We recently spent a weekend here and used the Intercon Merida as a home base for a visit around the Yucatan. The hotel was in the northern part of the city and easy to access the colonial center. It was also right across from a small mall in the Fiesta Americana that had some restaurants and lots of car rental places. Being an Ambassador, we got an upgrade and had a club room. The room was large although on the street side (and a bit loud). The room was well appointed and the club lounge was also a very nice thing - good breakfast and decent afternoon snacks. For an intercon, this was very affordable for what you got.

What a HUGE disappointment, especially for the Intercontinental Hotel chain. I live and work in Mexico and travel extensively, and will now certainly think twice about staying at another Intercontinental hotel. On the surface, this hotel appears to be a first class luxury boutique hotel. However, as soon as I checked in it was all downhill for the two day stay. Entering my room I was overwhelmed by the musty stench, obviously due to the humidity. And even worse, the bathroom smelled like a broken sewer line. I called reception hoping to change rooms, but they sent a maintanence person who sprayed the entire room and bathroom with a powerfull (chemical) air freshener. I couldn't decide what was worse. The internet service was painfully slow and cut off frequently which made doing anything almost impossible. I ordered a movie, however nothing showed up on the screen, just sound. Again, a half hour later they sent maintenance, and after a half hour more of moving cords around, he said the system was down. By that time I was ready to go to sleep. The second day I had to ask reception if they had daily maid service, which didn't happen until about 4:30pm. The toiletries seemed to be reused, as they were diluted and half filled. The towels resembled those from a Hotel 6. I could go on and on. The room rate was cheap, but in hindsight way over priced. Checking out they added a $15 a day service fee, something that should have been mentioned before checking in. The worst of it is that all of the employees seemed totally indefferent to anything and everything, which is surprising, as the people in Merida are warm and friendly and accommodating. This hotel is giving Merida a bad name. There are two excellent hotels on either corner across the street, the Hyatt, and the Fiesta Americana, which I would highly recommend in place of this awful hotel.

I was very impressed with this hotel. For $79 the night we got an incredible room. The room was stylish, the AC [which in my opinion along cleanliness are the two both important things of any hotel] worked very well! The floor was marble, which makes cleanliness easy to see [not like others that use carpet...which you can't see if they vacuumed or not!] The view was towards the inside patio/pool maybe that is why it was not noisy [like others have said in here]. My family and I tried the pool to unwind at night and it was very good as well. The bathroom was beautiful and very big. Again I would recommend it highly, it was very well located, very close to the center of Merida, and two blocks from the Paseo Montejo [a street lined with mansions from the time in which Merida was a booming economical town]. The only thing of this hotel I would not recommend is the restaurant as I found it pricey, then again most hotels have that problem and in my opinion are only for an emergency.

I checked out this hotel after being unhappy with the hotel originally booked (Casa Lucia). We ended up choosing the Hyatt (see that review). I expected better with the Interncontental branding. The hotel had been owned privately but became an Intercontinental about a year ago. I asked the guy who showed me the room if they had changed much and he indicated that it hadn't. He didn't seem all that happy that they were the owners now. The desk lobby is fine, lots of old photos, but the elevators and hallways were stuffy. In fact, both elevators were out of order when we were returning to the lobby and we had to take the stairs. As for the room, the mattress on the bed was typically too firm, though the bathroom was large with plenty of marble. Of the three hotels in this area (the other being the Fiesta Americana), the Villa Mercedes probably has the most character, but without a major renovation by Intercontinental I couldn't recommend it.