Premier Travel Inn London - Tower Bridge, London

...very little "inn" about a Premier Travelinn. I'm prepared to warrant that not a single one of them lurks near a village green, nestles under a thatched roof, has beamed ceilings or an open fire. They do not abound in those quaint niceties conjured by the word inn. In fact, many of them don't even count as an inn in the literal sense - since they do not themselves provide food, but rely on a reciprocal arrangement with an adjacent hostelry. ...
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One final thought: Premier Travelinn "Guarantee a Good Night's Sleep"…but I've never actually put it to the test. Will they give me my money back, or come up with the mogadon I wonder?

~

hiker@Ciao
11.3.06

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Let's be up-front about this: there is very little "inn" about a Premier Travelinn. I'm prepared to warrant that not a single one of them lurks near a village green, nestles under a thatched roof, has beamed ceilings or an open fire. They do not abound in those quaint niceties conjured by the word inn. In fact, many of them don't even count as an inn in the literal sense - since they do not themselves provide food, but rely on a reciprocal arrangement with an adjacent hostelry.

Is this a criticism? Not in the slightest.

I would not choose a Travelinn for a romantic holiday or an indulgent weekend…but for a city-break or a business trip when I need nothing more than security, comfort and convenience I use Travelinn most of the time. Their "Tower Bridge" branch is fast becoming a regular haunt.

LOCATION:
None of what follows is of any interest unless the hotel is in the right place. The Tower Bridge Travelinn is located on Tower Bridge Road - within walking distance of Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, the London Dungeon, Southwark Cathedral (or if you visit is perhaps for less pleasant reasons: Guys Hospital).

Less than ten minutes walk from London Bridge station (main line & tube). Though it must be admitted that it is not the most pleasant walk the first time you do it, in the dark, in the rain, along the arches…it is actually well-lit and quite busy in terms of pedestrian traffic. In daylight it's quite interesting in an urban-history kind of way.

The immediate environs of the hotel are mainly office and residential. There is a local supermarket just over the road, and a couple of coffee-shops and pubs within strolling distance.

Tower Bridge Road can be busy, especially early in the morning, but windows are triple-glazed and I've never found noise to be a problem.

PRICE: £85 per room per night Mon-Thurs / from £75 per room per night Fri-Sun. (as at the date of writing, check website for latest rates - www.premiertravelinn.com)

BOOKING:
Rooms can be booked either by phone or online.

UK central reservations number: 0870 242 8000
Or from outside the UK on +44 1582 414341.

Online at http://www.premiertravelinn.com

I generally use the latter. You can find the nearest hotel to your location by clicking on the map or by searching (by town, area, attraction, postcode, major road) or by simply selecting from the drop-down list. The search facilities work quickly and provide a list of alternative hotels with their miles from your parameter, together with prices and a quick link to checking availability. Simply input your room requirements, number of people, dates and availability will be confirmed. If the hotel is full, you will normally be advised if any other Travelinn's in the area have availability to match your requirements. You are then led through a number of simple screens to confirm your booking. You will be required to guarantee the booking with a debit or credit card.

Cancellations can be made up to 1pm on the day before arrival. Cancellations after that date will be charged for the room for that night.

For regular users of "Travelinn" it is worth becoming a 'member' of the site. There are occasional offers and competitions (which may or may not be of value to you), but the main benefits are (a) it speeds up the booking process by keeping a number of default details - NOT any of the payment details obviously - (b) it enables you to check any past or future bookings. Handy if you mislay your confirmation, or subsequently need a copy of the invoice. It will even tell you which room you were in…just in case you left something behind?

Upon acceptance of the booking, you will receive an e-mail confirmation of your reservation. Unlike my experience with some other hotel chains I have always received this within a matter of minutes of the online acceptance. If a mobile phone number is provided, you can also choose a SMS confirmation.

CHECK-IN:
Despite usually arriving at peak time I have never been kept waiting at the check-in desk. Reception staff with perfect English and a mixture of accents from Europe and beyond, suggesting a variety of proficiencies in other languages, are unfailingly pleasant, helpful and efficient - though not above a bit of banter among themselves. (Well, one doesn't want to be served by a robot after all.)

My reservation has always been promptly located and checked; payment extracted and room key (the electronic card type) which are also used to access the stairwell and the lifts, handed over. A recent additional security measure appears to be the "not voicing" of your room number, which is written on the card containing your key.

PAYMENT:
At all Travelinn hotels payment is on arrival. You can pre-pay for breakfast and/or newspapers, failing which the charge will be room-only. All charges are per room, not per person.

The downside is that you will have to pay at the time for any meals or extras taken within the hotel during your stay.

The upside is that check-out is a simple matter of handing over your key card. No hanging around in the morning with meetings looming or trains to be caught.

