Mercure Maidstone Great Danes

Don’t even consider staying at a Mercure hotel and especially Great Danes, Maidstone. It’s dreadful! No customer service either - no-one replies. Please read on: We booked the hotel for a peaceful and relaxing break, where we could unwind from the pressures that a busy work life forces upon us. However, despite it promoting such a break on the website blurb, what we discovered over the three days was anything but relaxing, peaceful or quiet. It was, in fact, quite the opposite. It left us stressed and anxious and sleep deprived. How they can push the fact that they are a peaceful establishment when the venue thrives on and encourages conference/meetings, gatherings and weddings is beyond us. We truly felt on every level that their priorities were such groups and that ordinary, everyday individual bookings such as ours, are second-rate. We did not matter and were not important. Their guest experience, therefore, is non-existent and extremely poor. Firstly, we were welcomed and were asked if we could manage two flights of stairs to suite 5000, as there was no lift. The reason for the question was, and I quote ‘it’s a much quieter room and you’ll be quieter up there. It will be nice’. Room 5000 was the complete opposite of quiet, as we’d found out later on that Thursday evening, and on the following evening too! On both occasions loud thumping music filled the room, coming up from the venue situated directly below us. We’d had a five hour journey to the hotel and needed an early night for an early start the next day, but there was no chance of that. Loud voices, shouting, singing and the thump thump of bass music was so loud it was uncomfortable. It is not the job of any guest to have to have to call or visit reception, when they’ve booked and paid for a hotel in good faith, when faced with an unpleasant situation. Theirs is a hotel that promotes itself as ‘peaceful, relaxing and a place to unwind after a busy day’. It is most certainly not that. Why did reception not inform us of the event/party and that there might be some noise later on, when we checked in? Why did they mask this fact by lying that we’d been allocated a quiet room? Why were we not told that the hotel is used for conferences, parties and weddings and there might be noise, when we booked? Why were we not informed of this when I called and spoke to reception to book an extra night for our long-awaited and relaxing stay? Three separate times, they had the opportunity to inform us of what might transpire, and three separate times you chose not to, but still took our money from us anyway. The hotel and the noise, created an inhabitable room when we were trying to relax and sleep. Noise from early evening through to 1.15am! On Saturday early evening we returned from a long day out. We were faced with thumping music again and a lot louder than the evening before. There was a wedding reception happening. We didn’t know, because we weren’t informed. By 8pm we’d had enough and couldn’t stay in the room any longer - it was so stressful and our anxiety levels were increasing, because there was nothing we could do to stop it. Having already showered and trying to relax in our nightwear, we had to re-dress and escape to the bar, where we didn’t want to be but had no choice. My wife complained to reception, explained the situation and asked her to mark on our booking that we’d made a complaint, as I was going to write to you asking for my money to be refunded immediately. (Don’t bother, their response/communication is abysmal!) The receptionist was quite incredulous that nobody had informed us that there were two functions on the Thursday and Friday. In fact, she repeated that same question three times, ‘So, nobody has told you there might be noise from the wedding today or the party yesterday?’ My wife replied that if we’d been told, we’d never have booked with you as we wanted a relaxing break, as it states on your website. She also could not understand why we’d been given that room, as it’s right above the venue and was definitely not a quiet room. If we’d been told about the wedding, we’d also have asked to be moved to another room, after suffering the music noise and guests shouting on Thursday night too. She then gave me a card so that I could write in to the Guest Service Manager. We walked across the grounds to a gate overlooking the lake, as the music could still be heard on the terrace. By the gate all was peaceful. But when we reached the helipad, the thumping could be heard again. By 9pm, sitting in a lounge with the tv on and music coming through the speakers at the same time, we gave in, tired and weary and suffered the guests singing, blowing whistles and shouting. The language was absolutely dreadful and it was all happening below us. This continuous musical thumping and general rowdiness continued until 12.45am. The music went off and the shouting, singing and rowdiness went on outside until 1.15am. It then went quiet until 2.30am, when shouting, yelling and arguing broke out below us. This went on for fifteen minutes and sounded quite unpleasant. We both fell to sleep at around 4.30am. We chose and trusted the hotel. We read the write up and looked forward to a break but it didn’t deliver. If we pay for a good night’s sleep, then we expect