The Mermaid Inn

Absolutely lovely place to stay with a great dinner and breakfast. Only thing I can wish for is a great flow of water from the shower, but we're in a building that is almost a thousand years old so that's for sure not a problem. Overall, this place is just amazing the great lounges to read books. The team here in the hotel and in the restaurant is absolutely great

The Mermaid certainly ticks all of the boxes. My wife and I took a holiday in Rye, and just happened to wander in to have a drink, and the moment we sat down in front of the giant, ancient fireplace, we were instantly enamored. On coming back the next evening for what was quite possibly the finest dinner either one of us has ever had, we both agreed that we were in live with the Mermaid Inn. The atmosphere, the service, the dining, even the smell of the fireplace... So relaxing and inviting. It's truly a holiday unto itself. 10/10!

Beautiful hotel steeped in history. Charming small lounges with open fires to sit by. Rooms beautifully decorated, with charming original features peppered throughout. Every staff member we encountered was friendly, helpful and genuinely had pride in their work. Breakfast was delicious with plenty of choices to suit all needs. We ate in the cosy bar in the evening and the food was delicious and fresh. We would highly recommend The Mermaid Inn, infact we booked again for our wedding anniversary whilst we were still there.

Absolutely stunning! The best place to stay in Rye, beautiful old building steeped in history. The fabulous staff are amazing (big shout out to Steve) the food was delicious! We will definitely return.

This has been on my planner for ages & definitely worth visiting. I love the decor & style of the whole place. Only stayed for a roast lunch today. Very good service by Charlie @ the bar who is very motivated. Must come back & stay the night though I can't see me being haunted ! The rooms look incredible

When you book into a hotel in a building that's more seven hundred years old you expect to have to make some concessions. Happily, however, everything mostly worked well and we only had to sacrifice a little convenience to enjoy some great history. The Mermaid Inn was re-built around 1420, after a bit of unpleasantness involving French raiders, during Henry V's short reign. It's at the heart of the old Rye citadel and proved to be an ideal base for exploration of the town and its surrounds. Our suite (the Hawkhurst) was at the top of the building so it was relatively quiet. Understandably, given the age of the building, the floorboards creaked a bit and there was a noticeable slope, meaning we had a pleasant downhill stroll to get to the bathroom. However, the rooms and facilities were mostly fine - even the rotary 'Dial M for Murder' style table telephone functioned perfectly. According to the Mermaid Inn's website, the suite has a reputation for being haunted. For example, an American lady reported seeing 'a gentleman in old-fashioned clothes' sitting on her bed during the night. Moving swiftly on from other possible explanations, this experience caused her to drag her mattress into the double room of the suite, where her sons were sleeping. Fortunately, we didn't have any such trouble. We concluded that the greatest chance of experiencing 'things that go bump in the night' was if we banged our heads on the low oak beams. We slept well in fresh, crisp bedsheets and altogether had an enjoyable time. Ideally, it would have been helpful if the suite had a bit more storage space (we ended up storing our clothes and toiletries on the bed in the supposedly haunted single bedroom) but this is a very minor carp. Similarly, the bathroom wasn't very practical. For example, it was difficult to put a toilet bag down as there were virtually no flat surfaces, and the shower associated with the bath gave only a trickle of water. More positively, even though the suite was at the top of the Inn, 'ye olde wifi' worked reasonably well. The communal areas, not least the Giant's Fireplace Bar, were full of character and perfectly matched to the late medieval vibe of the Inn. The staff at the Mermaid Inn were superb. Prior to visiting, I phoned to ask if it was possible to reserve a charging space for our PHEV (plug-in hybrid EV). Without further prompting Violet sent us all the necessary details and even arranged for a cone to be placed in the charging zone to reserve it for our arrival. The charging station itself was easy to use and reasonably good value (cost: ~£0.43 per kWh as opposed to £0.09 per kWh for home charging). In summary, the Mermaid Inn is a great way to experience history in comfort and style.

A wonderful January stay in this unique, cosy and comfortable hotel. From our warm welcome on arrival to our delicious breakfast in the beautiful dining room, our stay was perfect. Staff are professional ,friendly and really make the extra effort to look after guests. We left feeling very impressed with our short break and will return.

My daughter recently had her wedding breakfast at the beautiful and historic Mermaid Inn. Georgina, the proprietor was very easy to communicate with, the restaurant manager and the staff were all friendly, polite and efficient, the table was beautifully laid out and all of the meals we had were well cooked, delicious and plentiful. The Chef even agreed to decorate the Wedding Cake All in all everything was exactly as my daughter and her husband hoped it would be.