Mercure Bedford Centre Hotel

It isn't a great place for the disabled due to some very narrow corridors, very small lifts and stairs to contend with, not great at all.

I arrived at the hotel lugged my bags into the room for a three day stay on business unpacked and then tried to put my keys and other valuables in the safe. the instructions were unintelligible but it simply did not work, the manager came and could not get it to work and he offered to move me or get it repaired first thing the next morning. Rather than upheaval I elected to stay in my room. Overnight I discovered the TV did not work, the extractor in the bathroom did not work and the light in the shower intermittently went off. I reported these first thing and was told they would be done or I would be moved. The next day when I returned none of the jobs had been done and I asked to be moved, all they could offer was a room with a single bed so I declined. The second issue is if you have a ground floor room on the opposite side to the river you face a small road and car park that god knows whet goes on in as it was noisy until 1AM and then the bin lorries or whatever arrive at 5.30AM to empty the bins so not restful. on moving my bags out the lift to the car park was not working. A very tired hotel IMO. NOT A WORD OF APOLOGY FROM THE STAFF ON CHECK OUT AND NONE OF THE "HOW WAS YOUR STAY" questions!

Fire alarm went off a few times in the night. Reception just said people are smoking in rooms like it’s normal. No real apology.

Lovely hotel for a quiet stay but needing a bit of TLC this year viz one lift not working, no tea in the room and windows in poor condition. Staff wonderful! Thanks so much!

Had an excellent stay again great position for town etc.

The hotel is advertised on hotels.com as having a gym (the main reason I booked it). Upon check in, I discovered that the gym has not been open for months. The remote control and the safe in the room were not working.

A bit of a late review for this first trip, however this stay was extremely pleasant and comfortable. The only issue I had was requesting a wine glass and help with the aircon system via the reception WhatsApp, but it took so long that I decided to go to the bar and get it myself and try my best to figure the system out. Reception did manage to come about 4 hours later, but this didn’t bother me as I think it was just natural human error. Overall though, the stay was extremely comfortable and staff extremely friendly.

I stayed here a couple of weeks ago and had a really pleasant stay, so I decided to book again. I was a little disappointed this time however, as I noticed there was a hole under the sink with a pot noodle pot wedged in to cover the plumbing, so the backing hadn’t been properly covered. There were marks on the walls, a brown stain on one of the towels and the bath filled with water quite rapidly when showering, and wasn’t draining properly. The bed was comfortable, however I did find that the heating system disturbed me during the night as there were times the heating came on, then the aircon came on. I had this issue before but I managed to work the aircon system out, so it would be a handy tip to provide guests with instructs on the heating system so that they don’t fiddle with lots of random buttons. Aside from that, the room was very clean and spacious. I did mention this to reception, and sadly was not offered compensation as I believe almost £100 for one night, only to find a pot noodle pot as a makeshift cover was a little disappointing. This will not deter me from giving the hotel another go next time.

The room itself was comfy and well laid out, however once we opened the curtains our view was of a old balcony - which was locked, which hadn't been cleaned it what seems decades. The glass partitions were smashed and the windows were absolutely filthy which was a shame as we would've had a wonderful view of the river otherwise. We then were woken up by a fire alarm at 3am (i understand this cannot be helped) it went off for a very short time around 20 seconds, so we called the hotel on our mobile who told us this was due to a guest smoking in their room. Unsure how they managed to go to the room, investigate the cause and come back to silence the alarm within that short time frame. The fire alarm then went off again at 8am. We decided to check-out. We complained about the fire alarms upon check out the staff member stated "ahh yes 3 o'clock someone was smoking" i asked "and the 8am?" but mid-way through talking to us took a phone call on their mobile phone, put it down and hesitantly said "yeah it's normal" i asked for clarification whether they meant it was a routine alarm check? and they said "ahh yeah something like that" and picked her mobile up again to continue our call. It was awful communication and definitely added to our concerns regarding the health and safety of the hotel. Would not feel safe staying here if there was a real fire!!

Excellent comfortable room, only complaint is an alarm going off at 3am but it didn't last long

No

Excellent!

Clean efficient hotel for a good price

…

Had to pay for parking not a good point should be part of the cost of the room, the room was small but had everything we needed for the one nights stay. Smile it costs nothing even if you don't really want to there 😊

Happy with our short stay. Room was large overlooking river, short distance into town for shopping and restaurants. Bed was soft but fine for one night. Bathroom now a shower room on the small size, not suitable for the larger person as toilet did not have enough space.

An overnight stay on the way to a family event. Ample car parking, nice room and adequate, if uninspiring, restaurant. The level of lighting in the room was very low which was fine for relaxing but inadequate for working. Hotel staff were very attentive.

Okay

The room was perfect and the staff friendly and helpful.

Where to start. We initially checked in and was given our room. After 3pm. However when we got to the room it was dirty and still to be cleaned after the previous occupant checked out. Stale left over Chinese takeaway included! Eventually refused the cleaning of the room (apparently a house keeping error) and demanded an alternative room. The new room was clean and comfortable (especially the bed) but again some of the expected items were missing, including the complimentary slippers. Bath robes very crusty and uncomfortable. Half way through are evening we returned to the room and found that my wife’s perfume was missing and there was a pile of toilet tissue in the shower! Bizarre. Thinking the perfume had possibly been misplaced we checked again at the end of our event when we again returned to our room. We then found that a bottle of expensive wine we had left in our room had been taken and my aftershave. In total 3 stolen items. Reported to reception first thing the following morning and after breakfast we travelled home. On arriving home the hotel called to say all 3 items had been found by housekeeping in our room! I’ll let you be the judge of whether we were incompetent and needing urgent eye tests or the items were stolen and simply the management knew how they could recover the items. When I collected the items despite a receptionists apologies there was no concern shown by the hotel about the theft. No comment or approach by hotel management.