Menzies London Gatwick Hotel reviews

The hotel is not actually called the Gatwick Thistle anymore, it is called The Chequers and it is part of the Menzies hotel group. Not being informed of this name change did make it slightly more difficult to find, so for anyone who is going to be staying there, note the name change!

I will not use this hotel again. The room was dirty, pokey and cold. This was definitely not appropriate for me and my family. I complained and we were changed to a more appropriate room

Although the room was very cramped it was clean and warm. The hotel staff were all very polite and helpfull.Courtesey bus was on time and the food in the restaurant was good.

Good luck finding this place, we drove past it twice. It is right beside the main road buyt you have to turn in to the Chequers pub entrance. From the car park the hotel looks like it was built of portacabins. Poor sound insulation in rooms, window was cracked. bathroom was drab. Check-in staff ranged from good to bad. No way is this 4 star, i've seen better travelodges. We atyes at Hilton last year which would have been £60 more for the same hotel plus parking deal. Wish i hadn't booke dthere instead.

It soon became apparent that this hotel was very very tired and in need of refurbishment.No heating when we arrived in a freezing room but this was eventually fixed. No curtain in the bathroom which was on the same level,and looked out into the car park. No early morning booked alarm call. Staff were pleasant. This hotel was part and parcel of an interconnected pub.

Hotel has changed its name which caused confusion! We also had to change rooms twice to find one with working lights or tv.Staff however were very helpful in changing rooms & jump starting car on return.

My main criticism was that during checking in the receptionist informed me that I hadnt paid enough??? i.e he said that the tariff i had paid was only for 8 days parking when i had actually booked online to park for upto 15days. Luckily I had the forethought to take a printed version of the online transaction which I showed the receptionist who then accepted that I could park for the 15days. I told him that the rate online was £110 for 8days and £135 for upto 15 days and I had paid the £135 plus credit card charge. So I dont know why he questioned me? Another point is that for any new clients going to stay the night at the Thistle then I would advise them to take earplugs and probably to sleep on the floor as it would be more comfortable ( the bed was very uncomfortable).

We tried to cancel this booking two weeks before arriving, due to bad reviews, and intended to book a better hotel, but were told we would incure a fee of £15.00, so decided to hope for the best.Unfortunately, we should have know better The room was small and not in good order but reasonably clean. Having used the loo and gone to bed, got up again one hour later to find the door would not open, phoned reception but was told no one could help until the morning, which was not much good as we were leaving first thing.Had to change rooms at 1.30am. Not happy as our toiletries were still in the loo.The only good news was as we were heading for our transport they managed to get the door open and gave us our toiletries. Never again

The place is fine if you just want somewhere close to Gatwick airport, but the hotel is tired and in need of a makeover - the corridors were scruffy and the room had seen better days: clean but well worn!

We arrived at the hotel to find there was no parking at the hotel despite already paying for this in advance.We had to leave our car in space at the front of the hotel which was a drop off space for cars for passengers returning so the hotel would have to move our car to a space once available.Reception then told us we had to pay extra for the courtesy coach to the airport, which we thought was included. Once we had got to the room and settled our baby down it was 8.30pm and we phoned reception to find out if the restaurant was still open. We were told it was and we were not told about booking a table. We arrived at the restaurant to be told we needed to book a table and that the they would only be serving main course, even though it wasn't near there closing time. Once seated we still had to prompt someone to take our order which we thought was very bad considering they were complaining about the time already. The menu was then narrowed down to only three dishes and it was much the same with the wine menu. We could not beleive what a bad service we were getting from a hotel which is providing a service to alot of people travelling from Gatwick which is one of the most busiest airports in the UK. We would never stay in this hotel again and we are disappointed that this ruined the begining of our holiday.

Good value for money but room was very warm, couldn't find the air con and couldn't open the window in our room so didn't have a great nights sleep but apart from that it was very clean and a quiet place to stay

We opted to park and stay as we had an early flight that was over 8 hours. We were put next to a fire door that made a terrible noise as it shut. It also seemed that everyone around us were leaving at 3 or 4 am and obviously slammed the door and made alot of noise outside our room so we had very little sleep. The room was of a very poor standard and not clean. We asked for a double and received a cramped room with 3 single beds. To top it all off I had the car valeted before we left and they parked the car under a tree so we arrived back to find the car covered in tree sap, leaves, dirt and birds mess. When previously flying from Gatwick I have stayed at the Ramada Plaza and received a much better service and upon return to my car I found it in the state I left it - CLEAN!

the hotel had recently been taken over by another hotel chain and subsequently was left in a shabby state by Thistle Hotels. I assume that the takeover was very recent, however it does not excuse the fact that the hotel was well below its 'star' rating. the hotel did not meet with the standards described on the web site.

We stayed in thi hotel about 10 years ago and were very pleased, however the hotel has deteriated, curtains were filthy,the window catch was broken and the food was expensive and poor.I was served with the wrong food and had to wait for mine whilst my companions ate theirs.Not recommended.

We booked a non-smoking room, however we were allocated a room that smelt strongly of stale cigarettes. Reception quickly re-allocated us another room unfortunately very short in appologising. Both rooms were noisy due to the close proximity to the kitchens exhaust. Restaurant pleasant, food excellent.

Pub attached was full of foul mouthed customers and the staff did nothing to stop it even though we had two young children. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls in the room. I don't think it is 4 star. Try 2 star.

The room we were given was ok - on arrival the bathroom smelt a little, but after flushing the room filled with a very bad and strong odour from the drains. It was observed that some kind of large fungal growth was growing and sporing in the bathroom vent. To be fair the person on duty inspected the bathroom and arranged for our room to be changed immediately, but as an experience we were disappointed.

A really horrid experience. We hadn't chosen the cheaper hotel options, thinking that a Thistle Hotel would afford a guaranteed level of accommodation etc, as we had experienced in the past. Not so. We were checked in by a pleasant European girl whose English was adequate, but not perfect, consequently it took her a long time to check us in. A duty manager came out of the back to say that I had been there long enough, and I was to move on. It turned out that I hadn't even been given a key, so had to return to reception to collect a key. A lady behind me was getting irate at having been kept waiting, and when someone else came out of the back office, she asked if she could check in, only to get the response 'only if your name is Walker'. Sadly for her, it wasn't, although she was brandishing her email confirmation. The room was very shabby. The ceiling had recently caved in due to water damage, and although the room was dry, the ceiling had not been repaired. The sink in the bathroom was cracked from edge to edge in 3 places. Very unhygeinic. In the morning - 4.20am, we boarded the airport bus, only to be told that we didn't have tickets. I had paid the night before, but tickets weren't mentioned. Consequently everyone on the bus had to wait whilst I returned to reception to sort out the tickets, which the receptionist had forgotten the night before, due to the duty manager sending me away. I was very concerned that some people may have missed their flights due to what appeared, to them, to be my fault. My opinion of Thistle hotels has certainly changed since this experience. Never again!

Nothing more we can add - service worked very well for the parking and airport transfers and the hotel was clean and tidy with simple check in and out.

Our room was cramped, stuffy & overheated. A small fan was in the room already, but wasn't very effective. We arrived shortly before 9pm and reception staff told us that we could have a bar meal if we ordered by 9.30 pm. The bar staff, however, refused meal orders after 9 pm. The restaurant was available, but not suitable, and much more pricey. We had room service, which took 45 minutes and was sub-standard. The chips were unpleasant, the cranberry juice we ordered from the menu was not available in the kitchen and the apple juices we got instead had very obviously been substantially diluted with water. We won't be using this hotel again.