Premier Inn Oxford South Didcot hotel — Hotel in Vale of White Horse

The room (no: 5) was comfortable on the whole, albeit the hairdryer didn't work at all, plus the loo seat was ill-fitting & loose & there was visible staining in the loo pan. ||||The immediate surroundings of the hotel gardens & car park area were all in need of some attention as there was litter strewn around, grassed areas were messy & overgrown, wooden posts outside the restaurant area were broken & all the windows were in need of a good clean. The pathway view from the windows in room no: 5 was a complete mess with overhanging foliage, litter, scruffy & dirty windows & window ledges.||||Most disappointingly though was the breakfasts which I had paid for in advance when booking the room.||||The Vegan options were extremely limited, barely any choice at all. The hash browns looked soggy & not crispy; the half tomatoes looked undercooked with no colour to them. We asked the staff if there were any mushrooms & they said they'd run out of them, even though it was only about 9am.||The bread was ok for toasting, but there were no vegan pastries to choose. There was only soya milk for tea/coffee/cereal, (no other plant milk alternatives were available, like the most popular one: oat milk), there were no vegan yoghurts.||||So options/choice for vegans was abysmal, yet the price is the same as non-vegans who are provided with a much wider choice & variety for the same cost! ||||This is NOT equality NOR fair for non-animal flesh/secretions eaters to pay the same price as animal eaters.....yet not have the same volume of options to choose from!||||My mum is not vegan , but she is vegetarian & she was incredibly disappointed with the state of the 'cooked' breakfast. She selected a croissant & tried a small piece of it....she said it was squashy & undercooked.||She had a hash brown but only had a small bite of it & said it had a strong onion flavour to it, which is not nice to eat for breakfast. She also put a small amount of the scrambled egg on her plate & when she tasted that she said it was rubbery & had a horrible taste to it. We spoke to restaurant staff about the scrambled egg & we were informed that the reason that the scrambled eggs were swimming in a couple of inches of water was because they had been frozen scrambled eggs!!! How disgusting is that !!||||My mum's hash brown, scrambled egg was only luke warm too.||||The 2 x vegan sausages that were brought out to me, (that I had to ask for, as they were not readily available to choose), were definitely done by a non-vegan 'cook' as they were not actually cooked correctly, there was no colour to them, they were pale looking & when I tried a bite of one I couldn't eat the rest as it was awful.||||This breakfast was the absolute worst breakfast my mum & I have ever tasted anywhere !! ||||To have paid over £20 for 2 x breakfasts was a rip-off to say the least! ||||The 'hot' breakfast was barely warm.||Choice for non-animal eaters was pitiful.||The quality of food was appallingly sub-standard, even the fruit juices tasted like processed, flavoured water & not like proper natural fruit juice. ||||With regard to the self-service buffet situation.... yes, of course, it's nice to help ourselves to what we wish to put on our plates BUT when other customers pick up the tongs to put animal flesh & dried blood, (bacon & black pudding), on their plates, then use the VERY SAME TONGS to pick up hash browns or tomatoes....this results in CROSS CONTAMINATION!! ||||The tongs aren't labelled for individual food items, so I witnessed the 2 chaps in front of me use a single pair of tongs for picking up multiple items. I spoke to the chaps & said that unfortunately they had now contaminated the non-animal based items, to which they replied: "oh, sorry".||||This must happen all the time, so nothing in the hot buffet is actually suitable nor safe for vegans or vegetarians or certain food allergies &/or food intolerances sufferers, especially if people are using the tongs & serving spoons for all the items !!||||I'm vegan ethically & DO NOT want to eat food contaminated by tongs & serving spoons that other people have used already on non-vegan 'foods'. ||||Worryingly, some people may be allergic to animal-based so-called 'foods', so this could be||extremely DANGEROUS to those people with certain allergies if they encounter buffet tongs & serving spoons being used for all the items causing cross-contamination!!||||Additionally, I think it's very cheeky & greedy of Premier Inn to expect hotel guests to pay to park at the hotel. I assumed, obviously incorrectly, that the £4.50 I had paid for parking my car, would then be deducted off of my hotel payment....sadly I...

Having paid £351.98 for two nights, I expected the premier inn reliability I have experienced in other locations. Didcot is a blight on the company’s reputation, and appearances, in this case, are deceiving. Behind the check-in desk is the slogan “Good night guarantee”, but look closer, and you could easily miss the first clue. The guest check-in computer screen says, “Oops, something is wrong” Herein lies the truth.

