Mercure Exeter Southgate Hotel 4 stars

Hotel looking tired especially with trays left outside rooms for long periods Room good apart from poor quality towels and below average selection of TV channels

Great except for the disco music being too loud and my changed wine order not being correct.

The bed was comfortable and the room was warm. The fridge and kettle were very useful, as was the lift, as we were travelling with a small child. We enjoyed the pool. We could hear the f. in the next room, who were quite loud.

Never stayed at the Mercure before but wanted something that was convenient for N Y Eve. This ticked every box!

Our room was fine, and staff very helpful and pleasant. However, breakfast was a little disappointing; not the same standard as it used to be ~ There was no choice of eggs, from a menu on the breakfast table as there used to be ~ Also, freshly made tea and coffee in individual pots seems unavailable now; surely a Four-star Hotel should offer this. We were also missing some of the usual items, such as yoghurts and small pots of honey, marmalade and the like. The cooked breakfast was good, ‘though things seems a bit chaotic at times when guests were waiting for replenishments. All in all, breakfast does not seem Four-star at the moment. ....Saying all this, we are staying at the Mecure Southgate again, in a couple of weeks, so hopefully we will see improvements at breakfast. Many people who use the Hotel are of the same opinion as ourselves, regarding breakfast.

Ground floor and swimming pool was lovely. Staff were amazing and lovely breakfast. I had a meeting and then stayed over with my husband and 1 year old. The room was awful. Carpet was wore out and drawers were broken. It was really tired. Shower was a strange fitting for a shower/combo but it still worked. Really let the experience down.

The main problem was the New Year dinner which started very late because of the staff trying to accommodate late arrivals, and they never managed to catch up meaning the dinner took 3 hours to service which left very little time for dancing following the meal. We booked and stayed for 3 nights, but reception seem to have a problem with this and the card to unlock our room was cancelled out the second and third night so we were unable to access the room each afternoon.

The whole stay was well below my expectations, had to move room and even then the new room wasn’t much better

Very nice hotel, but didn’t understand why you charge for the car park for residents. In the bar you have no bar snacks which was disappointing, perhaps you could make money from that to fund free parking for residents! It’s just when the car parking is 20% of the stay you do notice it, perhaps a clean included?

Disappointing - the heating didnt work in the room ... in January! We were provided with a plug in radiator ... room service (club sandwich) arrived stone cold. Only decaf coffee provided in both the sachets and the Nespresso machine. Switch on hair dryer difficult to switch on ...

Hotel was nice but room was filthy thick with dust and used tissue a comb ear buds hairs in the sink no mattress protector and a sheet that didn't fit.

Check in was more timely and it was clear that efforts had been made for us after our previous comments and Craig also checked this with us. The housekeeper checked with us on two occasions that our room had been serviced which was appreciated and a much warmer reception than that given by a previous housekeeper when we’d had a malfunctioning toilet flush on another occasion. Breakfast was very pleasant. On booking for an evening meal in the restaurant it may have been helpful to know that it would be the Bar and Lounge menu being offered and not the full evening menu on display in the entrance/lobby. We heard another family reconsidering whether they would take up their table reservation once they realised this. Having said that the meal we chose was lovely and the fish cooked to perfection. Louie was helpful and new reception team member Helen was very welcoming and made a point of acknowledging that we are regular visitors.

We have used this hotel before. Location is good. Cleanliness of both public areas and room was good. Booking administration was perfect. Service on arrival was perfect. The dining experience was a big let down. We had booked for the three night stay from Christmas Eve to 27th December. Christmas Eve dinner was poorly organised, our menu choices were not available and being among the last to dine (at our booked time of 8 pm), we had what was left!! Christmas lunch drinks and canapes was poorly organised and muddled. There was no meet and greet, the canapes were non existent and we had to find our own drinks. While the food was up to standard, the administration of serving was even more chaotic than the previous evening - serving staff had no idea of which menu choices had been requested by which tables. considering that choices had been recorded on spreadsheets, why weren't the choices printed on the table name cards? Boxing Day evening meal was of very low quality. It was bland and tough to eat. The potatoes and vegetables gave the impression of being reheated from earlier in the day, if not the previous day. There was no indication of arrangements for wine at the dinner table. Bar staff didn't know if they were expected to provide a table service and in fact made no attempt to do so.

As always, we enjoyed our stay at Mercury Southgate. The hotel was busy coping with a wedding and Saracens RFC. We were in a privilege room and it was not up to usual standard - small towels, no biscuits and only still water ( we asked for sparkling but were told not available). Lady in charge of breakfast on Monday 30 December was wonderful. We will be back.

Unfortunately you were catering for the New Eve's Ball and those guests seemed to take precedence over the normal paying guests. The breakfast was unusually bad and in fact we weren't even asked about our stay because I think so many guests complained about the breakfast. You were short staffed and the food was not topped up and what was there was cold and greasy. It was a shame.