Mercure Box Hill Burford Bridge Hotel 4 stars

Room decor is a tiny bit tired looking, and the breakfast was dismal for £10. But staff are all helpful, cheery and polite.

This is a lovely hotel but is still recovering from Covid. The staff are very pleasant, but the breakfast was very thin and there was no evening food available when we arrived (9:00pm). Sure things will improve as they get back to normal.

There has been no investment in the bedrooms and through the complete hotel. Staff we nice but not properly trained. There were staff shortages. The breakfast offering was very very ordinary and on the two days we stayed the same breakfast was served and on each occasion the breakfast was served differently from the amount of food to things like the first day our fruit smoothie came served in a small wine glass this was lovely the next day it came in a Tetra Pak and no glass and the waxed stew from the pak made the drink taste awful and the straw was so hard to drink through. The bacon was hardly cooked and a different quantity supplied. We had to make our own instant coffee we were never offered a coffee from a machine. Poor menu choices made us go offsite for dinner each night. We visited with another couple the two nights we ate out we spent £400 so you missed out on this revenue. I noticed at the pool that anyone can come to swim from outside the hotel, this meant guests did not get access to the pool at different times of the day and we paid for the privilege?? A staff member informed me he was leaving as he had seen no investment in the hotel in 4 years. I suggest you stay in a room and it will be quite obvious of the problems in your tired rooms.

Please see email I tried to send on the complaints web form: Dear Sir/Madam, I booked this package over the phone with Jelena for the Burford Bridge Hotel. When booking I explained it was for a special occasion and my reason for the late booking was due to our original plan being postponed. My husband and I have stayed and dined at the Burford Bridge many times before and the Emlyn Restaurant has a really good reputation for fine food. Now you can imagine our disappointment when we arrived to learn that the restaurant was closed and our evening meal will be served in the lounge. We accepted this however, William went onto explain that most of the produce was out of stock and that we had very limited choice. We selected our meal when checking-in as this was recommended to ensure they could provide. We basically had one choice for starter out of five and three options for main out of maybe ten meals! They were all curry, not our preference but the only options. Now the list goes on so I'm going to bullet point this so you can understand that we have been sold a package that could not be provided. The package stated that we would have wine, four beers and complimentary soft drinks in our room. This was not the case as the fridge was empty. The wine was provided with our meal after raising this with William (day manager) and my husband only had two beers. We had to pay for one as the barman said that it was not included. There were no bathrobes or slippers in our room. We requested these but they were never provided. The Nespresso machine had no capsules and William explained they do not have any to provide. There are no privilege perks of evening drinks and canapes. There is no gift. When arriving in the lounge to have our meal there were hardly any tables available as most of them were to be cleared. Empty glasses and plates were left for a very long period of time (hotel very under-resourced). Our Red Thai Curry was a vegetarian meal which was not clear on the menu, it was also a microwave meal, certainly not to gastro standard as you would expect from this kind of establishment. There were no menus available for us to check. We requested bottled water for our room for the night and they had none available, so we accepted a jug of tap water. Breakfast was of poor quality, it was literally the size of a childs meal and was cold. No options for the bread that was toasted and was served very thin white bread. Coffee was a dried freeze pack, yet a pot of hot water is put on the table - why not give customers a decent pot of coffee as this is still being served in exactly the same way? Most areas were dusty, glasses/bottles and mugs remained outside our room (not ours) all day and were removed at approx. 11.30pm. My husband and I were so saddened that what was once a lovely hotel has become quite rundown and tired looking. We could have coped with this had the package we paid for had been provided. Karima, who was the evening manager, acknowledged our disappointment and during our meal said that she would refund 50% of the bill. This was processed which we thank her for however, this does not take away the fact that Mercure are advertising and taking bookings for a service that is not available. What should have been a luxury evening away was the complete opposite, way may as well have booked a travelodge - a very basic package of a bed and bathroom. I must point out that the staff at the Burford Bridge were very accommodating, it was noted how stretched they are and very under-resourced. I can imagine they must receive quite a few complaints as they are just not able to meet the requirements of their guests. Hence why I chose to email you directly as they really do not deserve to be moaned at when this is out of their control and are clearly managing all areas of the hotel. We understand that services can alter slightly due to Covid safety measures but really this is not what this is about, this is false advertising. Both my husband & I are key workers and understand fully the impact of Covid and what measures need to be followed. I look forward to hearing from you shortly. Kind regards, Cheryl C.

Everything was great and in covid times things are hard so breakfast wS very strange and could have been done better

I've already logged a formal complaint been advised i would received a call from the general manager still waiting !!!

Briefly it was the most disappointing hotel experience I’ve ever had. Was looking forward to it and it’s totally down to poor ownership. The staff could not cope so service was awful, it was dirty throughout, not dust but grime everywhere and litter around the pool and gardens. Breakfast was rubbish. Shockingly awful stay. Would not recommend.

Friendly professional staff were always on hand to make your stay as comfortable as possible.

Unfortunately this is the worst Mercure hotel we have ever stayed in, dirty corridors, windows that would not close, stair carpets in very bad state of repair, bedside light not working, large unhygienic crack in bathroom sink, not the ground floor we had requested, due to my husbands COPD, as we paid over £200 for this level of service which was not acceptable, I feel some compensation is due and fair , I also have photographic evidence for the above.

Disappointed with limited lounge menu as restaurant closed. Out of four choices for a hot main course, three of them were curries and the other was a spicy pasta. Not great if you don't like spicy food. Don't think enough emphasis is placed on quality of food during the covid restrictions.

We came for a half term stop over, and lucked out with the weather, which meant we could make use of the swimming pool, which we found to be well maintained. The real downer for us was lack of food; one coeliac couldn’t have any dinner and the children ended up with garlic bread as you ran out of pizza. Be good if you could get the coffee machine going too!

Understaffed and neglected hotel in a great location. What a shame that Mercure are allowing it to get into this state, leaving visitors feeling frustrated and disappointed.

As above. Insufficient staff. Limited dinner menu and service so slow that we left and went elsewhere. Breakfast dreadful. Staff seemed over worked and disenchanted. Room was clean and comfortable.

Hotel very understaffed and it showed. However all the staff remained very professional in difficult circumstances.

Our first experience with a Mercure hotel. Stayed in 312, Room wasn't ready at our arrival at approx 7pm, still needed cleaning. Finally got into the room when returning to the hotel at 10pm. Room wasn't cleaned properly and had a bad Moth infestation namely around curtains and crawling out from under the bed and furniture, infestation seems to have been ignored and now there is missing patches of carpet and moth eggs visible over the floors - due to the late time of check in and the fact the hotel was fully booked due to a wedding event over the bank holiday, a room change wasn't possible unfortunately. Bug splatters on every wall surface and food left on the carpet from previous guests where room was rushed clean and carpet was not vacuumed. On top of this the room wasn't cleaned between our 2 night stay either. Hotel also appeared understaffed, reception and bar posts often empty and hotel guests waiting about or walking around trying to find a member of staff.