Guest User
March 3, 2026
I have stayed in the Merchant Hotel 6 or 7 times but I will never be back again. My daughter and myself arrived at 1.30pm on Thursday afternoon and joined a queue to get checked in, there was one person on the desk to deal with this, eventually another member of staff came to help with the queue, I handed over my debit card for security which I have done before and got the card for our room, no mention of any money to be taken from the card. The room we got, 316 was not great to say the least, I have attached a photo, the beds are very comfy and the bathroom was spacious with a free standing bath, but the only mirror you could actually use was in the bathroom because the black concrete post covering half the window was blocking out what little light that was coming through the window. We went down for breakfast about 9.30am to be told there was no tables free and so we waited for about 15 minutes to be seated, it was so busy there was people waiting everywhere, but the staff were very friendly and as helpful as they could be, I noticed a payment of £325 had been taken out of the card I gave as security so when I was checking out the next day I asked the receptionist why this amount had ben taken from my account, she said we take the room value plus £50 per person, I was confused as our room was £268 of which I had £200 already paid, I only owed £68 on the room but I was assured it was only a holding fee and it would be credited straight away. Several phone calls later one to the duty manager who said she couldn't understand why £325 was taken out of my account if I only owed £68, she said she would get Ben their customer services manager to reach out to me but he never did and the £325 they took on Thursday 19th wasn't back in my account until Wednesday 25th. In my option it doesn't feel like 5 star luxury anymore and if you do have a complaint no one wants to know.
