Mercure Bedford Centre Hotel

Breakfast good Rooms big Rather dated but price reflects this

Don't be put off by the exterior of hotel. Rooms are bright, roomy and modern. Large comfortable bed. Staff friendly and helpful. Great river / town view. We had a " privilege room " room 303

The room is nice especially it has air conditioning. I had a bad experience with the access card as it’s difficult to use. They should reprint that access card with the huge insert here. Other hotels are better as you just need to tap at the door.

I made 2 reservations for the same one night stay a couple of weeks apart, both reservations stated check-in time was 2pm however when we arrived this check-in time was denied, when I explained that the booking stated 2pm and that we were reliant on checking in due to it being my husbands BROTHER’s wedding at 16:30 we were met with just utter unpleasantness, rudeness, pure lack of compassion, smirking staff and just point blank vile human beings. We were told NO we’re weren’t allowed to check in, it’s not their policy to have 2pm check-in’s unless we pay £30 per room even though our booking stated 2pm. Apparently there was nothing they could do as OUR 2 rooms weren’t ready out of the 120 room hotel, so when asked could the cleaners go in to our allocated rooms next so we could have an extra 30 minutes it was shut down again with a no and told it would be £30 per room even if we have it for 30 minutes extra. When I asked to speak with senior management I was lied to and told no one would be available that day. Both front of house staff were sterling and almost laughing at the distress being caused to us. I sat down and had to try and settle my husband down as he was so emotionally taken a back. I tried searching for a number for a HQ or something of that sort however unable to find, so I queried online about Mercure hotels having onsite management which it stated they DO have management every 24 hours per day, so I attended the front desk again to make them aware that I knew of the policy and share again my request to speak with management. Oh and never the less 2 men arrive within a minute l, goes and gets briefed by the utterly rude front of house staff and here they were ready to speak to me. I explained the whole situation again, this time we were told it was Agoda’s fault that they should have informed the hotel that they allowed us to have a 2pm check-in however there was no support given to try and reach of to Agoda from the front of house staff, absolutely NO HELP what so ever. Eventually the management arranged for us to be check-in when showing the same booking reference to them as to what I’d already shared to the front desk 45 minutes earlier, we got into our room 50 minutes after our check-in time. When then my parents were in their bedroom shortly after given the key card, my mum was in the shower and my father sat on the edge of the bed when a cleaner stormed in their room and said ‘oh you’re already in here’ and walked back out. The next morning at breakfast my mother recognised the deputy manager from the previous day and made him aware of what happened, he then return and said ‘the cleaner knocked on your door 3 times before they entered’ my mum stated okay, so my husband is lying?and didn’t get a response. When they returned from breakfast around 10:15 a housekeeper knocked on their door and when answered they said ‘oh I was just seeing if you had checked out’ WHY are they doing that! Why isn’t there a system in place to allow the cleaning staff to know when guests have left instead of knocking on peoples doors and disturbing them. Just going back to the breakfast, the chairs are filthy in there and so heavily stained, the carpets etc throughout the hotel again are just so heavily stained and unpleasant to even have to walk over. When arrived at breakfast there was only 1 fried egg, some dodgy looking scrambled egg, 2 shrivelled up hash browns so my mother asked for some fresh produce and wasn’t even given a response, a few minutes later more food was brought out but no one went up to her to say some fresh items there nothing! I just don’t now where they are getting the staff from, who is training them or overseeing them day-to-day but I’ve honestly never stayed in a hotel like it, the staff throughout the stay just caused so much distress, frustration and anger for no reason at all on a day that should’ve been so happy and special. As the usual saying goes, if I could have scored the hotel a zero then I wo