Very good place for the price. Okay, the place is old, and you can clearly see that a lot of work would be needed to restore it 100%. But other than that, everything is well maintained. Things can be old but clean, for what I care (and that is the case here). Staff is really friendly and helpful, breakfast is good, room is large enough for a couple. Having a balcony with a small kitchen is a great idea. AC was noisy but efficient. Only one thing one must consider: renting a car FROM THE VERY FIRST DAY. The hotel is kinda remote so don't expect to be able to do anything or go anywhere without a car.

This hotel is located on a rocky waterfront, some distance from lively activity or even a main road. Having said that, it had a relaxed evening atmosphere with live cadence music, pool and tablefootball and the somewhat americanised menu was well executed. This all ended quite early at around 9pm. Breakfast was just ok, I'm afraid. The aparments were air conditioned and self catering, with the kitchenette curiously located on the balcony. The staff were very friendly and helpful and there is a large swimming pool which had an extensive shallow area, well suited for children, at one end. Spending only one night meant, there was no opportunity for me to try the hotel boutique, as in French territories, there is little commerce on Sundays. The locally produced souvenirs were well priced and quite quaint.

Some visitors are not very pleased about Residence Mercure Diamant. I was there the second half of SEPTEMBER 2010 and for me it was excellent. *** So NOT the month I did mark***

- Food not ok? Well, I used the kitchenette, cooked myself. The nearby supermarket ED I did buy food and drinks for the whole period before bringing the car back. For only 109 Euros I had plenty of food and drinks for 15 days...

- Too many people in the swimming pool? Well, on sundays indeed; but even then it went calm soon, since the sun sets already at 06:00 PM. Swimming pool was excellent!

- Location beautiful but isolated? Indeed, a car is needed if you want to visit the island. But simply looking at google earth you can already know this.

- Dirty rooms? To me it was ok. The only dirty came from the birds on the balcony. So never leave food at the balcony.

- Expensive? Not if booked on the internet, ( 70 euros/night for two persons ); cooking ourselves it was really worth the price

- Bad smells? I can not judge the ones who did have that, this must be very unpleasant indeed. But I never noticed in our room.

- Slippery if raining? Maybe if wearing not the proper shoes, I did not notice.

- Staff was very helpful to me ( Maybe because I speak French?). The internet was always working and the AC too. AC was even often not needed, frequent rains did cool enough.


So nothing to complaint? Yes, some little things:

- Fridge on the balcony shoud be placed inside, it had not enough power to cool in the humid heat, everything was wet inside it.

- A piece of beach would be nice.

- Swimming in the pool should be allowed at own risk all night.

Kind regards, Eric

This hotel has some good features, and some very bad ones.

The good stuff:
Right on a cliff with a fantastic view on the sea and on "Cap Diament" (A small Island).
Nice pool.
Helpful and kind staff, except for maybe one employee.
The rooms are decent, especially if you take into account the notion of "ratio quality - price" of this otherwise expensive island.

Now, the bad stuff:
The food served at both restaurant is horrible. I mean really really horrible. Even simple meals such as roasted chiken or cheesburgers were messed up to the point that, one night, they got both I and my wife sick.
And this problem was made worst by the fact that the taxis are unwilling to come to pick you up at the hotel unless you offer them "a long ride". In other words, we could not espace the resort by taking a taxi and eating at the city nearby; and it was otherwise a 25 minutes walk with no real sidewalks.

So, would I recommand this hotel? Certainly not to those who do not have a rental car that would allow them to espace the two worst restaurants I have encoutered in my entire life as a savvy traveller.