Mercure Banbury Whately Hall Hotel 3 stars

Staff are a credit to the hotel - very good. Breakfast very good too. Enjoyed our stay.

Staff were very good - all of them; food was excellent. Organisation and staff management seem poor - there was never anyone at the bar; always a long wait for drinks / coffee if a staff member could be found. First day - we had a late lunch in the bar - staff member was unaware of the menu and we only discovered later there was a bar food menu. Early evening we went to the bar for a drink after being out all afternoon - our lunch dishes had not been collected. There were continual issues about charging items to our room. When we were settling the bill items - including dinner and drinks on Friday night had not been charged. I had signed the bill in the restaurant but it had not found its way to the room bill. Dinner Friday night was very good; the first bottle of wine we selected was not available and neither was the second and so we had our 3rd choice. Surprising as the wine list is not long.

We had a two day event, during which we were very well looked after.

Apart from no hot water on first morning of my stay the overall experience of my week was adequate .

The corridor to my bedroom had no heating. The bedroom had no heating. When I complained to the receptionist (as soon as I arrived) and asked for another room I was told the hotel was full. When I spoke to the front of house team in the restaurant, I was advised the hotel was not full. The receptionist told me to use the heater in the wardrobe. This was a tiny heater which did not heat my room let alone the bathroom. The heated towel rail which carried a warning "Hot" sign did not work. There were hairs in the plug hole in the sink. It was disgusting. The shower sprayed ALL OVER the floor, out the sides of the curtain, out the end of the bath. The floor was absolutely saturated after one shower. As the heated towel rail didn't work, the bath mat simply sat in a puddle all night. In the restaurant at dinner, there was a large party of foreign gentlemen who were incredibly loud and quite rude, yet the staff cramped us all in to a small seating area instead of leaving them to one area of the restaurant and the other diners/residents the comfort of utilising the rest of the large restaurant. There were approx. 75% of the other tables with their chairs folded against the tables - it felt like you were inconveniencing the staff by dining there. Receptionist had no discretion when announcing to a single lady travelling what room I was in, she infact announced it in the open reception area where there were two other guests within earshot. Bathroom floor also dirty with dark hairs on. Spiders and cobwebs on ceiling. Overall felt v. grubby. Waitress in restaurant had dark greasy hair, when i arrived for dinner she put her hands through her hair and said "what can i get you" - clearly no sense of good hygiene and v.unhappy that she was serving my food. She didn't know what wines you did by the glass. Terrible service.