Mercure Exeter Southgate Hotel 4 stars

My wife and I stayed for one night after taking our daughter back to uni. Hotel billed as 4 star but rooms desperately need refurbishment. Water stain on ceiling, hole in wall (had been filled but not painted over), water outlet in shower tray blocked so it kept filling up, carpet very worn in main traffic areas...to name a few. Didn't use pool, spa or restaurant so can't comment.

Copy of message sent on September 6th direct to the hotel. For the attention of the manager. Mercure Exeter Southgate Hotel From Sep. 01, 2021 to Sep. 04, 2021 Dear Sir/Madam, As former business travellers and now leisure visitors, we know the Mercure brand well in several different countries, Our stay in „privilege“ room 140, was not up to the usual standard for the following reasons: Firstly, the WC flush was incredibly difficult to operate and this fault caused us more trouble than all of the others because of my wife’s arthritis. Then the extractor fan was not functioning at all – someone had a look at both problems without solving them. On the second day of our stay, the hot tap for our sink ceased to have any hot water. Again this fault was reported but not rectified. Only one of the bulbs was working on the bathroom mirror and finally some of the decor had simply been neglected (see photo). Faults were reported but not rectified. We paid in good faith, in advance, for an „upgraded“ room and cannot fathom how your staff can say they will „see what they can do on the bill“. We reported our disappointment immediately instead of giving the hotel a bad review on Tripadvisor but we had to put up with all the inconvenience for the whole of our stay. Please look into this as soon as you can – I have phographs of all the problems should you require them to make a judgement. Yours faithfully, K. Barker

Keys not working, noise throughout the night, pool not open at 8am as scheduled due to "employee" issues, finally open at 10am, but already completely packed, spa & sauna out of order. Covid can be blamed for many things, but ..........

No room service during stay said The staff informed me no rooms cleaned fresh towel or tea coffee refilled Because of covid. No jacuzzi, pool limited hours as staff on holiday. Complained took 3 days to get room cleaned.

I always chose accor for lovely and well maintained properties and friendly staff, but my recent stay at Southgate in Exeter wasn't even close to the hospitality associated with this brand. The room wasn't cleaned properly, the extractor in the bathroom was broken. The curtains looked dirty, the mattresses weren't comfortable. I told this to reception and have been told that maintenance and house keeping have been informed of this issue but things weren't resolved during my 4 night stay. So disappointed!!

Over a two night stay I had many of the poor experiences repeatedly shared in other reviews. Services were limited/suspended, communal areas were neglected (despite resident pets), rooms were overall in poor condition. By the sheer number of problems, it’s as if maintenance wasn’t performed during lockdown. Awful value at £150pn (std, room only). If you are an Accor loyalty card holder, don’t expect any of the standard recognition (I am Platinum).

I have stayed here before in 2020 when problems were put down to COVID-19 but several issues have not been resolved a year on. This hotel is in a fantastic location for Exeter sites, amenities and restaurants. There is plenty of parking for an additional charge and a decent pool. The lobby area is clean and looks ok. Unfortunately, the air conditioning was not working (this was an issue in 2020 so it is not a new problem) and the rooms and furniture look dated. The online check-in facility was not working and when we arrived nearly 1 hour after the check-in time the room was not ready. My family and others were asked to go into town to while away a couple of hours while the room was prepared. This was not helpful after a 4.5 hour journey. I do think that if the hotel is breaching terms and conditions by meeting the agreed check-in then it should offer guests a drink and a place to sit. The staff didn’t phone me to let me know that the room was ready so we took a chance and made our way back. At night we had to keep a window open as the air conditioning was not working. The fan we were given was cheap and noisy so it was difficult to sleep. There was also noise from guests or staff in the car park. Room cleanliness was just about ok but could be much better. There were also issues with my fast check-out. Despite booking to include parking this was not included on the receipt that was emailed to me after we left and I arrived home to receive a penalty notice for parking on day 1 of our stay. This might have been prevented if the hotel would allow people to check-in properly. The reception desk/management team have said they will have the PCN so I’m waiting to see if that issue is resolved.

