Mercure Darlington Kings Hotel 4 stars

The standard of service, attitude of some staff, poorly designed rooms and manner in which you need to navigate around the building was very low for an Accor Hotel. Some staff were either plain rude or appeared racist in attitude, what was booked to be a wheel chair accessible room was no where near an accessbile room even at the lowest standard of defining accessible.

Not recognised as Accors gold member. Check in process took too long. Bathroom cleanliness was questionable. Check out at 0800 - nobody was manning desk as both receptionist and other staff were having a smoking break.

I went to Darlington to meet friends for a college reunion, with less than 24 hours to go they started issuing cancellations but without stating a reason, I only got in by refusing to budge but a room was available. They have been doing this apparently for a couple of months, so I cannot recommend this hotel

Let's start on a positive, the staff were great. Ideal location for town centre pubs and shops. We've just returned from a long weekend during a heatwave. We had barely any sleep due too the hotel having no aircon. A fan was available in the room but barely made a difference in the intense heat. As we were a group we were allocated the restaurant to eat. Still no aircon, and whilst it made the dining experience difficult, the poor staff were absolutely frazzled. The food wasn't great either, fairly bland and boiled potatoes and carrots served with every meal. Our room did have a fridge so we were able to keep water cool. Not all rooms have a fridge. Hotel rooms very dated, peeling wall paper, grubby curtains, we rolled to the middle of the bed throughout the night. I wasn't able to flush the toilet at all, even my hubby struggled to get it to flush. Once again I can't fault the staff, they were lovely.

Everything about the the Mercure is brilliant. Rooms were spotless and the Staff so very helpful and friendly, they make this Hotel so special, nothing too much trouble for them. We went with a Group and everyone praised this Hotel. It is placed right in the centre of the town of Darlington which makes everything so convenient. Thank you for a lovey stay.