Mercure Bristol Holland House 4 estrelas

Comfortable bed but room was very hot and the controls were broken. The room did need a deep clean, fridge had something that was very suspicious, a similarly revolting stain on the wall. I have had better burgers at McDonalds for half the price and hot unlike last nights. There was ‘government contract people’ staying, young men hanging around the entrance smoking and children running around in public areas (families in a small room is not good for them. I was looking forward to using the gym, this was closed with no warning on website. Breakfast was missing a number of items such as baked beans. Overall very disappointing and unsafe feeling for a lone female travelling, this further evidenced by the grumpy security guard at the entrance.

We did enjoy our stay here – a good night’s sleep and a decent sized, comfortable room with some nice touches following our upgrade to a ‘privileged’ room. Location really good just 5-10 minutes from most of the city centre and right next to the harbour areas. As the saying goes, though, a business is only as strong as its weakest link. There are some weak links in this business and whilst they are only small, they’re actually some of the fundamentals of running a hotel and to the basics of guest satisfaction. Firstly, who decided to put Nespresso machines in the better rooms but then equip them with mugs that wouldn’t fit? And this is not even a close thing. Then in a double room, who decided that three Nespresso pods would be the right number for a possible two person occupancy? If both people fancied two cups of coffee when they woke up then someone was going to go without! Housekeeping was somewhat perfunctory and later non-existent. Three towels were changed, the coffee pods were refreshed and we were left two teaspoons (which we had asked for as there were none in the room when we arrived), the bin was emptied. That was it. Milk cartons weren’t topped up (black coffee anyone?) sugar sachets weren’t topped up and some water from a slightly leaky coffee machine hadn’t been cleaned up. Coffee machine hadn’t been cleaned either (you can see from the big cup/small coffee machine photo). Slightly strangely our coffee mugs were still there, dirty and in the same place we left them. You know what. Mistakes happen. So we contacted reception (they use whatsapp for business which is quite handy) when we got back and found the housekeeping problems at 12.30pm. They confirmed they’d ‘’informed them, sorry about that’’. We went out again and returned at 4.30pm. No-one had attended so I contacted reception again. Again apologies were offered and a pledge to pass this on. We returned after an evening out, around 11pm. No housekeeping. So I informed reception in the morning and we washed our cups up in the morning. We used our own milk and sugar which we’d bought for our onward journey. Breakfast was a good variety of hot and cold buffet. But on both the mornings we were there, the hot food suffered from ‘buffet-heat-lamp’itis. You know when food (like bacon or scrambled eggs) has been under the heat lamp for too long it starts to dry out and toughen up. Plenty of other choices on offer but the hot food was in part unappetising. The gym or ‘Fitness suite’ is closed. I was looking forward to that. But at least the weather was ok and I could get outside for a run instead. And a run around the harbour area is very pleasant. The rear half of the hotel seems to be part of the Home Office contingency accommodation programme for asylum seekers. In the main, this does not seem to interfere with the running of the hotel for paying guests albeit there’s a security guard in reception which is slightly disconcerting. But coming back in the evening, in the dark, there were on several occasions small groups of young men hanging round close to the entrance and my wife commented that if she’d been on her own, she’d have been intimidated by this when it’s dark. The hotel in previous posts has stated that they can’t be responsible for what people do outside, but I think that’s ducking the issue of vulnerable individuals feeling safe in the environs of the hotel. A few little things I’d certainly hope are improved if I stay again. This hotel has potential to be a 4 or 5 out of 5.

First impressions were good. Hotel was well located and reception clean and open. We were greeted by Marta who was just lovely and upgraded mine and my friends rooms to “privilege rooms” She was friendly and welcoming, a real asset to the hotel. The room was huge but the decor was a little tired. However the bed was comfortable and the shower was excellent. I slept really well and the staff allowed us to leave our bags at reception while we travelled round Bristol. They even helped us to find somewhere to get out nails down. Great wee hotel and a lovely stay!

