The hotel cannot be given a 1 star given the facilities and the staff's attitude.
Facilities are manageable but staff is one of the rudest I have ever encountered..I checked in on 8th Jan 2011 and the receptionist( for the management--With specs ) was the rudest I have ever met.
She put my family in a room which did not have a working Aircon and it was damn suffocating from the very beginning. The window knob was almost broken and might break apart any moment and the best part is the bed was too uncomfortable with mites/bed bugs on it..My kid developed a rash. After complaining I was told the hotel is full. Then after more complaining I got a repair man to come over and have a look. Still more complaining did not result in any help from the great receptionist..So I threatened a walkout..Give my money back or put me in a different room and magically we had two more rooms available. So now we went to the next room ..The aircon was not available or not working or it was shut down..Initially it seemed to be cool and at night just normal air and suffocation..Anyhow we decided to spend the night and run out first thing in the morning..Morning the breakfast was just very basic( bread , butter and some noodles which was pathetic and sausage which was cold) and we were told to pay 12 rm for our maid's food..We decided it was not worth it..Also we were told by the receptionist that they charge 2 rm for 2 sachets of sugar..hmmmm
The best part of this is we were not given a form to give our feedbacks ...
I would say the hotel has the infrastructure to be a good one and certainly potential ..Good management and staff is needed ..
As for mersing nothing is there

The hotel tired and in need of some TLC it was also expensive given that we had stayed in a 4 star hotel in Kuantan for RM170 and the standard in this 1 star hotel is RM150. The rooms were very basic but you did get free water and internet connectivity. There is nothing in Mersing and the only reason you would go there would be to travel to Tioman Island.
We had a very disturbed night as people were racing cars and bikes up the street until the early hours. Breakfast was basic. Would not recommend a visit to Mersing

My family of 18 (3 MPVs) came to Mersing from Singapore to explore its beaches since we've never been here before and we decided to stay at Timotel for 2 nights. I was a little skeptical when I came here because of the negative comments made by the previous travellers but was pleasantly surprised to experience the warmth service given by its hotel staff.

We arrived at Timotel at 9am since we left Singapore in the wee hours of the morning. When we came in, our rooms with the exception of 1 were ready for us. We booked 2 rooms with 2 double beds and 2 rooms with 3 single beds. They actually allowed us to check in early for the 3 rooms which were ready without any extra charges. The rooms were big, fairly clean while the beds and pillows were really comfortable. The only minus point was that I could hear my aunts who were in the next room talking loudly from my room.

Breakfast was simple with not much variety. For the 2 days of breakfast, it was fried rice or fried mee, bread with butter and jam and some local kuehs. Children below 6 can eat for free. Room service was good, food was cheap. At RM10 nett for a large serving of tasty Briyani Rice or Black Pepper Chicken Sandwich, this is a steal.

The hotel is situated very nicely near amenities. There is a food centre located on the right side of the hotel and a petrol station with a convenience store on its left. There are ample parking lots around the hotel. The hotel is also located very near the town shops, just about 10 minutes drive away from the jetty that goes to Tioman and the other islands.

The best thing I like about the hotel is the free wifi which was also very fast. If you do not have your own laptop, you could make use of their desktops to access internet for RM8 for an hour, extremely cheap for a hotel! I would definitely come back again to stay in this hotel if I am back in Mersing again.

The only reason one may need to stay in Mersing is If one missed the boat to the Islands (Tioman, Sibu etc). Otherwise it's a town not worth stopping.

Timotel is fairly ok hotel for the price. In internatinal standard it would be a 1-star locale, even in Malaysian standard the three star rating it is supposed to have is exaggerated. However at 30 EUR per night price/quality if fairly ok. If they ever charged 80 USD as stated on Tripadvisor it would be a rip off.

Please note that pictures on Tripadvisor are not all from Timotel hotel. Mine are!