Premier Inn Reading South (Grazeley Green) hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

Our worst stay at Premier Inn and potential health and safety nightmare... On 16th Nov we returned to the hotel at 10pm & our key cards wouldn’t work in our room door. We subsequently had 3 trips back and forth down stairs to reception, before the receptionist left her post and tried 3 attempts herself, with no luck. The receptionist then contacted the manger, who would take another 30 minutes to arrive as he was off duty / not onsite.

When the manager arrived he proceeded to repeat the same process, (including the reuse of the master key) and confirmed there was a severe problem with the lock and would need to break-in. I explained that I’m self-employed and needed my laptop for work that evening and he did attempt to break-in at that late hour, but without success.

We waited 2.5 hrs in reception while this was going on. Although all the staff were polite and apologetic we were not offered a cup of tea, or any other drink. By 12:30 am the manager stopped his attempts at gaining access due to the noise affecting other clients and said he would try again in the morning. This was somewhat understandable, but really a professional 24 hour emergency lock smith should have been called in the first place.

Despite not having any of our belongings, we wearily accepted the offer of another room. We asked reception for a toothbrush and toothpaste but were informed they didn’t have any and could only supply shower gel. (We spotted toothbrush and toothpaste in the vending machine the next morning, so cannot understand why this was not offered at the time).

After being given a keycard for another room and walking back upstairs yet again, we were suddenly recalled by the receptionist, who apologised and said that second room was occupied and he would need to source another room. 

The final room we given was a very unromantic disabled room located next to the hallway main door, which created a loud bang each time it was opened and closed. The room next door played loud music / TV intermittently throughout the night. At 4.30am we had had enough and complained to reception. The receptionist knocked on their door and the music was turned down, but not off. My partner and I hardly slept all night.

We went back to reception at 8am hopeful we would have access to our room, but sadly we were still locked out. I therefore decided to take a look for myself and could see the manager’s attempts at breaking in on the door in the morning. He demonstrated and sat on the corridor floor and began to push the door with his feet, which did flex.

By this point my partner and I were very stressed, tired and just wanted to go home. I joined him on the floor and it took both of our strength to break-in, snapping the locking system and door frame (which can be seen in the photos). We both subsequently experienced back pain, which I am still suffering with today.

My partner and I were visibly tired and stressed, weren’t offered a refund (this needed to be requested via “customer services” online), or a complimentary breakfast. It took my partner to request a breakfast, which was only then supplied.

Apparently the locks were all brand new. I would therefore recommend that Premier Inn review all their new locks and have emergency strategies in place, especially in the event of fire as this would have been a major health and safety risk.

After giving “feedback” we did receive Premier Inn’s standard/guarantee “bad night” refund for our stay, but I strongly feel this is nowhere near good enough for the experience we had on this occasion and no one has followed up regarding the injury incurred. All-in-all a terrible stay for...

I've stayed at a number of Premier Inns and never had an issue but this one wasn't up to standard. We got in at 10.30pm with 2 young children so quickly put them to bed but we found that the whole room was covered in cobwebs, and not just a few small ones, obviously not been removed in weeks, maybe longer. With the main light on they weren't as obvious, but just the lamps on they were alot more noticeable. However they didn't really affect our ability to use the room and our children were in bed so we decided to not make a big deal and just let the front desk know on the way out. In the morning we found a few other issues that made us question how well the room was cleaned. The bin and the carpet next to it had spilled food from whoever used the room previously. And when we were using the bathroom in the morning the toilet tissue dispenser only had a handful tissues in there, so it hadn't been restocked. I reported it as we checked out and the staff behind the counter apologised and recommended we leave some feedback online. So later that day I contacted Premier Inn customer service letting them know we weren't entirely happy with our stay due to the above. I do get it's not a 5 star hotel, but some basic cleanliness and restocking is to be expected.

A few days later we got an email saying they were sorry but the front desk staff didn't have any record of it so they basically didn't believe us. And as I didn't raise it when I found it it mustn't have been a big deal. I don't like causing a fuss so most of the time I let things go but I did not like being accused of trying to make things up for the possibility of saving a few pounds. We didn't report the cobwebs at 10.30pm as our kids were in bed already and we were tired and didn't fancy changing rooms or getting someone to cleaned the room. And the other things like the spilled food and lack of toilet paper we found as we were preparing to leave and therefore did report when we found them. Hopefully most people have a better experience than ours and like I said before I've stayed at dozens of premier inns for work and usually never had an issue, but we won't be using this one again.

One positive is the pub next door was very friendly and had a lovely atmosphere...

I love a Premier Inn usually, but this was not a great experience at all. Firstly on arrival I was told there were no keys to the rooms, so the receptionist had to let you in your room every time you left it. I asked what the issue was but she had no idea, other than its been a problem for several months and it doesnt look like it will be resolved soon. I noticed that the workmen staying there, were given keys to their rooms, and from a note on the desk, it appeared people were not handing the key cards back in after they left, so it seems they basically have run out of keys, which I would have thought was an easy fix! The next was the very small room, which was not even cheap. I paid over £160 for two nights with breakfast. The room was cold, with a small wall mounted heater in the bedroom which was not effective at heating the room well. The bathroom had no heating in it at all and was freezing cold. The bathroom had a faint smell of sewerage in it. On the day I left someone else, who was in the room three doors down from me and was the same workplace as me, said they had to be evacuated from there room at 11pm due to the unbearable sewerage smell in his room that made him ill.! The first night I slept ok, but the second night I was awoken twice by banging and crashing of the reception door, which i presumed is the workmen working nights on the road maintenance, who were staying there. The food in the pub is always average in all premier inns, but this was not great. Luke warm food on the first night, freezing cold in the dining area as the radiators were turned off, and poor service. The second night was much better in the bar and I was sat by an open fire and the service was much better. I was booked in for early January, but I cancelled it and booked the DeVere hotel round the corner, which was £15 cheaper and a far nice looking room! It wouldnt put me off booking a Premiier Inn, but Id never stay at this...