Mercure Southampton Centre Dolphin Hotel 4 stars

I am an accor member as well as members of Marriott, Hilton and many other properties. I started off by booking online for a night to surprise my wife and son. I requested for an early check in as was traveling from London but did not get it which is fine as not guaranteed. I also requested if I could get an upgrade to my room. So I call on Sat 7th June and speak to someone called Beth maybe from the Sheffield office and she confirmed to me that I have been upgraded to a Privelege room and with breakfast as well and she also mentioned the room is already allocated to you so when you check in the staff will see that message I even asked for an email but she said thats internal cant send an email which i said its fine I trust your word. I reach the hotel and was surprised and shocked the staff Samantha a very polite and kind staff said there are no privilege rooms at all available for 7th June strangely it was showing available on the Mercure website. Finally after my shock, I must say a special thanks to Lauren Sutton for atleast providing complimentary breakfast for my dissapointment and giving me a family room. Secondly you can never get through reservations or the reception the line automatically gets disconnected. Finally i learnt my lesson in the future will stay at Marriott/ Best Western or Hilton properties they will never let you down!!

The strongest points for this hotel were its staff and price. It’s well located and the building could be beautiful. However it’s tired. Maintenance which has been carried out, is obvious and appears to be budget driven. The breakfast was good and better than some other local competitors at this price. Parking was a bonus and fairly priced. To summarise, the staff were friendly, happy and helpful. I would use this hotel, for this kind of visit again, but unfortunately it wouldn’t be my first choice.

Staff helpful although seemed a little under staffed hotel quote dated but value for money excellent location but bedroom 314 over top of kitchen I think as was woken by extractor fan at 0600 both mornings did ask for housekeeping to do room but didn't happen

the room was lovely and big and clean with everything we needed in it. The staff were pleasant, helpful and professiona, with no fuss and bitter!

We booked a Privilege room, we arrived 11:30 to check in, only at 14:00 when the room was ready we found out it was not the actual room as seen at the time of booking on line. We were offered a refund or an alternative Family room, we took the Family room as it's the space we wanted, but the room was very very run down. Extremely disappointed.

Staff was friendly hot breakfast was good room was okay. But we had to ask so they would replace towels and give more shower and hair gel. And stop the excuse of Covid. They could enter the room when we were out as other hotels did !!!!!!!!!!!

Having been closed to all except essential workers, it was such a pleasure to return to The Dolphin after they reopened to guests on Mon. 17th. As ever the staff Team were on top form, and typically gave a warm welcome back. Great to see them all back in action again. Allowing for the Covid regulations which remain in place for the present within the Hotel, there was little sense of being restricted by them, with the Bar and Restaurant opened again and Breakfasts being available also. Well done everybody there.

Satisfactory- helpful and friendly staff

We booked the Dolphin Hotel in Southampton as a treat for our family for a one-night visit to the city. We would not normally book a 4 star hotel, but rather a premier inn or similar. But this was going to be a special treat after a long period without travel. We booked two rooms, one to include a dog, by telephone so that we could ensure our two requests. Firstly, that we have one dog friendly room and secondly that our children have a room next door to us. On arrival at 2.30pm (the website says 2pm check-in) after a six hour drive we were told our rooms were not ready and in fact there was no record of our personal requests. We had not been allocated a dog friendly room and all such rooms were not yet cleaned. We had to settle for our children going in a room in the mail building and we had to wait for a room to be ready. We went out to our function without freshening up or changing. We returned at 5.30 pm and found that the staff then on duty knew nothing about the room situation (despite having paid in full)! But a dog friendly room was finally allocated to us and we went to it, stepping over many bags of rubbish and passing an outside table covered in dirty plates and glasses (which remained for the whole stay). We were in an outbuilding away from our children in the main building. The dog friendly room did not have any dog equipment in it as the website suggests. I tried to shower. Our room had no hot water for the entire stay. My husband went to the bar to get us a beer to relax with. There was no beer on tap and only 3 bottles of beer in the fridge and one non-alcoholic beer. As you can see it was becoming a bit faulty towers. None of us could sleep as it was so warm, and the windows would not open. In the morning we went to breakfast which I always enjoy in a hotel. There was a very limited selection to eat and drink. In fact, for children there was only water to drink. No juice of any description – why couldn’t someone go to poundland up the road to buy some juice?? What were children going to drink. I suggested the staff get juice from the bar – but there was no juice at the bar! No yogurt No fruit salad No porridge No pastries It was the worst hotel breakfast I had ever witnessed. Why not just admit there was no breakfast and charge less. I paid for my yogurt and juice so where was it? Both our room and the children’s room were tatty and basic. No four-star elements to them at all. I was shocked that a Mercure Hotel could be so very bad. The staff we met were polite, but couldn’t answer as to why things were so poor. A real disappointment and waste of my money on something which was going to be a special treat.

