Marks Tey Hotel, Sure Hotel Collection by Best Western

My husband booked a night away for my birthday, the hotel has a gym and swimming pool/sauna, we were excited to use these on arrival and then have some dinner on site and a few drinks. We arrived at 6:30pm and the info book told us the facilities close at 8pm. We got ready and headed over, to then be told it will close at 7:30pm today (for some reason??), not to mention it was all just a bit grim too (dirty). A bit annoying but we let it go. Walking back to our room looking a bit rough for in our swim gear we had to walk through a sea of people in tuxedos and posh dresses, swamping the bar and taking up the whole restaurant. So there was clearly some sort of function happening, which is cool for the hotel but not so cool for me and my husband who now can’t have dinner here or enjoy a drink in the bar because we are surrounded by drunk young people. So we went elsewhere for dinner which was amazing. We get back to the hotel to take a drink to our room and we literally had to fight to get a place at the bar which is now has even more drunk people all over it. The hotel room itself is old fashioned, far too hot and just not very nice. It had the smallest tv in the world which wasn’t good when we literally had to stay in the room as there was nowhere to sit in the bar area. The breakfast was cold, although there was loads of selection. I don’t know what qualifies this hotel to be a 4* but someone needs to look into that rating ASAP. less

I booked an afternoon tea for my friends birthday. At reservation stage I informed the member of staff that there was a seafood allergy. On arrival I mentioned again about said allergy which had infant been noted on the waitresses notes. When the afternoon tea was presented it looked lovely. The waitress told us what each of the items were including the Ceasar Salad roll. I asked her to double check with the kitchen if the Ceasar Salad dressing had anchovies (felt slightly embarrassed asking yet again).... Waitress went into kitchen to ask the kitchen staff. A few moments later she came running back out full of apologises that it DID infact have anchovies in it! At that very moment I lost all faith in the establishment and proceeded to only eat the cakes. My friend said the ham and cheese bagel was cold and stale. Whilst the cakes looked lovely I think they might have been brought in and defrosted. Overall we were both very disappointed with the whole experience. My allergy is a very serious one. You would think that establishments would treat allergy with far more attention as they can be life threatening. I would like to point out we were the only two people in the entire restaurant so its not like they even could blame a busy restaurant. less

Everything about this hotel was very good; the location (Just off the A12), the rooms, breakfast, gym and staff. If I had to criticize, it was a little dated in places but very clean and comfortable. It was quiet even though there were 2 parties going on Saturday night. less

Stayed a few times last year due to a broken boiler, so decided to have a night away when visiting Colchester zoo. I was hoping to have seen some improvements, but the decor was still the same in the bedrooms, restaraunt and the bar. it is looking dated. bedrooms are comfortable, bathrooms are ok, but need modernising. beds are soft, but i slept well. Booked the winter B&B deal on their site, but same as last year, was asked to pay seperatley for breakfast. Food is good here, had dinner in the bar, fish and chips 12 quid, had to laugh coz you get 6 fat chips, and no choice of peas,, just mushy. less

This is the second time we have been here for afternoon tea although it was over4 years ago since our last visit. Part of the package is you can use the leisure facilities. They have a decent size indoor pool, steam room, sauna and gym. The actual afternoon tea consisted of sandwiches, trifle, two types of scones as well as a good selection of cakes and a large selection of teas. The atmosphere was very nice and the staff attentive. Would highly recommend. less