Premier Lodge, Stockport

---Background—

Premier lodge is a nationwide supplier of moderately priced accommodation to the leisure and business traveller a like.

There are currently approximately 140 different lodges around the country however, they are mainly situated around the midlands, London, the south coast and Scotland. East Anglia and Wales are sparsely populated with this brand however, they are constantly expanding and compared to other ...
...at home we had a Premier Lodge brochure that my brother had picked up when he stayed in a Premier Lodge for a fortnight when he was away on work. So I had a look at the website (www.premierlodge.co.uk) and saw that for just under £50 a night I could stay at the Premier Lodge in Stockport and this was very near to where we wanted to be. The price was reasonable and due to it being pretty near to the day of arrival (5 days) I thought it was best to ... more

---Background—

Premier lodge is a nationwide supplier of moderately priced accommodation to the leisure and business traveller a like.

There are currently approximately 140 different lodges around the country however, they are mainly situated around the midlands, London, the south coast and Scotland. East Anglia and Wales are sparsely populated with this brand however, they are constantly expanding and compared to other companies such as Travelodge which have been going for many years they are pretty new to the market.

The vast majority of lodges are situated in locations with easy road access often off an A-road connecting to a motorway meaning that you are not going to get lost late at night looking for them. However, unlike other companies such as Travelodge and Travel Inn they do not tend to locate lodges right on a motorway meaning that you have less road noise and also the prices are cheaper.

They also have restaurants or bar facilities either attached or next door to the hotel meaning that if you are arriving late or want to have breakfast near by then you are able to do so.

---My experience---

My brother is currently at Manchester University and because I live near Cambridge it’s a fair trek going to visit him and back home on the same day (approximately 6 to 7 hours total) – especially having to contend with the M6.

Consequently I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at suitable places to stay nearby for a night that were not going to cost the earth or be in the centre of Manchester.

Being a bit concerned about the quality of individually owned hotels I thought it would be best to book a room with a well known national company. Having only ever used Travelodge before when going on mini breaks to Wales and the south-west I had a look on their website. At that time they had very few suitable properties to the south of Manchester and ideally I wanted to be with in a few minutes drive of my brothers house so that it would not take to long getting back to the hotel when leaving fairly late at night.

So I had a search for other suitable places when I spotted that at home we had a Premier Lodge brochure that my brother had picked up when he stayed in a Premier Lodge for a fortnight when he was away on work. So I had a look at the website (www.premierlodge.co.uk) and saw that for just under £50 a night I could stay at the Premier Lodge in Stockport and this was very near to where we wanted to be. The price was reasonable and due to it being pretty near to the day of arrival (5 days) I thought it was best to book as places were filling up. Consequently I reserved a room (how – later).

+++Stockport Premier Lodge+++

-Location-

This is located just off the A626 which connects to the junction 27 of the M60 motorway.

Stockport is just to the south of Manchester and so with the easy access to the motorway it is ideal for staying at if you want to go to Manchester itself e.g. for shopping or the like. Although it is definitely not the nearest you could also stay here if you are flying out of Manchester and want cheaper off-flight path accommodation meaning that you don’t get woken up by aircraft in the small hours.

-Current price-

As I write this review the current charge for one nights stay in either a double or family room, sleeping up to two or four is £50 exactly (without breakfast however.)

Premier lodge charge per room and not per person so if you are travelling by yourself you don’t have to worry about a single occupancy charge or if you are travelling as a family then you are not going to have to take out a loan to stay here.

Although the charge is not unreasonable when you compare it with other similar accommodation, you can make a saving on this if you are lucky. If you submit your email address on their website then they email you with any special offers as they are released meaning that on occasions you can easily save yourself around about half of the standard cost.

-Restaurant-

As with lots of these types of hotels they have a restaurant attached to the side, which is also open to the general public. At Stockport there is a Henry’s Table, which I had never heard of before my stay.

