Mercure Exeter Southgate Hotel 4 stars

We had a very poor experience at the Mercure Southgate hotel. It started at check-in, when the gentleman on the desk was generally unfriendly, wearing his mask below his nose (what is the point?) and failed to recognise my silver member benefits (again, what's the point?). We had to ask about arrangements for breakfast - we didn't bother eventually as is didn't sound appealing. The hotel itself is tired and badly in need or a refurb; we stayed in a privilege room but it really looked like it hadn't had a lick of paint in 10 years, the woodwork in the bathroom had significant water damage, and the bed was lumpy and uncomfortable. We also discovered a long black hair in the bed which was definitely not one of ours! Overall, a poor experience that we don't want to repeat and I suspect we'll stay at the Jury's Inn or somewhere in future when we visit family in Exeter.

It was a good stay, as always- I have been to the hotel many times and so know what to expect. We booked for some relaxation in the pool and jacuzzi in the afternoon of our arrival, but were informed the spa was closed on our arrival. No offer of compensation was made and no real apology. This was very disappointing and may have affected our decision of whether we stayed or not, had we been informed prior to our arrival. We had a flexible rate and so could have cancelled.

Good comfortable hotel in a central position. We have visited this hotel on a number of occasions in recent years and regard it as one of the better Mercure hotels we have stayed at. The hotel had excellent Covid related precautions in place and staff seemed very clear about what was necessary to protect guests. The only grumble is the price of parking in the car park. £15 on top of what you pay for room, etc is pretty extortionate - don't go for the argument that this is the going rate for the City.

Stayed with you before . Great hotel . Pity the bar didn’t open until 6pm

My partner and I are stayed here for a week for leisure, and we loved it there! We felt like we were part of a family.

Overall clean and comfortable. Service for the evening meal was slow. Quite a time before our order was taken with a wait of over half an hour before the food appeared. Disappointed that certain facilities were not available on the evening we arrived. Arrangements for breakfast worked well.

Generally good , though corridors were full of dishes glasses out side of rooms that stayed there for nearly all the weekend we were there . In our room the bath room had a curly hair on the toilet and a hair on bath which did make us question the cleaning . A few of the other guests were walking around without face masks and staff didn't question .

Given the difficulties you have had to negotiate with Covid you did really well in giving the guests a fairly normal stay, thanks.

First room was not to standard but staff very helpful with changing to another room which was good. Only down turn was the parking charges of £15.00 per day, which should not be applicable if staying at the Hotel. I have stayed in many hotels were parking is free even stayed in a Castle resort in the North were this did not apply.

We have stayed in the hotel many times before and always find it a peaceful and relaxing place. Pleasant rooms, friendly staff. We were disappointmed with the evening meal menu though on our stay last year (fish and chips, burgers and pizza) and again this recent stay. However, we will probably stay with you again.

This is one of our favourite hotels and we have stayed her about 7 times. The staff are always excellent but we feel the hotel is looking tired and in need of an update

Coping well with the COVID restrictions ...

The hotel is a mediocre, but overall is good value for money compared to other hotels in the city.

Lovely Hotel, staff very helpful, a very comfortable bed , the room was large and clean but a little dark but otherwise couldn’t fault our stay and will absolutely return

I arrived for a single night stay in the Mercure Exeter Southgate Hotel on a Thursday at 2pm, left my car in the attached car park (£15 per night as a hotel guest, payable on departure - reasonable price for a city-centre hotel - make sure you input your reg at reception when you arrive) and check in was quick and efficient, with the now common perspex screens on the reception desk and masks being worn. I had booked a Privilege Room and I may as well get the 2 negatives out at the start. The reason I booked that class of room is because I like a nice shower and there was supposedly a "rainfall" shower. It looked and behaved like a regular shower head to me, though the shower cubicle itself was spacious. The other reason is because I like a decent coffee and these rooms are supposed to have Illy Coffee Machines in them. There wasn't. It was a kettle and a tube of freeze-dried coffee. Later on in the day I did query the latter with reception and they said they had supply issues of the pods from Illy so had removed the machines from the rooms. Unasked I was offered tokens for the bar (which I didn't take) as compensation. which I thought was a nice touch. In the room I had 2 Zoom/Teams meetings booked and the internet quality was certainly good enough for video conferencing. The room itself was very clean and I felt comfortable that the hotel housekeeping staff were doing everything they could to ensure my safety as a guest. The TV is a very old flatscreen and could do with updating, but it worked fine (excepting some dead pixels) and I didn't spend long enough in the room to make much use of it. Other facilities in the room where as expected. Plenty of storage space if I was to stay for a few days. I didn't eat in the hotel in the evening as a very short walk takes you into the centre where there are a number of restaurants, not for breakfast. Checkout was pleasant and speedy, with parking being added onto the payment card. Overall an excellent stay, great customer service and only slightly led down by those issues of being an older hotel that is probably in need of a refurbish, and not being able to make a nice cup of coffee in the room/ Recommended.