I booked 2 nights with my advantage plus accor Card for my mum and I - We had an oceanview room that overlooked the pool. 2 double beds. The room was spacious and fitted the bill - Only problem was no fan in bathroom and it fogged up quite a bit when showering and could have done with some sort of vent as it was inclined to be damp. Staff were excellent- we thought Ben was lovely and he booked our tour to wild life Safari Park and Port Douglas shuttle. The restaurant was great and with our advantage plus discount we got an excellent dinner for 50% less plus GST. The restaurant staff were charming - Nice kiwi guy and an older man (so though not prone to tipping in Aussie) we gave them a $5 tip each. Not much I know but hey we are Kiwis afterall! Some reviews have said it is too far from action but we loved it. We used the shuttle on the hour- No problems- On our last morning we walked along the esplanade to Main ESPLANADE pool area - which was closed for maintenance- Took us a leisurely 30 mins as Mum has a heart condition. We taxied back as we had a 10.30 am shuttle to Port Douglas and it only cost us $6.50 - so really I don't believe it is too far from action.We could have had breakfast 2 for 1 with advantage plus card but found that we didn't need much more than a yoghurt and a hot drink in the mornings. The Shuttle back from Town commences at 10 am -last one at 10 pm. We found the FREE shuttle easy to use and very convenient. If you get a good deal here don't hesitate to book it- The staff are ALL very obliging.

Stayed in this Hotel in late January. The location is a little along the Esplanade but it is a nice 20 minute walk along to the centre of town, there is a nice cafe selling good Fish and Chips on the way. We did try the Hotel Minibus a couple of times but always seem to miss it. I had paid a little more for a harbour view (got Room 428) but there was also a view of the car park. I think all the rooms with a 'full' view' of the harbour in the other block must have been taken. There was still the issue of bottles being emptied into bins and bins being emptied that a previous reviewer had mentioned but I dont know how you can really prevent this. We spent so little time in the room that we let it go. I booked a couple of tours through reception and these were good. Lisha on reception was excellent and met all our requirements and even found the cheapest tours. All the staff we dealt with were courteous and helpful. We didn't really use the Restaurant but went for bar snacks as I am not really into too fancy food. The potato wedges were excellent and impossible to finish. We had breakfast a couple of times and it was all very good. The internet down in reception was good value but in the room it did seem a little pricey unless you used it a lot. I took the advice from a previous reviewer and paid in Aus dollars rather than my own currency as the difference was about 15%. They offered me both options and clearly showed the rates so the choice is yours. I would stay again but make sure I got the full harbour view.

We spent 1 night here before going out on our overnight reef trip and 1 when we returned before flying out. It is a good enough hotel for such purposes but I wouldn't go there as a destination. Room was ok but air conditioning ineffective and there was no bathroom fan as others have mentioned. Front desk staff very helpful. Appreciated that they gave us a room on the top floor on both occassions.Great views and space to sun if we had been there in the daytime. Found it strange that the restaurant wanted us make reservations instead of drop by. Probably to do with staffing but it was not busy ( at all and we wanted to be spontaneous. Did not care for the dinner menu. Very pleased that they had a laundry room downstairs. If you go down town be sure you know where the shuttle picks you up. I waited and waited in the wrong location(s) and finally walked back.

We stayed at the Mercure Harbourside, Cairns for 10 nights in July ’07, as a base for exploring Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef as part of our around-the-world trip. The hotel is about 15 minutes taxi ride from the airport. When we arrived at the hotel, check-in was prompt and easy and we then headed to our room. The rooms are fairly comfortable with TV’s, kettle, fridge, in-room safe etc. The décor of the standard rooms seemed to vary depending which of the 2 buildings you were in. The hotel itself is located about a 20 minute walk along the esplanade to the harbour. The hotel also provides a complimentary shuttle bus every hour which goes from the hotel to a designated stop. The good thing about this service was that if the bus was full, unlike many hotels, the bus would come back and do another trip to make sure everyone who wanted to use the bus that hour, could. However, I did have a few problems along the way. Firstly, the room is fitted with air-conditioning and a thermostat. In the hotel welcome pack, it clearly says the temperature is adjustable. It’s not. The air-con simply blows freezing cold. Great in the middle of summer – we visited in mid-winter when sometimes it needed a bit of heat, especially as the room we had (mountain view) gets no sunlight. Secondly, the internet. The hotel has 2 types of connection, cable (provided in room) or Wi-Fi. The Wi-fi is cheaper then the cabled connection, however the signal is rubbish. The signal in the room was so poor I could not use what I had paid for (you pre-pay via credit card online to the provider), so reception told me to use the laptop in the lobby where the signal was excellent. The signal was excellent, but it still disconnects every 5 minutes…not very good when every time your in the middle of internet banking, the connection dies! The cable connection is not much better and seriously overcharged us (you pay by the minute). In both cases, the hotel took no responsibility for the internet, saying I had to contact the service providers. I did. They told me the hotel should sort it. Eventually the service provider called the hotel on my behalf and suddenly the hotel could help and credited back some money. Luckily I tried to sort this the night prior to check-out. Had I only discovered we had been overcharged at time of check-out, we would not have had time to contact the service provider and been ripped off. The in-room safes batteries died one day, meaning I had to contact reception to get someone to open it for us. They came…an hour later. Housekeeping never washed the glasses / cutlery provided in the room. If you used the glasses after they had been ‘cleaned’, you could still smell the last drink to have been in them. The bathroom had no ventilation, only a broken extractor fan, and every time you used the shower, the bathroom would be full of condensation for hours. The shower also sprayed more water on the floor, then it did on us. The shower head was very poor and every time the shower was used, there was a giant puddle on the floor. All-in-all, an ok hotel. It’s location is ok, but for not much more money you can stay in a far nicer hotel closer to the action. It’s comfortable, but the staff are simply no help if you have any problems. We booked via lastminute, who rate this property as 4*. It’s not. Clearly a 3*, made to look like a 2* in comparison to other 3*’s I have stayed in around the world.

Booked hotel counting on using their shuttle bus into town. As it happened, the bus was always full (only seats 9 and we are a family of 7 people) and only ran once every hour. As the hotel was full, we never had the opportunity to get a ride in the bus - we always walked to and from town. Just think how tired we all were on the day we returned from our trip to the Great Barrier Reef! Would stay at a place closer to town on a future trip.