Have been before and was lovely, but was sorely disappointed with my birthday treat away. The room and floor 3 was in a real state of disrepair. Threadbare carpet, wallpaper peeling off the wall, damp stained pelmet. The phone wasn't working and a bulb was out in the bathroom. I told reception both of these during our trip and nothing was done about them. Really marred mine and my partners trip away.

Hotel advertises Air conditioned rooms. On arrival there was a fan in the room. Reported AC not working on first night and told repair will be prioritised. AC was not looked at and we were asked to use the fan instaed.

Some good and some not so good points with the Southgate hotel. Good; Breakfast, plenty of choice, fresh orange juice and hot food. Pool, good clean pool which was well managed by Jack. Everything was very clean Well positioned hotel short walk to town and quay. Not so good; Broken furniture in first room and no aircon, spoke to reception who said there’s a fan in the cupboard... it’s not aircon is it? Kindly gave us another room, still no aircon but furniture intact. There’s obviously been some investment in the hotel as the bathrooms were new but no extractor means paint peeling already. Restaurant and bar very pleasant but hotel crumbling in many places.

We have stayed at the Mercure for the last few years and enjoyed a relaxing a comfortable stay. Unfortunateley standards have slipped. The room itself was as expected, but the air conditioning was not working, and despite several attempts to rectify, we were left not knowing what was going on and suffering a very warm room. They did make an adjustment on our final bill, but our 3 day stay was spoiled, and we will have to reconsider staying here in the future unless standards improve

Overall our stay was ok. The privilege room we paid £20 extra for didn’t seem much more than a normal room and the bed for us was very uncomfortable! But to be fair, each to their own on what mattress you prefer. The service was ok, the bar seemed under staffed but again with Covid, this could be the truth! The most irritating part of the trip was when I came to leave and had to pay £15 for the privilege of parking my car at their hotel…. They obviously didn’t feel they had charged me enough for one nights stay! To be honest I wouldn’t rush back.

Having stayed at this hotel before I did not give it a thought to look at reviews of stays by other clients. It was with concern after reading the July reviews what I would expect. Arrived at hotel and found things were at first glance were fine apart from car park charge which was £15. Room 350 was good apart from a squeaky bed and a torn net curtain. Breakfast was okay during these covid times, it seemed nobody followed the arrows marked out on floor. We were staying for 3 nights. This is when things went downhill. Room was not made up on any day, had to go to reception to get change of towels, tea coffee milk etc. but our fridge was replenished each day. I was offered free car parking for the 3 nights but had used the city car park (about 200 meters from hotel which has free overnight parking). Received a 50% discount on room price for the first night as compensation. Overall would stay again and hopefully things would be back to normal soon. Big minus point is car parking charge

Unfortunately we were very disappointed this time. Our executive room needed a lot of maintenance (lights in the room not working, light around the bathroom mirror not working), the shower caddy was missing with rusty screws sticking out of the wall in the shower. The coffee maker was broken, we had no slippers and only one hanger in the wardrobe. The room was in need of decorating. After reporting these faults nothing changed for the three nights we were there as no maintenance takes place over the weekend. Also the breakfast was undercooked. We went for dinner in the restaurant the first evening and the tables had been laid with crumbs left on the tables from breakfast, the chairs were full of crumbs and the carpets not vacuumed. This was still at a time when the covid safety cleaning were meant to be still in place, but not acceptable at any time. We had dinner twice in the hotel and the food was fine but they tried to charge us for food that we hadn't had when we came to check out. So disappointing as we stayed a couple of years ago and the service and rooms were brilliant. The only good point for this hotel at this time is its location. We have all suffered during the covid pandemic and we hope that things will improve for this hotel in the future.

Stayed here many times. This stay was 3 nights celebrating our Golden Wedding. Whilst we were told some facilities wouldn’t be available , very upset that the bar was Closed !! What the heck for. Coffee machine in room broken as was handle on bathroom door. Thought that during lockdown all these things would have been maintained. We paid a lot of money basically for just a room . 😱😰