Mercure Winchester Wessex Hotel 4 estrelas

Whilst the location (which is excellent) and the hotel lobby looked good. there is not a single other endearing feature about this hotel. The room was terrible….past its prime 20 years ago at least…tiny, grotty, uncomfortable and hot (despite it only being warm outside). Every single fitting in the room was worn and marked, the carpets horrible to walk on (I used socks and never bear feet) and the bed - butted up against a wall - was uncomfortable. The breakfast was okay, although the bacon and sausages were very undercooked for my liking. The hotel was relatively inexpensive for the location, but on a Wednesday night, I suspect there wasn’t a huge amount of trade to push the prices up much beyond my rate anyway. I really should have mentioned my experience to the management, but they were having too much of a comfortable chit chat in the breakfast room to be disturbed. I hope the hotel is in the planning phase of a major refurbishment….believe me it needs it….stay at your peril!

We had a Gin and tonic afternoon tea. Beautiful view of the cathedral, lovely food and friendly staff. Free parking for hotel guests for 2 hours if you are using the restaurant. Entrance to the car park and parking spaces are very narrow though.

Wish we had believed the negative comments we read before booking. Wow wow wow, we can only confirm what is written there and do NOT recommend this hotel at all. It needs a thorough renovation process or better : rip it down entirely and build a new hotel. We had arrived at 13.30 hrs not realising that check-in time is only 15.00 hrs. After about 20 minutes the young guy at the reception gave us the "first room available". Here we go, to room 2005 indicating at the door "Mercure Privilège". Oh la la, must be a better room than the standard rooms. Wrong thinking. Everything in this room was old - and I mean O L D . Just look at the carpet (see photo), threadbare or did we really walk on a bare concrete floor ? Breakfast was okay, quite a good selection, the only thing positive in this hotel. In front of th elevator was still the placard showing the Christmas 2022 events in the hotel, 4 !!! months later. Does anyone in this hotel feel responsible to remove this stand with the placards ? Do they have any management at all ? For the condition of the room the hotel rate was a small rip off. Parking is underneath the hotel, 15 Pounds per night, very limited parking and very tight , but at least you are guaranteed that car roof is not clean anymore the next morning.

Stayed here on the weekend of 12th - 14th, the room in slightly dated, one light didn’t work and couldn’t phone down to reception as phone was broken. Had dinner Saturday night, was good but staff little less attentive.. breakfast on Saturday and Sunday was probably the best I’ve had in a hotel I’ve traveled everywhere, the hot items were cooked perfectly… the chef kept the buffet topped up with fresh food constantly, also had some good interactions with the residents. Parking is tricky and very tight for a big car (we had a Tesla) £15 overnight not bad for Winchester. Will definitely return!

Great hotel, great location, very helpful staff. Stayed here for an event evening, ideal location for the city centre, staff were brilliant with dietary needs, spoke with them before hand and they kindly arranged an alternative to the set menu for me, couldn’t fault them at all. Breakfast was also good, thoroughly enjoyed our stay