Premier Inn Banbury (M40, J11) hotel — Hotel in Cherwell District

This place is a dump! First thing to be aware of is this property used to be a Holiday Inn express. It was then taken over by Premier Inn with very little work done to it. Therefore it has features of Premier Inn and Holiday Inn express. We booked a two night stay family room with two kids. We arrived on a Friday evening approx 16.30 in very cold weather first week of Feb. Greeted by a young scruffy looking chap who appeared from the bar wearing an apron to check us in. Pleasant tone to his voice, however not once did he make eye contact with any of us. Granted we got checked in and sign posted to room 21, on the ground floor at end of the corridor. Few people milling around en route to our room in the corridor. When we walked into our room it was icy cold and the stench of damp was strong. We put down our bags but none of us took off our coats interestingly. The room had a strange vibe about it. It was large and was a mix of Premier in livery and Holiday Inn express livery. The smell of damp was heavy in the air now, so I decided to put the big lights on as the kids wanted to do a bit of colouring. Well my God the rising damp that was up the wall by the bed was shocking. There was old black cobwebs everywhere too. The heating didn't work in the room as the control panel was broken but also as we well the staff downstairs can override it so you don't use it too much. Went into the bathroom which reminded me of being on a ferry as it was very similar in style, but you wouldn't dare swing a cat in there. Ah now it was the stench of stale urine in the lino of the bathroom floor. The seals/glass of the shower door were grubby. I came out of the bathroom and said to the Mrs and kids get your things we are not staying in this dump. We don't live in conditions like that at home and we are certainly not paying to stay in them here. We were only in the room for 10mins. Off we went back up to the desk. Same chap there checking in two more unfortunate sods. Once he had them off to their room,we broached him and said we are not staying the room it's shocking. It stinks of damp, there's rising damp up the walls and cobwebs, the bathroom smells of urine and the heating doesn't work. He didn't seem surprised and said oh right and apologised. He suggested we may be able to have an alternative room, but it wasn't made up for a family but he could ask housekeeping to do that. However he stated housekeeping would have to come in from home to turn the room around. He then went to double check something in the alternative room and said he'd be back shortly. He never came back. Instead we spotted him behind the bar again. Next a lady appeared at the desk. She apparently was the person in charge for whatever shift it was. She had been briefed by the chap and she reiterated that housekeeping would come from home to make up a new room for a family, however this might take up to an hour and she said she could not guarantee the next room would be any better. She did apologise and she acknowledged she heard what we were saying and she stated they do try hard, but the only heat certain parts of the hotel and they can override the heating in rooms at anytime. Of course I then reminded her that this is not acceptable in winter and because of that and also that the window doesn't open, it's the perfect environment for damp and mould. We explained to her we wouldn't let a dog stay in there and we would like a refund and we'd be on our way. This lady couldn't process the refund but gave us details of a phone number to speak to customer services and arrange that with them. Of course they would not be open until the Monday morning. We got or things and left the property. When we got home the Mrs emailed Dominic Paul CEO and multimillionaire of Whitbread, the parent company who owns Premier Inn, attached the photos to the email and asked him if he would stay in a dump like what he's renting out to his customers? After to and fro, we got and apology and told they would look into the matter urgently along with housekeeping and...

Date of incident 19th august 2023. I have had the pleasure of staying at over 100 premier inns and never felt the need to complain until I experienced the Banbury m40 premier inn. We had the worst breakfast service I have ever received. We had a lovely fresh coffee each. All was going as expected until we went to the buffet for our breakfast to be met with empty food containers no bacon, a dribble of beans, one egg, two tomatoes, one sausage no hash browns. I then enquired how long the food would be to the chef to be told a few minutes the hash browns would be 9 minutes and had just gone in. Now I can understand there could be reasons for this wait like a huge amount of people in the restaurant (there wasn’t) new staff their could be a number of reasons however instead of a member of staff trying to explain any issues or apologising for the situation. I was met with a loud voice from an unseen part of the kitchen informing me that everything was in the oven I replied I don’t think this is a good situation as a queue was forming behind us and had never encountered this on any previous stays. The lady who I found out was the manager refused to give me her name and removed her lanyard from around her neck accused me of discrimination humiliating her in front of guests because I dare criticise the service she threatened me that there is cctv recording the conversation which I am delighted to hear I implore premier inn to review this situation I have never in all my life been made to feel like this. One member of staff Dan who was willing to give me his name stayed very quiet while this one happening and I felt quite sorry for him as this was...

Have stayed in several Premier Inns before, and for the price we've never been able to complain...until we stayed at this one.

We discovered quite late into the evening, when we were putting our toddler to bed, that the toilet did not appear to have been cleaned. It had urine splashes on the sides and distinctly smelt of urine too. Had it not have been late, and we were only staying one night, we would have asked for a new room.

It was one of those times where you felt cleaner if you didn't use the shower. Both the bedroom and particularly the bathroom just looked grubby, probably not helped by our thoughts about the cleanliness of the toilet. The shower adjuster was broken, and further to this, water that spilt onto the side of the sink simply rolled off onto the floor to make a puddle.

We had to remake the pull-out bed as the person who does that job couldn't be bothered to make it properly. The sheet was only partially covering the mattress protector, which has probably had hundreds of people sleeping on it. To make matters even worse, the spare pillows in the shelf had clearly been used by other people and not been washed - they smelt of people. Yuck.

When trying to sleep we thought it seemed a bit noisy outside. Discovered some moron who must have previously stayed there had broken the lock on the window which 'for our safety' was meant to be un-openable...so we had traffic noise all night too...not Premier Inns fault but they should have noticed.

Staff were as nice as always though, so there was a silver lining. Currently in the process of getting our money back too.

See three attached photos for broken window lock and...