Mercure Preston Samlesbury 4 stars

Unimpressive

The third rebrand seemingly in as many years has brought about a transition into a respectable business hotel. Sadly the very corporate "grey and grey" colour schemes here have made the Samlesbury Hotel even colder and more impersonal than previously was the case, this is not a hotel that I would choose for a leisure break of any kind. The menu in The Five Bar Gate Restaurant is simple, but the couple of items that I tried off of it were excellent and represented reasonable value for money. It remains however superbly located for a business person in the area, allowing easy access to Preston, Blackburn and towns such as Burnley, Nelson and Colne further afield. Being just five minutes from (but out of earshot of!) the M6 it is perfectly located for onward North / South travel too.

Stayed 5 nights. Dined 5 nights. Restaurant bill incorrect on 3 of 5 nights. Finally on the day I left there was a final attempt at overcharging by listing my meal and drinks for Wednesday evening twice on the bill.

Amazing decor, ean hotel, very nice hotel, would highly recommend.

Not bad but the unusable WiFi in the room meant overall experience not good.

Friendly staff and manager but no two stays are ever the same. I order the same meal each time yet the price changes price and only ever goes up. Last bill was £28 for two chicken breasts, spinach, peas and carrots. When this was first ordered a couple of weeks earlier it was circa £19 which left change for a drink as I have a £25 allowance. There have been a number of other issues but they have already been raised directly with the Manager who handled the situation professionally. Wifi is very poor to non-existent on most of my visits when trying to work from the room which is not convenient. Remote controls in rooms could do with a clean as most I have seen/used have been filthy. Water machine in gym does not work properly. Toilets in bar area have not had toilet paper in the past and on another visit the toilet paper roll was left on floor and had gotten wet. On the plus side, staff are welcoming and friendly, beds are comfy and rooms are to a good standard. I have stayed in a number of hotels in the surrounding area and have found that the Mercure is the best of the lot, just could be better in a few areas.

Comfortable, nicely furnished room. Good bathroom. But radiator off and room very cold on arrival. OK once warmed up but would have been particularly annoying if arrived late in the evening. Breakfast disappointing in terms of limited choice and tired fruit and pastries compared with usual expectation of Mercure, and comparison with cheaper Ibis. - possibly because very few guests staying on Friday/Sat? Nice to have a "Privilege Room" which I had not booked, but disconcerting to be warned that missing bathrobes could be charged for, as none were provided! Staff very pleasant and helpful. Hopefully the matters of concern are teething problems following the take over off this hotel by Mercure

I have been staying at the Samlesbury for several yers and seen various changes take place. This one i have to say is very good. It looks good, feels good and can see the staff are enjoying them too. The new styled restaurant is excellent - has a great feel to it. The menu is pretty similar to the previous one, would be good to have a daily specials board or something if staying on a regular basis. I have 6 stays over 6 weeks and the menu is limiting for that amount of stays . I would like to single out Anthony - Duty Manager on my last two stays - he is a credit to you - very welcoming, professional and a good communicator

Staff are fine, as are rooms. However the menu isn’t Up to even pub grub standards. We are there twice for dinner, but it have been just once if an alternative had been available for our second day. Wine is overpriced for quality.

The room was acceptable. I've stayed at this hotel many times and I knew what to expect. The standard of service was fine. The dinner menu was very disappointing. There was not much choice and the quality fell far below the standard that I've been accustomed to at other Mercure hotels. It was so disappointing that I will be looking for an alternative hotel the next time I want to stay in the area. We went elsewhere for dinner on the Tuesday night and we would have done so on the Monday if our preferred restaurant had been open.

Hotel is generally very cold, room had cobwebs + dusty behind tables. Overall in need of much refurbishment

There was no hot water in the morning, along with cleanliness and bed this is an absolute mandatory.

Free upgrade which was lovely....lovely attentative reception checked us in.....corridors are very dark with black walls...lift drastically needs updating, making some very strange noises. Room was a privilege room but was very small, when extra bed was erected it left very little room to move. No plug sockets by the bed which was frustrating. Shower looked lovely but was very poorly maintained. Half of the holes were missing rubbers making a very poor shower. Poor design as no matter what you did the floor got soaked from shower. Overall the room had minor levels of dust but felt clean. Bed was very uncomfortable. The housekeeper with blonde hair roughly late 40’s was very helpful and made up the extra bed for my daughter. Breakfast was lovely; really think the setup that you have got works really well. All other receptionists we encountered didn’t initiate conversation with us when walking through reception. Overall a good experience but expected more than good from a brand like Mercure. Lacking the 4* guest satisfaction

had to Que for 10-15 mins for check in! got back to the hotel after leaving a restaurant expecting to have a drink at the bar only to find everything was closed except draft beer? the room was cold at 06:30 am though that could have been something i did or 'didn't do'. then after waiting 10 min for the shower to warm up, i finally came to the conclusion there was no hot water. now already late down for breakfast i found myself yet again in a Que for check out. not great service, no apology or explanation.

Really good friendly and helpful staff. Room was nice and clean tasty breakfast in the morning. Twelve o’clock check out which was excellent.