However, according to their website it is like a traditional pub and restaurant, but is more modern and relaxed. They serve quite a wide variety of dishes, including grilled steaks, fish, chicken and salads, so most are catered for.

I have to admit that because I did not arrive until fairly late at night I had already had my evening meal and because I was only staying the one night I did not get the chance to try it out, but judging by the menu that was present in my room the food looked good and reasonably priced.

Also if you opt to have breakfast then this is provided in the restaurant.

-Rooms-

According to the website (and guide containing a list of all the hotels with directions and prices) this hotel has 46 rooms.

These include disabled, double and family rooms and smoking and non-smoking.

There are two buildings that form the hotel itself. Firstly there is the main building which is attached to the restaurant itself and has the vast majority of rooms which are divided up into three floors and lifts are provided. 24 hour reception is also located in this building which is comforting to know if you do experience any problems during your stay. The second building which is like an annex, which is where I stayed holds about 10 to 15 rooms.

As stated by their website a standard room features en-suite facilities, direct dial telephone and modem socket for connecting your laptop to the internet, hair dryer, tea and coffee making facilities, work area, satellite television and radio. (The radio is integrated into the TV). Apparently iron boards and cots are available on request.

-Breakfast-

Unlike some hotel chains they do not automatically include the price of breakfast in the cost of your room, which in some aspects is bad, but in others is bad. For example, if you have a very early start e.g. to catch a flight then you will be paying for a service that you are not receiving. However, on the other hand if there are several people staying as a group then the total cost of the accommodation can increase rapidly.

There are two different options available for breakfast:
+ Continental for £4.50 – choice of cereals, chilled fruit juices, fresh fruit salad, fresh fruit, yoghurt and toast or croissant.
+ Traditional for £6.50 – as continental, with your choice of egg (fried, scrambled, poached, or boiled), bacon, sausages, tomato, hash brown, mushrooms and baked beans.

Anyone under 12 eats free when accompanied by a full paying adult or if your children are 13 to 16 then they pay £4.50 each. A children’s breakfast includes orange juice or milk, toast or cereals and two items from the hot selection.

Now if you are like me then you will have a traditional breakfast and I can safely say it was very tasty. To me £6.50 does not seem steep and just reasonable, especially when you think a main meal at most places these days is more than this. A major bonus of the traditional is that you also are able to have all that is included in the continental as well e.g. toast, cereal and as much as you require, so really you are only paying £2 for a cooked meal, which is very cheap.

In case you were wondering breakfast is served between 7 am and 9.30 am Monday to Friday and between 8am and 10am Bank Holidays, Saturdays and Sundays. These are quite reasonable hours, which would suit most people however, I feel that they should start a bit earlier on the weekend as many people may want to leave earlier than that.

-Parking-

Thankfully parking is free at this Premier lodge however, beware this is not the case at some, especially in inner city areas where land is obviously at a premium.

There are also 100 parking spaces and when considering the number of rooms this is plenty and means that theoretically each room could bring two cars and there would still be space.

When I arrived at about 8 to 9pm I had no problem parking however, it was clear that a lot of people were staying there.

Also an important reminder is that the restaurant does actually open to the public so at busy times it could be that you run a risk of not being able to park, but by my experience I think there is a very remote chance of this happening.

-Conference room-

Apparently the hotel also has a meeting room which can hold up to 30 people, so this could be an identical location for a small conference as really you would never need to leave the boundaries of the hotel for the duration of your stay as everything is provided.

The facilities provided include desks with telephone and modem points, free incoming faxes and photocopying services.

-My experience-

On the Saturday I arrived after the check-in time and after filling in the usual forms and presenting a credit card so that any charges throughout the stay could be put onto the room bill we were given a swipe card (not normal key). We were then informed where our room was and the number (as it was not put on the card).

