Mercure Hatfield Oak Hotel

Tired, Dated and not not spotless The hotel is very tired and really needs a refresh. Cleaning was also not great. I had lots of long thick dark hairs on my bathroom floor on my visit.

Confusion at checkout, otherwise good. Had a perfectly pleasant stay, but this was marred by the experience during and after checkout. I had ordered drinks at the bar, and also some food on the evening of my stay, and had these charged to the room. On checkout, I was only charged for the drinks, and I mentioned that I had also had some food items to pay for. I was told by the reception staff on duty that those items weren't on the system, and as the service during my stay "hadn't been very good" (their words, not mine. I was happy with the service!), those items would not be charged to my card. I paid for the drinks, checked out, and went about my day. About two hours later I git a call from the hotel, and was told that I would have to pay for the food items. I told them that I had been told that there would be no charge for these, as that is what I was told when I checked out. I repeated this information twice more, and the call ended. Ten minutes later, the same person called again, and we had the same conversation. I was not happy about this at all, and ended the call after again explaining the situation. I have not heard back since, but I have not been left with a very positive experience of this hotel.

Very chaotic. Receptionist was smiling and helpful, despite clearly having to put up with a total mess backstage. Duty manager was neither on duty nor even onsite or anywhere nearby. Computer had gone down on check in, and they could not program the room keys without it, so all that happened was the queue got longer and longer as no-one could get to their rooms. No sign of a backup plan, either. It's an old tired hotel, smeggy corridors and dilapidated fittings in many places. My room was not too bad - nice new-looking bathroom and comfortable bed. But seriously loud sucking and blowing noises from the sewage pipes every time another room flushed their toilet, enough to wake me several times in the night. Finally after checking out and leaving, they called me to try to claim I'd eaten in the restaurant. Firstly why did this not show when I was checking out? And secondly, I hadn't eaten there, so what was going on? Faulty computer system again? It was a shambles - I'd have to be feeling desperate before going there again.