I opened the door to room 28, just down the stained corridor, to find the Beefeater kitchen AC unit opposite working overtime in the summer heat, suitably framed through the bird mess and insects riddled window. Deciding not to unpack, I turned 180 and retraced my steps back to ask Anna, who pretends to be the helpful receptionist, to change my room. I said I’d wait after she feigned trying to find me an alternative, which unintentionally forced her hand to come clean, saying there was nothing she could do. I’m suspicious that she’s tried this ruse before, but she’d been caught out this time.

Questioning the situation, I returned to the room to prepare for my important meeting the following day to discover there was no WiFi - oh, it’s going to be like this. So I paid for the ‘Ultimate’ WiFi to discover this is also a con. It doesn’t exist.

Once again, I return to reception with even less hope in Anna’s ability. Thinking she’s been hired to be the gatekeeper, only effective for handing people keys and pretending to care when all she is doing is wearing the guests down until they go away. She’s as helpful as being sold a flat battery. After I asked her directly, she didn’t have WiFi on her phone either. The guy waiting to check in behind me then chipped in helpfully to add that he didn’t have WiFi when he stayed the week before. After reading the Google and TripAdvisor reviews, it’s clear this is a consistent and common policy of the establishment. I topped up my data allowance - twice, costing me an additional £21, but take my advice, if you need to work, instead pop across to the Beefeater, spend that £5 ‘ultimate’ WiFi tax on a relaxing pint, where they have a fast connection and the staff by stark contrast are pleased to see you, attentive and have a sense of urgency.

‘Rest easy’ is the chain’s slogan, which doesn’t apply in Didcot. The bed is an oven, equipped with a thick winter duvet over a memory foam roasting tray topper on a sloping mattress. It guarantees you will be very ‘well done’ in the morning. Add the constant door banging, busy car park outside, and dripping bath tap. If you’re unfortunate to be roomed on the ground floor like me, you may also be treated to what sounds like a removal company rehearsing their skills late into the early hours. The floor/ceiling has no sound insulation, so you hear your neighbours’ footsteps, conversations and insistent coughing clearly, and when they rearrange the furniture, it feels like they’re in the room with you. You will be sure of a restless night awake. ‘Rest easy’ is a lie here.

Stay for two nights, and they’ll even raise the discomfort level. Save yourself the back and forth - ask for towels on your way in because they won’t have cleaned your room. Smiling at the cleaners with a sunny hello in the corridor gets brushed off with a grunt. The room is so hot and stuffy. it will stew your damp towels from your morning shower, turning your arrival into the room an assault rather than a welcome.

I won’t ever stay here again, even if you pay me. Moreover, I’ll think twice about booking a premier inn elsewhere. I travel a lot for work and this is one of the very worst hotels I’ve been unfortunate to experience. Save yourself the dirt, discomfort, anxiety and expense. Book any other hotel close by to rest easy. Avoid this one at all costs. You’re guaranteed the opposite here in this appallingly managed, revolting Didcot premier inn.

I received a very delayed response to my complaints, saying very little and taking no responsibility, most surprising was that it is the customer's responsibility to contact Virgin Media about the...

Car parking fine 9/10 Reception 6/10 - small and more than 2 guests it gets crowded especially with bags and no set rules about mask wearing social distancing being observed. Bed comfiness - 10/10 can’t fault it Room Temp - hot and air con wouldn’t work which is probably why we found a fan dumped in the room. Cleanliness - Told we wasn’t able to check in until 15:00 hrs due to room cleaning and our room was filthy. Layers of dust on most surfaces with Staines on toilet seat. To add insult to injury we booked a twin room and was given a double and given no compensation/resolution for it. We had to set up our own camp bed in the room for the other person to sleep on and pay for the privilege. General hotel - At night when you need the corridor lights the most they turn them off and put them on sensor which means you have to guess or feel where you are going until the first light comes on ( not recommended for any hotel or inn ).

In general this premier inn is okay if they can get your request correct, not mess around with room temperatures and leave corridor lights on at night. However, I would not recommend this hotel ( premier inn/Whitbread ) for business and only maximum one night leisure stays due to the inconvenience it gives its guests when it’s orders are incorrect. I would have been more than happy if they would have come up with some sort of resolution or compromise when they changed our room from twin to double but by the time we went down to collect out bags most staff where finishing there shift so had no intention of helping us. Treat this particular location with caution and make sure you get what you ordered before you pay. This review does not include any of the food outlets near by or attached as we did not...