Premier Travel Inn Bristol - City Centre (Haymarket), Bristol

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Average
Quality of Rooms	Average
Standard of Service	Poor
Quality of Facilities	Poor

Advantages:	Central and close to transport links
Disadvantages:	Does not exceed in any way your basic expectations

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

This was an enforced stay on my part as my partner was in hospital all last week and there was no accommodation available at the hospital for me so I had to stay in the city 20 minutes away by bus.

We had stayed at this hotel together for a night back in January and were not impressed then either. When it came to booking 7 days' accommodation for myself this past week, this hotel was the only one with a room available for the whole 7 days, so I took it. I paid £58.99 per night for the room (with just me in it) and I felt ripped off.

It's your bog standard city centre hotel, practical and no frills. It barely met my expectations and certainly didn't surpass them and there was nothing about the staff or the hotel that would make me seek it out in the future unless I absolutely had to. I'm glad on this occasion that I had to spend very little time there. It is completely cold and characterless.

The location is good and this is obviously how they stay full. It's a short walk from the bus station and a short hop to the stop for the bus that took me up to the hospital every day. In that respect it was great and was certainly a practical choice. But I was glad I was not spending more time there than my sleeping hours. It was okay for a place to lay your head at night but don't expect too much else.

Coffee and tea making facilities, yes. TV with remote, yes. Telephone, yes. A bed, yes. Boring décor, yes (very 1970s and desperately needs an overhaul). A shower curtain that actually fitted the height of the bath, no. A bath towel that actually went around you (and I'm not huge), no (and, by the way, my two extra towels were whipped away on the second day when it obviously became clear to the cleaner that only one person was in the room). A bathrobe, no. Slippers, no. Top sheets and a warm duvet, no. Internet access, no. Pen and paper, no. Local information brochure, no. A window that opened, no. Suffocating and oppressively stuffy despite air conditioning, yes.

The biggest disappointment is the staff. They're all far to young to have any great experience in hotel reception duties, are incredibly slow at processing people and are monumentally bored and utterly disinterested in anything you say or ask. Just a well-used spiel given to you on arrival. Reception is just a cattle station. The staff don't even know the most basic of local information, like where's the nearest taxi rank (A: just down the road) and which bus does one catch to get to wherever. If I was in any way paranoid I'd say that I wasn't wanted there at all and was an inconvenience along with everyone else.

One of their standard lines is that there is "a 100% satisfaction guarantee". All I can say to that is that I must have very high standards because I certainly wasn't 100% satisfied.

Breakfast cost just under £7, or at least it would have done if I had it. A short walk from the hotel took you to various shops/cafes that did a full breakfast for £2.50, and the ambiance was so much nicer.

The hotel is attached to a Beafeater restaurant (or maybe it's more accurate to say that the Beafeater restaurant is attached to the hotel). The food was good (choice and quality) and reasonably priced, the service disinterested but fast enough, and the view from the restaurant windows much better than the view you got from your hotel window, which had a net curtain between the two sheets of double glazing, with no way of moving it out of your eyeline.

In summary, if you just want a bed for the night that city centre based go for the Premier. If you intend to spent a lot of time in your hotel room and want friendly and cosy and comfy, don't bother.

PS: They had a customer questionnaire in each room. Needless to say I ran out of room on the 'suggestions' page!