Darlington - 2 Bedroom Luxury Apartment by Mint Stays

The apartment was excellent.

Our check-in experience was very distressing. We looked for email communication the night before and morning of leaving for Bristol. We tried to phone the +44 number on the Booking.com confirmation and the Mint Stays website but the number would not connect. Arrived at sight about 6pm and sought assistance at Forge & Fern who refused to provide an after hours contact. It was very lucky that a restaurant patron staying in the complex recognised our distress and helped us make contact with Jon. Jon insisted he had made several attempts to contact us by email and phone. The only evidence of any contact was an email which came in at 1.17pm when we were driving and so was not received until we got wifi reception on arrival at the site. We then had issues with the payment links and it took a number of attempts with a range of cards before it finally went through. The £50 parking fee would not go through and Jon was reluctant to let us in although by this stage we had paid more than £1000 for our stay. This whole process was extremely stressful for two 65+ women who had been travelling for over 5 weeks using Booking.com with no issues. It put a real dampener on our arrival in Bristol. We would have expected contact at least 24 hours prior and that the phone number we had would work.

Very nice and spacious apartment with lovely balcony and loads of shops around the apartment and easy access to buses, bus stop just in front of the house.

I received an email asking me to pay £250 extra as deposit, two days after I paid and received confirmation of booking. I was told I had to pay this before they would release information on how to access property. This information was not included on Booking. com at the time I chose / paid for the accommodation and made the booking and it is not appropriate business practice. Transparent business practices would improve customer service and experience Information on how to access the property was not sent until 15 mins before check in time so if I had arrived earlier, I would have been stuck as there was no flexibility in check in time. Not a friendly approach as this has not been my experience with other places One of the rooms had no windows at all, there were no fans provided, so it was unbearably hot during the day, and sleeping was a challenge for my family at night particularly during the summer heatwave we were having at the time When I asked for my refund after checking out, I was informed it would take a minimum of 10 days to receive and sometimes longer. Not fair at all on anyone on holiday with family with all the accrued expenses. I advice looking into these issues to make the customer experience much better

The manager was very helpful

Was noisy

Spacious and very well appointed.

The main bedroom window doesnt open- strangely. The balcony is a-great asset but its outlook isnt - was a bonus though.

Absolutely gorgeous apartment (the Darlington), large and very comfortably furnished, beautifully decorated and well-equipped. Spotlessly clean, super comfy beds, good quality linen and towels and lovely toiletries. Coffee/Tea etc provided, but no small cartons of milk (we arrived very late and desperate for a cuppa - luckily the mini-mart next door was still open). Can't fault the apartment, it was gorgeous. Also, the Mint Stays representative I spoke to (quite late in the day, as I'd failed to read the instructions properly about how to access the property on arrival) was so helpful. Top marks for customer service and care. The restaurant/bar downstairs was excellent too. Sadly we didn't have great weather with which to enjoy the massive balcony - such a shame as it is a great asset. We enjoyed our stay very much, thank you.

Location was a bit of a way out of the city centre, but we knew that when we booked. However, not a long journey by car and there was a bus stop outside with a direct route (we didn't use it as had lots of different places we needed to be at). We chose to park on the street as didn't want to pay for on-site parking (the accommodation is reasonably expensive in itself, and it just added to the costs). This is a direct negative as it was not a problem for us, just something to think about when planning your trip.

The apartment was modern, nicely decorated and stylish. have a wow factor on arrival. the terrace was lovely albeit very basic, the living wall was a nice feature. The bathroom decor was gorgeous, definitely taken some home design inspo it was all beautiful. kitchen was well equipped with everything we could need, yea and coffee provided was a nice touch.

The bed linen on for the side beds was stained and dirty. noticeable, so it made the whole sleeping experience for those on the sofa beds quite poor, the sofas themselves are absolutely gorgeous as sofas and very comfortable chesterfield style, but the mattress inside for the sofa bed is really thin, and it’s on a sprung frame so it’s really is quite uncomfortable with gaps between a springs that you can feel all over the bed. it’s a shame as the beds in the actual bed rooms were lovely. beautiful and comfortable, lovely good quality bed linen. I know sofa beds aren’t the best, but as we split the price of the apartment between 6 we felt those in the rooms had a totally different sleeping experience which is a real shame. plug sockets near mirrors was an issue, had to do hair in hallway. but minor issue! 7/10 purely based on the sofa beds, if they were better quality this would be a 10/10.

absolutely stunning, very elegant and modern. the attention to detail was perfect. 100% would stay again!

the location