but offers quality and friendliness at a very affordable price, so often lacking in the luxury chains. Also it is in the heart of the very desirable historic cobbled old part of town, teeming with restaurants and bars. I will return.

I love this little hotel! It was perfect for me. Very reasonable rates, the free breakfast was great, the staff super helpful, the rooms sufficient for my needs.

My only less than favorable comment was the firmness of the beds, but the bed i normally sleep on at home is quite expensive so my basis for comparison is quite high, maybe just a personal thing.

The hotel is centrally located in the Zona Romantico, and a quick walk to anywhere I wanted to go, be it nightclubs, restaurants, blue chairs beach, the Malecon.

The pool is real small but great for a quick dip after the beach or even a long sunbathing session mid-day with a cocktail. The pool area serves as the hub for the hotel and it was real nice to hang out at the bar or for breakfast and meet all of the other guests. A nice thing about the hotel being so small is that it was real easy to meet a lot of people, and get to know them a bit.

Truly amazing was how helpful the staff was, they really set a nice tone for the hotel. Any problems or questions i had were no problem for them, and they all are experts in English (or at least close to it).

They offered laundry service, had an iron to loan, free phone calls to the US, a free computer with internet by the pool, free wi-fi throughout the hotel, flat screen TV's, well maintained rooms, no extra fees for over-night guests.

Don't get me wrong, this place is not the Ritz Carlton, it is a small boutique hotel, but I definitely feel that I got the most bang for my buck here. I definitely will be back!