Premier Travel Inn Oxford South (Didcot)

This Premier Travel Inn is at Milton Heights Business Park, situated on the A4130 just off the A34 Milton Interchange between Oxford and Newbury. It is 12 miles from Oxford city centre.

My husband originates from Wallingford near Oxford so we travel up that way several times a year to see old friends and family. It is very difficult to find a reasonably priced B&B in that area, so the last few times that we have been up, we have stayed ...
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Premier Travel Inn has a standard range of facilities that you will find in each room. All rooms include an ensuite bathroom with a shower, tea/coffee making facilities and a tv with Freeview channels.

The rooms have wardrobe hanging space and a dressing table with hairdryer. There is a sofa/pullout bed. The rooms have plenty of space to move around in them.

"WiFi" wireless network ... more

This Premier Travel Inn is at Milton Heights Business Park, situated on the A4130 just off the A34 Milton Interchange between Oxford and Newbury. It is 12 miles from Oxford city centre.

My husband originates from Wallingford near Oxford so we travel up that way several times a year to see old friends and family. It is very difficult to find a reasonably priced B&B in that area, so the last few times that we have been up, we have stayed at the Premier Travel Inn. It is close to Wallingford and also it is close to Didcot, which has a Tesco, an open air Sunday market and a train station. It is also next door to The Apple Cart. This used to be a Brewers Fayre, but is now known as Table Table.

BOOKING
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I always book our rooms online. This is really easy to do. You find the hotel that you want, then check availability. You can then choose the type of room that you want and reserve it. You only pay for the room upon arrival and it can be cancelled as close as 1pm on the day that you arrive. We always book a double non-smoking room.

Since having the baby, we have booked a family room with cot. We have stayed there twice since having the baby and both times have been given a room next to the fire exit, on the ground floor, with a travel cot.

The family rooms can sleep 4. There is a sofa bed, and also a bed that pulls out from under the double bed.

You can check in after 2pm and do not need to vacate until 12pm the following day.

If you are travelling for business purposes then you can open an account with them and charge the room to your business card. They will then take payment by direct debit around 10 days after you have received the statement. My husband is a courier and stays away from home sometimes, so we have one of these cards.

COSTS
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It is actually cheaper at the weekend, no doubt due to the fact that a lot of travelling salesmen need somewhere to stay during the week.

Mon-Thurs - From £66 per room per night

Fri-Sun - From £53 per room per night.

This does not include breakfast which can be purchased separately, either when you pay upon arrival, or the next day if you change your mind.

FOOD
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As stated, breakfast is not included in this, however right next door there is a restaurant called The Apple Cart and this provides a Buffet breakfast for £7.50 for a full selection of cereals, fruit and full English, or you can have Continental Buffet for £5.25.

We usually go to the nearest Sainsburys at Didcot, where breakfast is £3.19each as with drinks, the cost works out at around £8 which is a lot cheaper.

BUT due to doing some online surveys, on my last visit I had a £10 Leisure voucher. This meant that we could get breakfast for just £5 in total after using this voucher. Kids under 15 eat free as well, so when Melissa is old enough to eat a proper breakfast, this would be a very cheap option for us as we would get 3 breakfasts for £5 including drinks. Better start doing some more surveys!

For £5.25 each you can have juice, tea/coffee, cereal, toast/bread, croissants and muffins. As an "all you can eat" buffet, it was very adequate for the price.

For £7.50 each you an have all of the above plus a cooked plate which includes mushrooms, tomato, baked beans, sausage, bacon and eggs (boiled, poached, scrambled or fried).

We asked them to delay bringing out the cooked for 10 minutes so that we could feed the baby first.

For lunchtime and evening meals, The Apple Cart does a wide and varied selection, plenty of pies, salads, steaks and wonder ful desserts, in a range of prices that suit every pocket (sound like an advert for them now!). We have eaten there several times and have usually been happy with it.

++++++++I have revised my opinion slightly after my last visit though, now that it is no longer a Brewers Fayre brand, it is now known as Table Table and the menu is a little bit fancier, although still very nice.

There is also a garage next door, which sells a range of papers, snacks and magazines.

PARKING
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There is ample parking outside the hotel which is free and there is a row of disabled spaces.

FACILITIES
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Premier Travel Inn has a standard range of facilities that you will find in each room. All rooms include an ensuite bathroom with a shower, tea/coffee making facilities and a tv with Freeview channels.

The rooms have wardrobe hanging space and a dressing table with hairdryer. There is a sofa/pullout bed. The rooms have plenty of space to move around in them.

"WiFi" wireless network facilities are available. On our last visit we had taken our laptop with us in order to watch a dvd, so I connected it up to the Wifi and it connected no problem. I did not actually use it, but I believe the cost was around £5 for an hour. You can also buy time by the day or week which is a lot cheaper overall.

Our room had shower gel and soap dispensers in the bathroom too. The shower was really powerful and nice to use, and over the bath as is usual.

There is a notice in the room stating that irons and toiletries can be hired/bought from reception.

The heating control is now accessible for the room and you can adjust the temperature to suit, although it is set to an 18 degrees standard which was quite comfortable. A fan was provided on our last visit as the temperature outside was quite hot.

There are rooms that have been adapted for disabled guests and this must be mentioned when booking.

There was a little bit of noise from a neighbouring room, but not too bad and there is hardly any noise from traffic.

We have always found our rooms to be clean and tidy and the bathrooms the same. The sheets are a bit annoying though as I seem to stick to them when I am trying to turn over in bed.

PERSONAL OPINION
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We booked a non-smoking family room. (ALL rooms are non-smoking now and there is £100 fine if you do smoke). The room was very clean and tidy with blackout curtains. The bathroom was very clean. The bed was fitted with white linen and was a bit soft but very comfortable. There were extra pillows on the cabinet.

The reception was open for 24 hours and the lady who was there said that if we wanted any more tea/coffee etc, then we only had to ask.

I have always found Premier Travel Inn to be of a certain standard. Yes, all rooms look the same, but at least you know exactly what you are going to get. I prefer Premer Travel Inn to Travelodge as it is a slightly better quality of accommodation.

We have stayed here at least 6 times now, for family parties and visits/funerals/days out. We stayed there at the end of March 2007 as we went to see Oxford United play Burton Albion (husband dragging me along kicking and screaming). At the end of May we went to see The Sound of Music in London and accommodation is so expensive there we decided to stay at Didcot for 3 days and drive into London for the show as it is only an hour's drive. +++++++++++ We actually went in on the Oxford Tube as this was a lot easier

I would recommend this hotel if you need a place to stay in this area as it is a lot cheaper at £26 per person per night for the weekend and a cheap breakfast can be purchased at Tesco down the road.

GUARANTEE
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Premier Travel Inn also have a no quibble refund policy. We have not used that here, but did complain at another Travel Inn when our shower did not work, and our £48 was refunded in full with no problems.

I can really recommend Premier Travel Inn for a good nights stay.

We intend to carry on staying there as our baby grows up as there is ample space in a family room

www.premiertravellinn.com

(This review has been updated since we have stayed there with our baby). 

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