Off we went to find the room, which to find we had to go out of the main building and in to an annex, which had a swipe card entry system into a moderately sized foyer (a couple of chairs and a table and that’s about it) and on locating it rather quickly we attempted to open the room door – normally not to tasking, with a simple key. However, with this type of swipe card (credit card sized) you have to put one of the shorter sides into a slot in a reader, that formed the door handle. Following the receptionists instructions we attempted to open the door. However, after many attempts of putting the card in the reader it just would not work. Now my dad had previously worked for a company that used swipe cards for door access and I could remember him saying how the cards can be a bit temperamental and can require re-activating (or something like that.) So off I go back to reception and then returned shortly after with a new card – again the damn thing would not work. Back I go again and thankfully this time the receptionist came to have a look and after a couple of attempts she managed to get the door open.

Thankfully I was only staying the one night so would not have to worry about re-entering the room after that occasion however, it did make me feel very secure – I couldn’t get in the door and I had the key, so know one else stood a chance!

---The room itself---

On entering the room I was amazed at the size of the room. As the building was fairly old it had rooms that were very large, in terms of height, width and length. I would estimate that the width was probably around 18ft and length around two to three times that.

-Bathroom-

To the left of the door was the en-suite bathroom which looked newly tiled with a large bath (deep – nearer a swimming pool than a bath), power shower fitted over the bath, toilet and sink all decorated in white, which gave a clean and light appearance. There was also the usual two shaving sockets, two glasses and the freebie shampoos and conditioners (a definite plus, especially as they had Premier Lodge on them – it annoys me how many hotels use non-branded ones now, they just don’t make such good souvenirs. I know its very sad but still when you are paying £50 a night what is a couple of sachets of shampoo. Lastly fitted to the wall was a heated towel rail, which I never made use of. One thing that did annoy me and it seems as if most hotels do it is to put the light switch on the outside of the door. This seems very bizarre to me (any one who knows why they do this leave a message) and when there are other switches located next to it and some clever person decides to try and turn one of the other bedroom lights on you are suddenly thrown into a pit of darkness when you are in the bathroom at the time.

-Wardrobe-

To the right of the main door was a built in wardrobe (with no doors) that contained some blankets, coat hangers (attached to the rail so that nobody can steal them) and shelves to store other bits and bobs on.

-Desk-

If you kept walking straight when going through the main door after the wardrobe on the right was a desk with television (with pathetic selection of channels – satellite – don’t make me laugh (all of about 10 channels at the very most!)), large mirror attached to the wall, supplies of tea and coffee with milk to be used with the small kettle – another suggestion provide hot chocolate, and lastly two cups and saucers.

-Beds-

Opposite the desk were the two beds. As when I booked I could only get a family room it was designed to sleep up to four (2 adults and 2 children who are 16 and under) so instead of the normal one bed you get two! Now the first bed – the main double was one of those pull down from the wall jobbies - i.e. the frame is attached to the wall and the bed can be stored completely upright for easy cleaning or pulled down for sleeping. This was very comfortable.

Next the bed designed for two children, which in my opinion would take two adults however, of course the hotels wouldn’t make as much money as they decide to force people to pay for two rooms instead of one. This was a mechanical double sofa bed – i.e. when the room is occupied by one or two people it is used as a sofa otherwise it is used as an extra bed. This had a thin mattress of probably a couple of inches in thickness, filled with foam or something similar. From previous experiences in these types of hotels this was much better than what you normally get which tends to be a single sofa (of about 2 ft in length) and then a smaller pull out bed on wheels which is stored in the bottom of the sofa.

Now for most people this would be absolutely fine however, I did wonder whether the second bed would be suitable for some family circumstances – i.e. a small boy and a teenage girl etc…

-The rest of the room-

At the bottom of the room e.g. furthest away from the door was two coffee type seats – padded all round but with a low back around a small coffee table which had a menu supplied by the next door restaurant. This was near to the window, which because we were on the ground floor and for obvious security reasons had lovely black bars across the outside. Also at the bottom of the room on the right were two wooden doors which were locked – perhaps it could have been interconnecting doors to another room or something.