ACCOMMODATION & FACILITIES:
If you have stayed at a Travelinn anywhere in the UK, you can describe the room to me as well as I can to you. All rooms are fairly standard in layout, décor and facilities.

You can expect the room proper to be plainly decorated, with walls in shades of cream and mustard, and an occasional bland inoffensive print or two of floral or landscape subject. Soft furnishings generally in shades of cream, russet and pink. The curtains are a somewhat hideous check rendition of the overall colour scheme, but they are totally light-blocking for those who need their nights to be dark.

The standard complement of furniture is
- double bed (I'm not sure there are any single rooms in Travelinn's - often when booking for a lone occupant I'm required to specify a single, but they've never yet offered me one. They do offer 'twins')
- two easy chairs with coffee table
- a wall unit which comprises a long desk/table/dresser with mirror and light over, together with 'open wardrobe': four shelves, drawer and hanging-space
- bedside cabinets - again 'open'
- a full-length wall mirror.

Lighting is a mixture of ceiling mounted, and individually operated wall-lights. All are low-energy type.

Heating is controllable via a wall-mounted thermostat and a guide to its operation is provided. The windows do open.

En-suite: the bathroom has the standard British facilities of WC, handbasin and bath with shower over. The heated towel rail has warning signs about how hot it gets, but is mounted at height over the WC away from the straying hands of little ones. Gone are the wastefully packaged tiny bars of soap and shower gels, replaced now by wall-mounted foam soap at the whb and Lux bath/shower gel over the bath. Whilst I'm sure this is for purely commercial reasons, it does reduce the packaging waste & so gets my support. (I'll just have to buy my own kitchen soap in future.) Similarly there are notices about the washing of hotel towels - do you really need a clean towel every day? Do you get one at home? The water is hot. The shower is powerful. The towels are white and fluffy.

Back in the room:
TV is of portable size. It offers BBC1, 2, 3 & News24, ITV1, Channels 4 and 5, CBeebies, Chartshow TV, LiveTV, together with the radio options of Radio 5 Live, Radio 2 or local radio. There are no pay channels or in-house movie channels. TV reception is excellent.

Telephone: there is a card-operated phone which comes with comprehensive instructions for use. Payment can be via credit card or by pre-pay Travelinn Card. If you are likely to make a lot of use of the phone, it will be worth obtaining the in-house card (from reception) as call-charges are much lower, especially if calling abroad. For example, a credit card call to the US will cost 72p per minute, whereas on the in-house card it will only be 12p per minute. Instructions are also given for internet connection via the phone - but in this instance the dial-up number was not given, so it was not clear whether the service was in fact available.

Tea-making & coffee-making facilities are provided.

Hairdryer: blow-dryer wired to wall-mounting. Whilst I find the hold-in on switch of these devices a little tricky to handle, and they could certainly be a problem to those of limited dexterity, most provincial Travelinn's do not yet provide dryers so I'm not about to complain.

I have always found rooms to be spotless.

FOOD:
The Tower Bridge Travelinn (unlike some) has an integral restaurant. As I tend to use Travelinn purely for the accommodation, I cannot comment on the quality of the food or the service. What follows in this section is therefore purely from the information displayed.

Breakfast costs £6.95 for a free choice from the full selection. If this seems a little steep, it obviously depends upon what you eat (or whether you're sneakily able to share a plate!). The full selection comprises: sausage, bacon, egg, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, bread, toast, croissant, muffin, preserve, marmite, yoghurt, fruit salad cereal, tea, coffee, fruit juice. This is reasonable value for money if you are able to stock up for the day, but for those of us who only manage a little fruit or a slice of toast it would be helpful to have a light-breakfast option at a quarter of the price.

The restaurant offers nibbles and starters ranging from £1.25 up to £4.55 for a full Chicken Caesar salad.

Main meals - steaks, traditional English pub-food, burgers & barbecues, curries, salads, pizzas, pastas, fish (incl sea bass and swordfish) - with prices from £7.50 to £12.99. There are vegetarian meals included, and 'vegetarian options' available on the meaty-mains by adaptation (an idea which surely every restaurant could adopt).

Puddings are approximately £4 a time and comprise the usual suspects.

The wine list is limited, but averagely priced by restaurant standards at £10-£15 a bottle.

There is no room service available, but you can order a pizza at the bar to take back up to your room.

There are vending machines of soft-drinks and snacks in the reception area.

~

So there you have it. Simple, straightforward, no-frills accommodation. You know what you're getting and sometimes a little familiarity is no bad thing.

One final thought: Premier Travelinn "Guarantee a Good Night's Sleep"…but I've never actually put it to the test. Will they give me my money back, or come up with the mogadon I wonder?

~

hiker@Ciao
11.3.06

 

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