Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel 4 stars

Absolutely awful place to stay, room dirty, food is awful. Paid over 150 pounds just for the room, no breakfast included. Reception staff rude. I would rather sleep in my car. The building is wonderful, shame about people running it.

I have previously stayed at the same hotel in a privilege room and had an excellent stay. Last January I booked again expecting the same experience. I have been looking forward to my stay for 10 months. When I opened the door to my room on Friday I was very disappointed. The room was dark and cold, and there was no coffee machine. I checked with reception that I had been given the correct room type and was told that room 340 was a privilege room. After going back to the room and realising it was not heating up, I noticed the heating panel was flashing. There was a tiny plug-in radiator which was barely outputting any heat. My partner rang reception to ask for another heater, but was informed that none were available. He had to ring the external hotel phone number after getting no response from housekeeping, maintenance or the internal reception number. We were in Bristol to attend an event I was working at, so needing to contact reception twice on arrival made us late for the event we were attending that evening. The room was so cold that we did not sleep well, and impacted on the rest of our week plans. In addition to the cold there was a loud air extractor opposite the room. It was so loud that it could be heard over sound of a hairdryer. Based on my experience last weekend I will not be booking another stay at this hotel.

I was there for three nights. The heater was not working, first night I had only one portable heater and the second I needed a second one as the room was totally freezed (windows are like paper). I didn't have hot water during the first two days. Other colleagues had similar problems. The hotel offered to upgrade the room but the new one did not work either. It is a pity because the location of the hotel is great and the rooms are comfortable.

I checked into the hotel at 4pm. I was allocated room 335. When I checked in the receptionist told me that there was an extractor van that can be heard in the hotel room which would turn of at around 8pm/9pm. I was also told that there was an event on at the hotel which would end at midnight. This was of little concern as we were going out for dinner from 5:30pm and wouldn't return back to the room to about 9pm. When I returned to room from our evening out, the extractor fan was still on. I expected it to go of at any minute, I then conducted a Google search to see what time the hotels restaurant (keepers bar) keepers & Kitchen bar closed, which was 10pm. I thought I would give them the benefit of the doubt and I waited to see whether the extractor fan would be turned off after they had closed. The extractor fan was very loud in the room and I had to drown own the noise by turning up the volume on the TV. At 22:30 the extractor was still on and I tried to call down to reception several times, but there was no answer, however the noise suddenly stopped, I then contacted the hotel via a WhatsApp chat, to ask the staff what time it was suppose to go off? The staff member replied with apologies and said that they had just turned it off. I asked what time is it likely the extractor will turn on as we were told that breakfast starts at 6am, so we assume that It would come on when the staff start cooking breakfast. The staff members advised that it wouldn't be on until the afternoon, however I know this to be a lie. The other issue arises at 23:30 when I turn of the TV for bed, the room is quiet with the extractor turned off, however people could be heard from outside the room, such as people walking down the corridor, people chatting and doors slamming very loudly. The extractor fan came back shortly after 12am, this stayed on for an hour, I contacted reception via WhatsApp and told them to turn the extractor off at 01:12am, it had been on for a whole hour and it took for me to contact reception to get them to turn it off. Over the duration of the next 45 minutes until two o'clock I was disturbed by other guests from other rooms, at approximately 02:00 there was somebody who had ordered room service, the staff member had banged on a guests door, she was really Loud and I could also hear ask the guest if they had ordered sausage. There was also another Incident where a conversation could be heard by somebody coming and knocking on a door and asking somebody whether he had ordered a prostitute. At this point I wanted to leave the room as it was unsatisfactory and not fit for purpose, I would have been happy for alternative accommodation. I tried to contact the hotel reception on the phone in the room. I contacted on 2424, somebody picked up, but abruptly said "this is not reception" and hung up. I tried to contact reception on the other option on the phone, however there was no answer. At this point I was seriously unhappy and frustrated, I know longer wanted to stay at the hotel and decided that I was going to return home back to Stratford-Upon-Avon. At 02:20am, I went down to reception to check out, I spoke with a manager, there was no offer of an alternative room due to the hotel being fully booked. The hotel manager was apologetic and informed me that he would be more than happy to process a refund, he also offered a complimentary stay. I asked him if he could send an email confirmation, however he did not do that. As a result of this incident I am out of pocket, firstly due to the wasted fuel to get to and from Bristol, secondly due to an experience that we had booked will not refund us the tickets, thirdly we had dinner booked and I will be charged a deposit.

Main thing is the windows in rooms are singled glazed. Don't expect to get any sleep! This is forgetting that the standard room is tiny with paper-thin walls, so if the noise outside doesn't wake you up, your neighbours probably will. The hotel is generally a lot more grubby than in the promotional photos. I cannot believe what they charge given the quality of this hotel, I wouldn't stay again even for half the price.