+++Premier Lodge – General information+++

-Check-in and check-out times-

You are able to check-in from 2 pm on the first day of your stay.

You need to check-out by 11 am on the agreed departure date.

-How to book-

There are two main methods of booking, which are through their website and by telephone.

-Website
This is the method which I use because it is very quick and easy and because I don’t pay my internet usage by the minute it doesn’t cost me anything either.
The whole process is very simple. Firstly you locate the hotel you require and then click the ‘book now’ button.
You are then transferred to a secure web page where you select the date of your arrival, how many nights you want to stay, the number of rooms you require and the different characteristics.
For example you may want to arrive on the 15th July staying for 1 night, with 4 people staying in 2 rooms, with one adult staying in a double smoking room and the remaining 2 adults and one child in a non-smoking family room. You are able to enter all of this information using a series of logically laid out drop down menus showing you the various options.
Next after you have entered all of your requirements availability is checked at your chosen hotel. If your chosen options are available then all of your requirements are confirmed and a total price is shown. Otherwise the web site automatically shows you the nearest lodges that are able to fulfil your requirements.
Assuming that the rooms you require are available you then need to enter personal details, such as name, address, telephone number and the like and also a credit/debit card to secure your reservation. Once the reservation is complete you are given a reservation number, which is worthwhile printing off in case there are any queries when checking-in and then you are also emailed a copy as well.
-Telephone
If you don’t like entering personal details over the web or are not near the computer at the time then you can ring the central reservations centre on 08702 01 02 03, during the hours of 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 4pm Saturdays, Sundays and Bank holidays. If however, you wish to make a reservation outside of these hours then you can ring your chosen lodge directly 24 hours a day. You can locate these numbers either in their brochures or on their website – for example Stockport’s phone number is 0870 990 6544.

-How to pay-

You can pay at Premier Lodge by Visa, Mastercard, Switch, American Express, Premier Lodge Account holders card and also cash (however, I am unsure about cheques, so you would need to enquire with them about that).

On making a reservation you are asked for a credit/debit card number to confirm your reservation. This is mainly so that they can take payment of one nights rate if you were to cancel your reservation later.

However, when you give you credit/debit card details they are not debited until after 4pm on your arrival. So for example you could confirm your reservation by one method and actually pay by another.

-Can you cancel a reservation-

Any reservations made at a promotional rate (you are told this on the website) are non-cancellable. Therefore when you cancel your credit/debit charge is automatically charged straight away.

All other reservations at the standard rate can be cancelled up to 4pm on your day of arrival without charge. Therefore if you cancel after 4pm then you are charged for one nights stay. This is to ensure that they do not lose any money due to you cancelling late in the day, when it is very unlikely that they are going to be able to find someone else to occupy your room.

-Do they accept pets-

Unfortunately they do not accept any pets apart from guide dogs.

I can understand why they don’t accept pets, for example hygiene and cleaning reasons but I don’t know why they cannot set aside a couple of rooms in each lodge that will allow pets, similar to non-smoking and smoking rooms.

If they are concerned about losing money due to having to clean the rooms more thoroughly then I cannot see why they don’t apply a similar policy as Travelodge do where you are charged £5 extra for an accompanying animal.

-How to contact them-

You can contact them by several methods including:
- Website – ‘www.premierlodge.co.uk’ they have a contact us section where you are able to submit information to them online about your query.
- Telephone - 08702 01 02 03
- Fax - 08702 01 02 02
- Post - Premier Lodge, Lakeside House, The Lakes, Northampton, NN4 7SN.

-Brochure-

To be sent by post, free of charge a small brochure that contains information about Premier Lodge, the facilities they provide, lists of all of their lodges, contact details etc… you can request a brochure by going to their website.

Hopefully that’s been of use to you and if you have any more recommendations of how to improve this, as always just leave me a comment.

Lastly, thanks for reading.

 

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