Northampton West (Harpole) Hotel

Easy check-in and out and a lovely room - warm and welcoming. Comfortable bed for a good night's sleep and, overall, a very pleasant stay, albeit short.

The first thing to note, is a large car park, with plenty of parking spaces and a really good Beefeater restaurant next door. I have used it many times before for both evening meals and breakfasts. Excellent food, wonderful staff. I always receive a warm and friendly welcome from one of the lovely Premier Inn receptionists. I recently met Nichola who was extremely efficient in helping me sort out a problem. The bedroom didn't disappoint, large, clean and comfortable, a nice big luxurious bed and good quality towels in the bathroom.

This was a disappointing experience, particularly as we usually find the premier inn brand very consistent. My husband is a wheelchair user so we booked an accessible wet room at this hotel. The room was at the back of the hotel, and the corridors couldn’t accommodate my husband’s wheelchair. He had to get up and walk down the corridor, causing him excruciating pain and holding up other guests, which added to my husband’s stress and embarrassment. The room itself was fine, and the lady at check in, when she was alerted to the issue with the corridors was absolutely lovely, she went above and beyond to offer what she could, such as opening the fire exits for us. Unfortunately, the design of the building made using these impractical. We ate at the attached beefeater for dinner and breakfast. For dinner, despite us making a booking for 6pm, this didn’t make its way to the restaurant. We were asked to leave and go round the outside and enter through the bar area. Again, this was an accessibility issue - trying to negotiate the wheelchair around the tight corners on ramps and take a long way round the outside is unreasonable in my opinion as we’d booked for 6pm on check in, and arrived at 6.03. Breakfast the next morning was fine, except that the coffee machine was broken and only instant Nescafé sachets were offered. A noticeable downgrade from the normal offering. I’d strongly advise against booking this hotel if you have any accessibility requirements, as the design of the building and location of the rooms made this hotel inaccessible. I do want to reiterate though that this review is not directed against the staff members we interacted with, who were all lovely and a credit to the hotel. The two stars I gave were more than earned by their helpful attitude and compassion for our situation.

Parking Fine: I have received a parking fine even thought the receptionist reminded me to enter my registration. Premier Inns refuse to help and now say they can't find my booking reference. I have the reference in my inbox but now have to appeal the parking charge with the parking company who are crooks. Hours and hours trying to sort this out over the phone. Stay somewhere else or be prepared to pay an extra £95 for the privilege of staying in this dump which doest have wifi no matter what they claim.

Easy to locate, book, registering. Very comfortable beds, quiet. Grateful for ground floor room. Would recommend as a stopover