it. It’s not a luxury, it’s a standard and basic requirement from any hotel. They have a responsibility to their guests, any guests - whether corporate or individuals, to deliver what they promote. On this occasion, they fell way short of any type of guest experience whatsoever and it is blatantly clear that they fall on the side of their corporate and wedding guests. Yet we were not informed on any occasion that there would be disruptive noise. We simply wouldn’t have booked with them. Sadly, the hotel has seen better days. It’s tired and unloved and does not match the photos on the website. The terrace is dreadful and nobody even bothered to tidy it and relocate the chairs and tables for the morning. It was a shambles with no colour, no atmosphere, littered with rubbish and cigarette butts. The bar sofas have covers on them like curtains flung Willy-Nilly to cover stains. Again, not like the warm sofas and atmosphere seen on the website. Pool: The pool is a mess and our relaxing swim was shortened by the start of swimming lessons on both Thursday and Friday, where the pool was sectioned off and teaching began. Children and loud voices are not conducive to relaxing. The lockers are disgustingly rusty and dirty, the changing rooms need gutting and everything is so dingy and dirty. When we arrived at the health reception, there were three young ladies there; two behind the desk and one in front. We weren’t even greeted, as one sat slouched on a chair, a sullen look on her face, one gave us a clipboard to sign, but carried on chatting, and the other carried on discussing the why’s and wherefores of her leaving and ‘what’s gone on’. Not one of them mentioned that we needed a padlock for the lockers or where we should go. We were simply ignored and quite rudely so. When my wife was deciding where to leave her belongings, a lady came out of a changing room. She asked how to use the lockers and the lady explained about the padlocks. She advised her to ‘take everything with you poolside and don’t leave anything here’ which my wife did. It was all quite ridiculous. We stay in hotels all over the country and have never been treated or experienced anything like that. The pool was cold and not heated as, apparently, the heating system had broken. Not informed by the reception team but by one of the instructors there. Again, their facilities do not match the photos on the website. Dinner: We waited 35 minutes for our dinner after ordering and then the mashed potato, peas and gravy were cold but the pie was hot and delicious. We then waited another half hour before our plates were cleared and asked if we’d like dessert. Breakfast: At breakfast we were told our name wasn’t on the list and it was all quite embarrassing, being as we’d sorted our breakfast deal out with reception on arrival. We booked with booking.com and had a genius level breakfast. It was eventually sorted out but all quite embarrassing. We were then told to sit on the lower level, which we thought was odd. But all became apparent when the corporate guests arrived, demanding tables and chairs be moved, shouting across the room and waving their arms about. Relaxing it was not, and the noise level just from their voices was ridiculous. Once again, corporate came before individual guests. The breakfast was lukewarm/cold, apart from the beans. A shame as the selection on offer was very good. Room and Housekeeping: The room was dusty and in need of a complete refit. But this we can work with as long as it’s clean. However, the bed comforter and pillows were disgustingly dirty. Stains on both and also on my mattress, which was upside down! It begs the question as to why it was. My husband’s side of the bed was the right way up. My wife knows what a clean bed looks like and it is no more than a paying guest deserves. Everything was unhygienic and stained. The dust along the headboard, on the light bulbs, the picture frames and the bathroom door was too much to be ignored. My wife was a room-checker who trained room attendants, and she could not believe the state of the room. Room servicing was erratic: no biscuits on either days and only one on arrival and only four jiggers of milk?? So, one cup, per person, per day. It begs the question do we have a morning cup of tea, or save it for an evening cup of tea? Bathroom: The toilet wouldn’t flush properly and we had to fill the pedal bin liner with water to flush it. The shower is from the eighties and a shower curtain? Seriously?? The towel rail pipes were rusting and dirty with dust and the basin tap dripped continuously. The towels were clean and refreshed daily, even though we didn’t need them to be. The room was a hot house, made worse by the two fans supplied, which were totally ineffective and simply moved hot air about and we couldn’t open the windows due to the noise below. And just two hangers in the wardrobe for two people??

I attend the weekly swimming classes with my daughter and the Mercure hotel has monitored parking by Smart Parking. On 1 of 8 the weeks that i failed to log my parking ,i am now being chased by debt collectors despite providing proof of my swimming class enrolment, and all i get is automated responses from Smart Parking. Be aware.

They stole our motorcycle in this hotel's parking lot....definitely to be avoided.