Preston Central hotel

We booked a short one night stay at this hotel as we had just travelled down from Dundee. Checked in OK and booked an evening meal for 6:00pm in the restaurant. The room was very clean and quiet. Went down to the restaurant for 6:00, no staff, waited 20 minutes before we were seated and order taken, then a further 20 minutes before got our drinks. An hour after being seated the kitchen bell rang 4 times before someone brought our meals out. Only one member if staff doing reception, bar and serving food, which is not acceptable for one person. My wife ordered Ravioli which came out "stone cold" and asked for it to be reheated, i ordered a "well done" mixed grill, which arrived with the steak still pink and no stake knife, which was not what ordered. Then we heard several of the other guests complaining that their food was not up to standards. So we decided not to wait for the desserts and went to pay our bill, and told it could be 1 - 2hr to get your meal. Other guests cancelled their food order and went elsewhere. We would stay at the hotel again, but would eat there. I hope this is ot the way forward with Premier Inn Hotels.

A regular user of Premier Inns around the country, I have to say this one is up there with the best, if not the best. All of the staff were friendly and always greeted you with a smile and a hello even though they were busy. At breakfast the food was all lovely and warm due to the fact they keep it covered here unlike other PI's who leave it all uncovered. Serving spoons and tongs were also a great touch. Check in was a tad glitchy as the computer was playing up but all kept light hearted and it was only a few minutes. There was a slight "Drain" smell from the bathroom in room 202 but nothing major. Would happily stay here again and thank you to the friendly,chatty staff. Whitbread take note, this is the standard to which all of your hotels should strive to achieve, great customer service, warm food and a warm welcome.

Hotel is located reasonably close to the city centre, but is in an area of complex one-way and restricted road systems - a particularly confusing "bus gate" is in operation at certain times of the day making planning journey's less simple than it could otherwise be, dependant on the time you're traveling (if you're driving). Additionally, the hotel doesn't have it's own car parking facilities, making car parking inconvenient and expensive (roughly £10 for 24 hours) at the nearest public car park - about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Sadly the hotel scores the worst when it comes to the evening meals. While the menu choice is sufficient and the food is decent - it's the service - because there isn't a "branded" restaurant. With only a "skeleton" team running waiter/waitressing, plus cooking in the kitchen plus running the bar for anyone not eating and just wanting a drink AND running the reception. I feel that just 4 members of staff were/are not sufficient to maintain even a fair level of service. Plan ahead for evening meals to find alternatives as there are few options (other than independent, fast food takeaways) nearby. Breakfast is the usual self-serve hot and cold buffet that we come to expect from Premier Inn and is reasonably good.

Dirty entrance not what I’m used to when normally stay in a premier inn , also stairway leading to room dirty The actual room was fine just the rest let it down

From the minute we arrived Matt and Riman was very attentive and couldn’t do enough for us and with Matts approach he sold more than I think he realised we had a bear to help great Ormond street hospital which is an excellent cause and he said the bar is where we could relax once we had unpacked. Which we took up that offer of drink to unwind. The room was very clean and set up well for my family. The breakfast was excellent and everything fresh and was refreshed and replenished all throughout while we were in the dining room. We have stopped at a lot of premier inns and they s is the best so far. I don’t usually write on Tripadvisor but this was that good I couldn’t let this stay go by with out commenting.