I have lived in Guatemala on and off since the 1980s and, since 2008 I've made 15 trips there on business. I usually stay at the Camino Real but decided to try the Mercure Veranda in large part because I needed a hotel with a living room where I could hold a series of business meetings.

Bottom line: I prefer the Mercure to the Camino Real (see below).
Capsule comparison: The CR appeals to people who want 5-star public spaces and who want a pool, working gym, and gift shops on site.
The MV is great for people who need meeting space and who don't want to pay an arm and a leg for amentieis.

The Mercure and the Camino are both rated as luxury hotels; however, only the Camino can truly be considered in the luxury class. The Camino has huge over-the-top public spaces; great gym facitilies; and a bevy of shops that appeal to all pocketbooks. The rooms are small but good. No flat-screen t.v. but the amenties otherwise are great: nice bath products, huge bathroom, slippers, great lighting etc. The Mercure, two blocks away, has a small lobby; no pool, and no luxury bath stuff (at least not my room). In fact, I would have given it five stars but for two features. The Mercure, which posts nightly rates of $185-$240, skimps on the bath products; for example, there is no built-in Kleenex box; instead they give you a little cardboard box with 5 hankies for a three-night stay. The products are Holiday Inn qualtiy. In addition, the lightiing is poor. Note: if you are elderly, the bathtub could be a struggle to negotiate -- it's that high. The second item is the kitchen: you walk in and you have to order the kitchenware. This was a mess, since I had to request it twice and when it arrived there were butcher knives and pots but no silverware or plates. I finally gave up on this one.

Having dispensed with the criticisms, I have to say that the Mercure is a great place and I would stay here again over the Camino for the following reasons:

1. Space: Mercure has two rooms (some rooms also have balcony), Camino is one room.
2. Bedroom: Mercure lighting is more copious than Camino and nice light.
3. Internet: Mercure internet is built into price and works great in your room. Camino charges $10 a day.
4. Room service: Mercure room service is fast and efficient and half the price of the Camino. Camino is fast but expensive.
5. Breakfast: included in room rate at Mercure; buffet breakfast at Camino is $20 and frankly not worth it.
6. Furnishings: with bathroom exception (see above), Mercure is a lot more interesting. My walls and public space walls are replete with posters from the 1970s that are beautiful and thought provoking. I would buy them if management would sell them.
7. Business center: Mercure has three PCs and printer to the left of the lobby. Boarding pass print out is free. Other biz charges are nominal. Camino lets you print out boarding pass for free, but all other biz centers charges are high: a one-page fax to U.S. is over $3.
8. Management attitude: Mercure was great. I had none of the problems described above. 11 pm check-in was over in 2 minutes. Checkout the same. Management seemed eager to please. Camino staff is inconsistent: some are truly helpful and others are rude and unresponsive to legitimate customer concerns. For example, when a family positioned a heavily-armed bodyguard outside their hotel door, across from my own, I told management that this was too close for comfort. Its response: "But you don't know how things are in Guatemala; this is a powerful family." Not a good response for a five-star hotel.
9. Food: Mercure has an on-site restaurant, a Spanish restaurant, that is cozy and reasonable. Food is okay. Its own restaurant, Spicy, is really comfortable. The free breakfast buffet is great, perhaps not as much food as the Camino, but who needs 10 entrees? In addition, I liked the ambiance in the Mercure: it's sunny and there is enogh space between tables to actually hold a private conversation.
10. Security: Perhaps the most important point of all. I think that the Mercure's is superior. There are guys at the door 24/7 and a guest cannot access the guest floors without being given access at the front desk, who also require them to leave identification as collateral. The Camino has a slew of guards (read: goons) all over the lobby, but it's less controlled in the end because you have so many entrances to the Camino. In the end both hotels provide good security but the Mercure, because of its smaller size, seemed to be more in control of things.
11. Location: Weirdly, even though the two hotels are just blocks apart, I like the Mercure's location better. It is three short blocks from Fontabella, a wonderful Spanish-style shopping center with the best bookstore in the region, Sophos. In addition, there is a nice grocery store opposite the hotel where you can buy everything from instant coffee to bottled water to pieces of fresh cake, and save a wad of money, if that's your thing.
12. Miscellaneous: The Mercure has a nice little in-room wine list and they provide some pretty nice wine "of the month" at reasonable prices, far lower than the Camino's.