After a very good first visit 2years ago, our second stay was quite inadequate. The shower in the room was very small, with doors not fully closing. Only one small shower gel for 2 people. May be for the summer an extra pack could help. No points deducted for this though. The major issue was the breakfast. The continental breakfast was very limited, cold and looked like store bought. The hot food plate was so small, a child would go half hungry. Covid excuse cannot be applied here as all other restaurants were fully open.

Grotty rooms, poor maintenance, dirty.

A comfortable bed in a large room. The hotel seemed very “tired” and in need of a refurbishment. The breakfast waiter was extremely helpful and friendly. I had a parking query. But the telephone was unanswered the previous night prior to stay and I overheard another guest saying the same and the evening receptionist was really not concerned. The morning receptionist was good.

Myself and my husband stayed at the Mercure Southampton City Dolphin Hotel on Saturday 22nd May for an anniversary. On arrival at 2pm, when we were advised check in would be available, we were told the room wouldn’t be ready for a further 30 minutes, so had to go elsewhere. When we checked in I noticed how shabby the carpets and décor were in the lobby and the corridors – I appreciate the corridors are a thoroughfare but large ingrained stains that have clearly been there a while are unacceptable. The most alarming thing was the number of dirty and uncollected breakfast dishes left outside rooms at 2.45pm in the afternoon - these dishes were still there when we went out at 5pm! The room itself was not much better. There were large cracks, patches and cobwebs across the ceiling, dirty stains on the carpet and the wooden sash windows were filthy with bloated flaky paintwork. The bathroom was grubby with mould between the tiles and part of the ceiling above the ceiling looked like it was about to fall through. Clearly there had been leak from the room upstairs which had not been addressed properly. After our meal we decided to go back to the hotel and have a drink at the bar. There was another couple who had been waiting a while to be served and eventually we had to find someone. A young stressed girl who was clearly covering the restaurant also appeared to finally serve us. There was no tonic, ice and my G&T was served in a dirty glass with no effort at a garnish. There was a clear lack of staff and we could see at times one person was trying to cover reception, the bar and restaurant. After a pretty uncomfortable night’s sleep as the mattress was lumpy and the duvet and pillows thin and cheap my husband wanted to go straight home. However, as we had paid for breakfast in our room price, I thought we should take advantage of this. What could go wrong with a breakfast? Famous last words. The tables had nothing on them at all. I appreciate Covid rules are in place but not even salt and pepper or napkins?? The ‘Continental’ was cheap ham rolled up in clingfilm, some tired looking croissants and a few pieces of fruit. We were provided with tall paper cups for tea and coffee from a DIY coffee machine – not a teacup in sight. We ordered the full English and offered no variation on eggs etc. As soon as the waiter appeared almost instantaneously with them it was clear the food was prepared. We couldn’t eat the breakfast – all of it was cold and the fried egg undercooked. Frankly we were disgusted by the whole process and were relieved to leave. We have stayed in Mercure hotels before without disappointment and are loyalty members, so this was a huge disappointment. In fact, it has put us off booking one of your hotels in future. Surely a worldwide chain such as yours should have minimum standards across all hotels regardless of size and location? Looking at Trip Advisor it would seem we are certainly not the first to complain about similar issues so why are these not being addressed. I would go as far as to say it was the worst hotel I have stayed in over the last few years. With the recent closures due to Covid you would expect this to have been a time to recruit and train staff, deep clean and look at areas for refurbishment. I would like to hear back from you with your comments and some recompense for what was a spoiled weekend. Mrs J Kirma

We have stayed at this hotel many times,but unfortunately this was not the best of experiences. I fully realize the problems with covid but one girl on reception and trying to serve in the bar meant many people waiting at reception to book in(some without face coverings). Our room was as always very clean and the staff are lovely but I feel they are under a lot of pressure.

Enjoyed our stay at Mercure Southamption Centre Dolphin and generally in this post Covid lockdown period everything had been done to conform to Government guidelines. However there are a few general observations - I think there could be an improvement in the breakfast arrangement which was very limited and didn't real meet my expectations for an Accor organisation. When a vast majority of restaurants can now provide a reasonable meal out and would consider this a failing at the Dolphin. On a more positive note the staff were friendly and helpful. My last comments, which is not Covid related, I think better warning about accessing the car park could have been made when I booked the hotel and the hot water in our room was only mildly warm at any time.