Mercure Wessex Winchester - Winchester, United Kingdom     

Booked 2 rooms through Last minute . com for myself and a friend upon my friends arrival at the Wessex that afternoon, he was informed that there were no rooms available and that we had been overbooked, therefore we would be re accommodated to a hotel 10 minutes away being the Marwell Hotel. He was obviously was not happy as we had organised this meeting some time ago, as it was a reunion as we had not see each other for 32 years and booked Central Winchester as we could have a comfortable evening out. To this end he obviously complained but was then told not to worry as everything was taken care of and that we only had to pay for anything extra at the Marwell, this he understood (rightly or wrongly) was meant as by way of compensation we would not be charged for the room which was acceptable as we really were being inconvenienced.He called me before I arrived at the Wessex and explained the position and there I re-routed to the Marwell hotel.The trip to Marwell was not 10 minutes away is was more like 20 to 30 minutes away from Winchester and was in the middle of no where! There was no way we could easily get into Winchester unless we caught a taxi and time was not on our side so ended up catching a taxi to the local pub , this cost us ?15.00 and ?15.00 back !! but not having (so we thought!) have to pay for the hotel meant , that ok not ideal but was acceptable.The following AM we settled our own individual bills and saw that there was not charge for the room just the extra’s which we duly paid.A couple of weeks later I received my Barclaycard statement only to find that my account had been debited ?150.00 by the Wessex Hotel which the cost of the two bookings I made via last minute.com , I have since been trying to contact them by phone and told to write emails which i have done and telephoned their head office and even though they promise a response they never bother to contact me ! They are arrogant liars and not to be trusted, never trust an accor hotel! Their share prices show what kind of organisation they are ! They just do not care !!! Still to this day i have had no response!

We have been coming to the Wessex quite regularly over the last 15 years and seen a decline from when it was an excellent hotel owned by Forte to today when I can only describe it as a moderate hotel lacking in many respects. Our meals can only be described as below average, the service was also well below what you would expect for the price you have to pay. We had the executive rooms on the cathedral side of the hotel and although it was evedent that money had recently been spent on these rooms we found that little attention had been given to where guests were to put their clothes as there was no chest of drawers and our clothes had to remain in the suitcases. Early one morning we were awoken by someone knocking on our door then entering our room. This was reported to the manager who discovered that it had been the night porter who should have known better. This experience only made our impression of this hotel even worse. The dining room staff were not well trained and on many occasions did not carry out our instructions and had to be reminded of items that had been ordered that still had not been served to our table. I would not reccomend the hotel.