Member Advice on Chain Hotels: Premier Lodge

~Summary~
If you need somewhere to stay for a short period than you could try out Premier Travel Inn, they have a good coverage in the UK and rooms are available at short notice even in peak season. The service is sporadic throughout the country, but in my experience you will get better service the further north you go. The heating available in the hotels is okay, but the rooms can be cool in the winter and too warm in the summer.

...Lodge' and 'Travel Inn') is a chain of hotels across the UK normally based in and around metropolitan centres, but equally found in other places just off the nearest main road. There are currently 464 hotels available with 15 in Wales, 49 in Scotland and the rest in England. They are easily spotted as they have a big purple sign with 'Premier Travel Inn' written in white. Prices are variable depending on location and the day you stay, but except ... more

~Summary~
If you need somewhere to stay for a short period than you could try out Premier Travel Inn, they have a good coverage in the UK and rooms are available at short notice even in peak season. The service is sporadic throughout the country, but in my experience you will get better service the further north you go. The heating available in the hotels is okay, but the rooms can be cool in the winter and too warm in the summer.

~Introduction~
Premier Travel Inn (formerly known as 'Premier Lodge' and 'Travel Inn') is a chain of hotels across the UK normally based in and around metropolitan centres, but equally found in other places just off the nearest main road. There are currently 464 hotels available with 15 in Wales, 49 in Scotland and the rest in England. They are easily spotted as they have a big purple sign with 'Premier Travel Inn' written in white. Prices are variable depending on location and the day you stay, but except to pay anything from £47 off peak (Scotland/Wales) to £87 peak (Central London). Prices are normally cheaper at weekends and where there is less demand. I stay in the mid-range hotels and as I stay during weekdays I normally pay around £50 to £60.

~Reservations~
Bookings can be via the Internet or over the telephone. The web site is www.premiertravelinn.com and the central reservations telephone number is 0870 242 8000. If you visit a Premier Travel Inn you can even pick up the latest guide to the locations, with phone numbers and directions of the hotels. Room availability is good, but this does not mean you can walk in and expect to get a room on the night, as they are normally all booked up either by lunchtime or if it is popular the week before.
When reserving a room I tend to find out my where my latest job is and then workout where the nearest Premier Travel Inn is by looking in the guide. There is also a search facility on the Internet for a postcode, a town or the nearest tourist attraction. I then book a room by phoning the relevant hotel and making a reservation directly through them. As I use my companies business account I have to get the cardholder (my boss) to fax a confirmation to them before I arrive so they can process my reservation quickly when I get there. You will normally be asked for a time of arrival, which in my case is always after 6pm.
If you wish to cancel you room you can ring up the hotel directly, no later than 1pm on the day of your first night. I do this sometimes and get away without paying any charges for cancellation.

~Appearance~
As I frequent Premier Travel Inns throughout the country this review is going to be a little bit generalised. The hotels tend to be in one of two locations, in a city centre, or on the outskirts of a town or city near an A-road or motorway. The hotels are normally two or three storeys high with an outside car park. The outside lighting is good and the shrubbery around the hotel is well maintained. The city centre hotel car parks can fill up quite quickly if they are under-sized and sometimes you could have to park elsewhere.

~Reception~
The access to the reception area is normally through a level doorway with automatic doors, however the access can be stepped and the door is manual in some older hotels. The reception desk is always manned whenever I have arrived, but that has never been later than 8pm. The check in is one of the most variable things that can occur at a Premier Travel Inn. Sometimes it takes mere minutes to breeze in get a key and go to my room. Other times there is a big queue with a receptionist who wants to kill you and everyone else. In other words expect a good, quick, polite service in the hotels location in the North of the UK and abysmal service in the hotels around London. Also expect a longer check in around 5pm when reps and other travelling workers such as myself come crashing through the door. A lunchtime check in is usually shorter as there are fewer people turning up and the trainee employee is normally having his/her lunch or a fag out the back.