I read the review of the last reviewer and something similar happened to us.But let me say first: This is a very good hotel at a great location - walking distance to all the restaurants and bars in the Zona 10 and a save zone for tourists. The rooms a spacious and very comfortable and I had a real very good value.
The breakfast could be a little bit more Central American and with more choices - the staff at the breakfast buffet is very friendly and helpful.
But we had to leave one day early and I speak pretty good Spanish - so there should have been no problem. The problem is that the front desk staff does not speak any English and Guatemala has some words different to the ordinary Spanish - so for more or less 25 minutes we had mis-understandings for the word "cancelar" which usually means "to cancel" but in Guatemala they use it as "to pay".
When I made the reservation it said very clearly that my credit card would be charged and in the end we figured out it was not true and extended our stay 25 minutes a morning where we were supposed to get an unexpected bus towards Mexico and we nearly missed our bus then. It seems to us as if the reception staff is not at all trained to give a polite and good hotel service and due to the lack of not speaking a word English they got us into this trouble - that was very un-professional.
I would go back to this hotel - it is really something different to the ordinary city hotels and maybe the company could do something to avoid trouble as the one we had to discover

On the whole, this is quite a nice hotel as the other reviewers have said. For the price of a normal hotel room, you get a two room suite, with a sitting room, with kitchen and a bedroom with en-suite.
The furnishings were OK, although there seemed to be picture hooks were picture should be on the wall’s, but no pictures. The beds were not the most comfortable, which was a shame. The breakfast was OK with a fair range, hot and cold items with cook to order eggs.
However, there were problems which spoilt the whole thing. On my arrival at the hotel around 9pm on a Sunday night, after a very long journey, I just wanted to go to my room and rest. I was confronted with a situation where I was told that there was no reservation for me. I had a booked a special package via the Mercure website that was a very good rate. I showed them the confirmation and gave them the confirmation number, but the desk clerk said that it meant nothing to them and they had rooms, but I would have to pay the going rate. I insisted that they honour the confirmed rate and contact somebody at their central reservation to clear the matter up. This was just met with a reply that at that time of the day, there was nobody to contact and if I wanted a room I would have to pay the going rate. Being faced with being left out on the street in a foreign city late at night and having to look for another hotel, I told them to just give me a room and I would sort it out the following day. I spoke to their Sales Manager the next morning that was very helpful and honoured the confirmed reservation and refund the extra money I had paid for the night before. But it really should never have got to this stage. The way I was treated by a very rude and abrupt desk clerk is not acceptable. There appears to be something very wrong at this hotel’s front desk. The hotel also offers a hotel shuttle service to and from the airport. I contacted the hotel via e-mail on several occasions prior to my arrival and only ever got one reply in Spanish, even though my e-mails were in English. If they couldn’t find my reservation at that time, they could have said. I ended up getting a taxi from the airport on arrival.
I went to Tikal on a day trip and the hotel shuttle took me to the airport in the morning and it was arranged that they would collect me on my return. However, on my return, there was no shuttle waiting and having flown with T.A.G which operates out of hanger 15 at GUA airport and not the normal terminal; I ended up getting the only waiting taxi. Hanger 15 is not the place you would want to be stranded.
This could be a good hotel and I would recommend it, but if you intend staying here, ensure that your reservation is there and don’t bother with the hotel shuttle.

What a beautiful hotel. The rooms are great, the beds are excelent, the view is perfect and the food is superb. I stayed for 4 days and I loved every minute. The wood floors and the furniture make it so pleasant. Every little detail is well thought out. I didn't care for the pictures of the rooms, the halls, they have posters from an old gallery or something and some of the prints were not attractive. Specially in Guatemala were the textiles, the scenery, the colorful towns are so beautiful. The staff is very friendly, very helpful and they try to help, smile. And the area around the hotel seems very safe and you can walk around to restaurants, a couple of shopping centers, etc.