Premier Inn Leicester City Centre hotel — Restaurant in Great Britain

It’s not the worst hotel ever, but there are a whole host of issues with it, some age of hotel based, but many managements based. We stayed there rather than the Ibis just up the road, we regretted it

The location is good, and availability of reasonably priced parking hood. However, there are ‘reserved’ spaces for the Premier Inn, but there is no way to enforce if you are a guest or not. On Saturday there were no spaces as lots of rugby fans were using the Premier Inn spaces, and then walking to the stadium. So, if you come when rugby/football is on, you risk having no space. The room itself is small and our room had a huge pillar in it taking up even more space. why. Our room had no opening windows and the bathroom ventilation is via a small inadequate fan and so the room was warm and humid.

Post Covid, they’re claiming the environment is the reason they don't clean rooms now. Housekeeping is every 5 days unless you ask at reception. I don’t dispute the environmental benefits (I agree), but their primary motivation is to reduce operational costs and this just a way maintain positive PR. Other chains do the same but reduce the room rate if you don’t require cleaning/towels, they don’t seek to profit from it. It’s greenwashing. As the room has Aircon, and with the lack of ventilation, the only way to remove moisture from the air is to use the aircon, which is greater impact to the environment. Our towels never dried, and the room post shower was incredibly warm given it was 14 degrees outside. The ineffective aircon was the only option. The mattress bowed in the middle, and so somewhat rolled us into the middle and made it feel incredibly small. We didn’t get a single good nights sleep. I gave up with the free WiFi quickly, it was poor

There are two slow lifts, both working independently. Everyone pushes both buttons call the fastest lift and when they stop at floors for no reason (as someone pushed both buttons), it makes it a very painful experience. At checkout time, it was incredibly bad, and genuinely took about 10 minutes to get from room to key drop off. The hotel has 12 floors by the way

On day 1 we our keys didn’t work. At reception were initially told it “was our fault”, as we’d likely put them next to our phone, words to this exact effect were used, ‘it was our fault’. We ignored the rudeness of accusation and the fact that this would be a terrible technology in 2023 if it was a problem, and the employee checked the system. We’d been checked out despite having another 2 nights booked (it was not a split booking). Not understanding why, the employee, with no apology for the accusation just huffed and said she needed a manager

The manager arrived and couldn’t explain why, (she’d also checked us in the night before). At no point was there any level of empathy for the now 30 minutes we’d had wasted, no apology, not even politeness. Given we’d just been blamed for the issue, when it transpired it was 100% with Premier Inn, a little tact would have gone a long way, and we’d view the experience very differently. We asked why this happened, and would it happen again. The answer was “I’m not a software engineer, and if you’re unhappy, you should formally complain". (I have). If this had been done in a friendly, polite manner, it’s a story of how they took ownership, apologising for their error. Instead, it’s a story of the contempt they have for their customers and the reason for complaint

Breakfast was ok, but they’d run out of plates (we waited 5-10 mins for a plate, then food would run out) The whole place just seemed poorly managed, and not what you’d expect from Premier Inn. All little things you’d ignore but for the rudeness of a couple of staff...

Having read some of the recent reviews I almost cancelled our stay here. However, other local hotels had equally awful reviews and were more expensive, so stuck with here.|I booked a Premier Inn in the first place, as they're usually consistent and pretty big standard. However, this is the worst one I've stayed in. It needs a complete refurb! |In terms of cleanliness, it wasn't bad, but there was obvious dust on the headboard and on the wall lights. The sink in the bathroom also had visible gunk below the plug. The bedding was clean though and our bins had been emptied. The towels were also fresh and clean. Although there were two of us and there was only one large towel each. We were given a small one, which we put down for getting out of the shower and another smallish one, which my daughter used as a hair towel, so no hand towel available.|The bath (although we showered) was really slow to drain and the plug hole was rusty. The toilet was also incredibly hard to flush and you had to really press hard and hold the flush for it to flush.|We were only provided with one tea bag, which I didn't realise until I went to make tea in the morning! The kettle also had left over water in it.|The free WiFi was slow and worse than the 4G on my phone.|We had breakfast in the morning, which was standard fare for a help yourself buffet. The staff replenishing the food were working really hard. The person who greeted and sat us however, was not! They didn't explain it was self service or check for allergies etc (thankfully we don't have any) and really looked like they'd rather be anywhere else than there!|We parked in the train station carpark as I didn't want to risk tight spaces and there was plenty of spaces available.|The hotel is in a convenient location for the theatre (the reason for our trip). However, I didn't feel safe walking back to the hotel after the theatre- it really wasn't pleasant.|Overall, the stay was ok, not worth the price point, but on a Saturday night in the middle of a city, inflated prices are to be expected. It's not somewhere I'll be rushing back to any time...

Premier Inn Review

Faulty Towers Reborn

We had a wonderful stay at the city centre Premier Inn, in Leicester.

Whilst this is obviously a 3 star level hotel, with the smell and decor feeling a bit dated, we had a great experience.

The location is superb. Right next to the train station and across the road from the venue we were attending the following day.

The staff were outstanding, but seemed very stretched.

I noticed on the first night, the same friendly and efficient lady was our waitress, bar staff, receptionist and even made our dessert.

Dinner was wetherspoon standard, but the breakfast was much better at cruiseship standard. I've never seen a cup warmer before, even at 5* establishments.

Premier Inn must also be congratulated for the excellent meal deals and kids eat free. My kids ate free for both breakfast and dinner. So having our two kids with us cost the same as if we just came as a couple. And its not as if the adult price was inflated. It only cost us £26 each for dinner and unlimited breakfast. Also to my utter amazement, my dinner Included a glass of wine (or one alcoholic drink) - outstanding.

Having private conversations with staff during our stay, it was clear that their excellent performance was largely due to their personal pride in their work, rather than any particular training given by the company.

Premier inn have to ask themselves wether this stretching of staff is sustainable long term.

But you're going to get 5 stars any first your excellent staff and your...