Mercure Kings Darlington, Cocktail Bar

The hotel is well-located and offers a surprisingly nice breakfast, with parking available for £5 a night—though spaces are limited. However, be prepared for a few quirks during your stay. To check in, you’ll need to walk through the "restaurant" area to reach reception, where the bartender doubles as the receptionist, swapping roles as they greet you. The journey to our room was quite the adventure, involving two separate, rather dodgy elevators. Another reviewer likened it to a rabbit warren, and that’s a fair comparison. The layout is truly maze-like, so if you have accessibility issues, this is something to consider. Even in a "privileged" room, the quality was lacking, as you can see from the photos. The bathroom was the worst offender, with a ceiling that looked on the verge of collapse and shockingly poor workmanship—think lazy paint jobs and amateurish sealing around fixtures. The shower, while technically functional, was nothing to write home about. The bed was comfortable enough, but if you’re a light sleeper, bring earplugs—you’ll hear everything Darlington has to offer. The bar area was equally disappointing, with stiff, uncomfortable seating, harsh lighting, and zero atmosphere. The restaurant seating wasn’t much better. Breakfast, however, was a pleasant surprise. While the selection wasn’t huge, what was there, I enjoyed. If you’re just after a fried breakfast, the quality of the sausages, bacon, and hash browns was better than it had any right to be. In short, this is a charming building that has had the bare minimum spent on it to keep it operational. Don’t expect any real quality, and if you do stay here, it’s likely best to join the folks at the Wetherspoons next door.

Room was not too bad. The car park is very small so doesn’t fit many cars. The reason the review is so low is that the rooms are not sound proof you can hear all the movement in the hallway during the night & the guest footsteps in the rooms above - it kept us up all night

Room was small but reasonably clean, nice view, good shower and I had all I needed. Location is great, really central. Service score is not a reflection of the lovely women at breakfast or the reception team on checkout who were excellent. It was the result of an incident that was like something out of a Gordon Ramsey kitchen nightmares. I wanted to eat in the hotel and wandered around upstairs for a while following signs to restaurants that didn't seem to exist. I was going to ask at reception but noone was there, it sounded like something was being watched or listened to in a back room. So I thought I'd try the bar, I asked a member of staff behind the bar if they did food and he was friendly and found me a menu although oddly commented that he wouldn't recommend it. I had had a long journey and didn't want to go out again however and so chose a Mac and cheese. He called someone else to take my order a ratty man with glasses arrived and took my order but made no eye contact and appeared annoyed at having to serve me. I waited not too long, and my food arrived I started eating and was disappointed to find while some bits of the macaroni were hot others were barely luke warm. I didn't want a fuss as I wanted to eat and sleep but didn't want to be ill and suspected the macaroni to not be fresh (it certainly wasn't made to order). There was no one around to query so I walked to reception, the friendly man who checked me in heard me approach and came out. I felt foolish stood at reception with my plate and awkwardly told him my meal wasn't hot. He called to the ratty looking man with glasses, who from that moment on seemed determined to humiliate me telling me the food was actually 100 degrees, which I knew wasn't true. Not wanting to be challenging I said maybe some parts are but some are barely warm. My plate was taken with no apology or explanation. I went back to my seat to wait for it to be heated through. After about 5 mins I heard smashing noises then after a few minutes the little man with glasses appeared with blue gloves on, angrily stating the meal had been dropped and id have to wait for another one. There was no apology for the wait instead it seemed to be implied this was my fault. I wanted to leave at this point as I felt really uncomfortable. I wasn't waiting too long before he appeared again still in his blue gloves with my meal and clutching a temp probe. An action that was clearly designed to humiliate me, which while uncomfortable simply revealed his lack of food safety knowledge. He delighted in putting the probe into the food in front of me (I hope it was cleaned first) he did not check the probe was at room temperature before inserting- it wasn't it was much above, at over 40, he also didn't wait for it to settle before declaring my meal burning hot. I felt really uncomfortable and tried to smile along, although as he repeated claims about my previous meal being just as hot I pointed out some parts were but not most of it. He smugly informed me it had all been in the same oven. I wanted him gone and to eat so didn't point out that foods with a high water content such as macaroni and cheese should be stirred both during cooking and before taking temperature probes. (Which clearly hadn't taken place in this case) The macaroni was dried out but hot and edible, the garlic bread was the same one which had been reheated so was now charred I took a small bite then became worried it had been on the plate that smashed and ate no more. It is a shame I am working in Darlington a lot in coming months and the hotel is well located, with the rest of the staff really friendly and helpful but as someone travelling alone this incident made me feel really uncomfortable, I spent over 10 years in hospitality management so know mistakes happen and put no judgement on whatever led to my meal not being hot but am really upset about the way that the situation was then managed as feel the aim of the theatrics was purely to humiliate me.