Mercure Cardiff Holland House Hotel & Spa 4 estrelas

It’s a nice hotel with good facilities and lovely staff. No complaints there. We were a group of ten, staying for two nights and eating in at the hotel both evenings, so we spent a fair bit of money. We got back to the hotel at 22:50 for a nightcap and we’re told the bar was closed. Reception said it closes at 23:00 but said management said it closes sometimes earlier. This is a big hotel in the capital of Wales closing before last orders. We came back early to have a last drink together. So even though it’s a minor thing it was a completely rubbish ending to a good trip. Not at all acceptable in a big hotel I’m afraid.

I should have listened to the negative reviews and chosen somewhere else to stay. Lots of options in Cardiff! Terrible experience from start to finish. Extremely poor value for money. I have stayed in better Travelodge Hotels at £42 per night! - Hotel is tatty and run down inside and out - 25mins queue to check in then 10mins+ wait every time you want to use lift (which is often as the hotel has 15 floors! Only 1 lift out of 4 is working and working "just about" - ancient and creeky and sounds like it may give up any moment! - only stairs to all floors (if you don't want to wait for lift) are round the back of hotel, via outside (rain!), past some bins and service areas and the stairwell is essentially a maintenance one not really meant for public usage. - Spa if you can call it that was dirty and run down (steam room not working and looked filthy, pool water cold and unclean and poll is only 1.25m in depth throughout, changing rooms dirty, sauna fits about 2.5 people. I've been to nicer public pools in inner city London) - I needed to change rooms at about midnight on the first night because the room (and the bed headboard) was next to the only working lift which everytime it is used sounds a bit like a freight train passing next to you so chance of sleeping is zero. You could hear it even in the new room which was away from the lift (probably because there's about 3cm gap between the bottom of the door in the room and the floor which means you hear absolutely everything in the hall. The lift pings every time it arrives and you hear that too!) - staff very lackluster but I think the management is to blame not individual staff who are clearly stressed by lots of people complaining about lifts and queuing, probably underpaid so not exactly smiley warm and welcoming.

Rooms lovely and big , hotel fully booked and only 1 lift operating!!!.over 20 mins waiting to then go up to our room and the key doesn’t work ,another wait for the one lift to go back to reception, who apologised and gave us a free drink at the bar . Didn’t book breakfast before as was told we could pay on the day, that’s a no no !!?.breakfast booked £10 I booked 16.95!!!!!! Disgusting. Don’t think I would rate it 4 star but hey ho .

Booked the hotel as I was involved in organising a conference there which was booked and paid for in advance. Arrived to the conference room at the time at which there should be coffee and pastries set out to find the room a tip from the event night before and no sign of the coffee. Asked twice for a manager but nobody was forthcoming, had to make a fuss to get someone to come and take responsibility for their incompetence - I do slightly feel for the poor guy who came as he looked like he’d just rolled out of bed but the excuse that the event had finished at 4:30am doesn’t wash, we paid good money in good faith and had a written contract of what should be provided and when. Eventually we got the room so we started late and it set our timings awry for the whole day. Dietary requirements as written in the contract were not followed so at lunch meaning the chef had to hurriedly cook something suitable. I have already emailed the events manager to enquire about at least a partial refund. That aside out of 4 lifts now only 1 is working and there doesn’t appear to be a stair case going to all floors, you have to go outside the building to access any stairs. It would be a joke but as a paying guest I’m afraid my sense of humour doesn’t stretch that far when my room is on the 15th floor. The sad thing is despite no staff appearing to have had any training or management they were at least pleasant overall (apart from the rude bouncers telling everyone to go to bed in the early hours in the bar) and my room had clearly recently had a refurbishment which is really nicely done. Breakfast was also very good especially considering it’s a buffet but it desperately needs more than 1 coffee machine. There’s potential here and it’s a good location but an awful lot needs to be done to bring this hotel up to what could be considered a bare minimum of service standards, otherwise it just fits into the category of yet another underwhelming Mercure.

Lifts broken, an hour at checkin, tiny underground carpark broken ventilation humming all night outside room window. totally impossible to sleep. when staff not run off their feet moving tables for events down stairs they were polite. Doing this at the same time as check in rush was unhelpful. location close to city centre