~The Room~
To get to your room there is at the very least some stairs, some hotels have a lift, but like the check in you could be in for a long wait as everyone wants to use it. In some hotels you get given a key and in others it is a 'keycard' system that you have to slot in the door before a green light will let you turn the handle. The décor in the rooms is normally very bland, with blue and white walls. The rooms are large, there are normally twin beds (linked) or a double with at least one easy chair sometimes two, a wardrobe to hang clothes, a desk, a wooden chair, a T.V., a phone, a kettle, a hairdryer and beyond another door a bathroom. The bathrooms have a sink, W.C, and a bath with a separate shower nozzle, so you can have a bath shower if you wish.
The rooms are always clean and tidy even during a stay of several nights, the beds are well made and clean. The bathroom is just as clean as the room and there is a soap dispenser and a shower gel dispenser that is very handy if you forget to pack yours. The TV has all the terrestrial channels as well a few satellite channels and radio stations tuned in. They are all okay if you want to stay in and watch, but I'm not sure about the inclusion of 'Live TV'. Let's just say 'Live TV' is not really suitable for juvenile minds after 10pm.
The rooms do not have air-conditioning, but they do have a rudimentary heater control mounted on a wall. The heater is an electric wall heater rated in some hotels as low as 500 Watts. As such the rooms can be cold in the winter and too hot in the summer as there is no way to cool the room down. Sometimes in the summer you will find a fan in your room to cool you down, but for the money I'd prefer air-conditioning.

~Resturant and bar~
A few Premier Travel Inn's have a restaurant and bar located on the premises. If not and it is located 'out of town' then there is normally a 'Beefeaters' or 'Brewers Fayre' pub very close by. The menu is meant to be the same countywide, with a breakfast selection of full 'chubby' breakfast for £6.95 or a lighter breakfast for £4.95. Breakfast is served 7-9am Monday to Friday and 8-10 at the weekends. I have never tried the breakfast as I can normally find a 'chubby' breakfast cheaper in a local café and I have to be out and moving before 7am. Evening meals have a greater selection with a main meal starting at a Margherita pizza for £5.45 to a Mixed grill for £11.95. This may seem reasonable to some people, but in my travels I have learnt to find other places that a have meal and a drink for under £5 and I'm not talking McDonalds here.
The in-hotel restaurants vary in quality and service, but the following rule of thumb applies. If the check-in was good the food will be good, if the check-in was bad the food will be read for the dogs. Again the North/South divide runs true with the thumbs up going to the former and the latter getting a big fat raspberry, especially around London.

~Would you like to stay here?~
I thought I'd just impart two quick tales, to show you why I am no longer considering Premier Travel Inn as a place to stay:

Check in, got a 'keycard' for a room and on opening the door, found a man in 'his' bathroom having a shower. Resolved after much gnashing of teeth by spend a night in another room.

Spending 45 minutes waiting to get checked in by the trainee, whilst someone in the back office, (supervisor I assume?) talked very loudly on the phone to his 'lover bear' about the holiday he has just booked on the Internet.

~Conclusion~
Premier Travel Inn is an amalgamation of two hotel chains, 'Premier Lodge' and 'Travel Inn'. Unfortunately they will soon have to go through a re-branding exercise by paying thousands of pounds to an advertising guru and to drop the 'premier' from the name and change it to 'Championship Travel Inn'. The rooms are large and spacious, but the service is too sporadic and the cost of a night's stay does not reflect the rooms in some of the older hotels. Yes, the rooms are maintained and clean, but the consistency of the hotels is too variable to ever really know that you will get a good stay.

My company is now putting a squeeze on using Premier Travel Inn's as a means of staying away from home for short periods. They feel that the hotel chain doesn't offer value for money and as such I will soon be forced to try out some B&B's or other cheaper independent hotels. Unusual as it is, I am happy to let my company think they are taking away something I need, because for once they have not.

Thank you for reading and rating

Martin
 

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