Arrived, given our room.hotel booked by my friend. Wasn't the most welcoming of greetings, but we were dealt with quickly. The hotel was in a exercellent location for us. The room itself was fine, clean, slightly chilly late on, negative would be, the towels were not changed second day in. I'd expect them to be, as any hotel you would stay in. The breakfast was okay. we were a bit late up, and it was probably close to finishing, and found most of the trays empty. Second day, was fine, no issue, enjoyable start to the day. Litterally read some of the reviews, noticed a few say about young guys hanging around the place, noticed that, but nothing sinister that we came across. But some parts of Bristol, weren't the most comfortable places to feel safe walking around at night, with groups of youths in dark clothing, masks at night. Yeah, the hotel overall, wasn't too bad.

I have visited many hotels both in the UK and abroad and this hotel is one of the worst that I have ever had the misfortune to stay in. We thought we would treat ourselves and stay in something a bit upmarket when visiting Bristol for our sons 40th birthday. Our choice was a bit mistake!!! Firstly, we needed to change our first day to a day earlier and were charged £50 despite them saying that there were happy to do so, but to check with Expedia first, even though we hadn't booked through them!!! We have never driven in the city centre and it is a complete maze of double roads changing to single lane ones going in different directions. Having found the hotel there is no obvious way of getting into the carpark, but also no signage, so we had to park up in the side road and go into reception to find out. There is nothing in the car park to inform you about how you pay for it and we ended up helping two other couples out ourselves after we had found out that you had to go into reception and book it in. We weren't actually told this at reception, we had to ask about it. The reception area itself at nighttime is quite dark and uninviting. We were 'greeted' by a new employee who had been left on his own by his senior to book us in and he seemed to have little idea on how to deal with the computer, so it seemed to take a long time. We were then presented with a bill for £34 on top of our £50 for two days car parking, so an additional £84 on top of our original booking price!! When the senior receptionist arrived there was absolutely no acknowledgment that we were there. She just spoke to her colleague and took off again. The room itself has dim lighting. The wardrobe had a complete wasted centre section, with a fixed panel. One side had hanging space and the other side housed a safe and trouser press. There wasn't a drawer to be found in the room to put underwear and socks, so we had to use our suitcase to store them!! The bathroom was huge but had very limited toiletries and rather small towels for a larger person. The hairdryer had to be used in the main room, rather than the well lite bathroom but I could have dried my hair by blowing on it quicker than using the hairdryer, so weak was it's power!!! We discovered from our son, later that evening that we had probably driven in the clean air zone, which was never mentioned before or during our booking in, which would have been helpful. The next afternoon, when we arrived back at the hotel, there were five members of staff behind the counter!! One of them looking very untidy with a white/dirty grey tee shirt rather than a proper collared shirt. When we spoke to someone, who appeared to be the manager, to seek some help with how to pay the clean air zone payment, his manner was extremely curt, saying that he didn't know because he doesn't drive!!! He did look it up on line for us, but you would expect some knowledge given that the hotel is in the zone. When we returned to the hotel after our night out, the main door was closed and signposted to a side door, with a sign to press the button to get in, so we pressed what we thought was the button, but it was a bell. The night porter pointed out another button, which opened the door, rather than apparently calling him, which was on the end of a handrail, below eye level so not obviously visible to the eye. Consequently, I would not recommend this hotel to anyone staying in Bristol. The staff could do with some professional development on how to smile and engage positively with customers... Maybe they are just used to business people staying there who they feel need to be dealt with in a very business like manner? It certainly isn't a welcoming environment. They could provide so much more information on their booking confirmation to be upfront about charges and directions. It's certainly put us off of visiting the city centre again in the foreseeable future. What should have been a stress-free few days in a 'nice' hotel, as a bit of a treat turned into a big disappointment. A stay at one of the cheaper hotels, a little way out of town, as experienced by several other family members, would have been significantly cheaper and much more carefree..... With breakfast thrown in!!!