Bishop Auckland hotel

Me and my boyfriend booked to stay in Bishop Auckland Premier Inn as we were visiting family nearby and it was in an ideal location for us. We usually book a Premier Inn hotel when we stay anywhere away from home as we know what to expect, staff are usually attentive, the rooms are clean, etc, and most of them have been renovated somewhat recently, so they feel modern and looked after. However this was not the case during our stay. We checked into the hotel after waiting ten minutes at the reception before anyone even appearing to help us, and were staying on the ground floor. The member of staff who saw us was least enthusiastic, and really only have one-word answers, which I understand people can have bad days, but it wasn’t a very warm welcome to somewhere that we’d paid not a cheap price to stay at. Safe to stay, the whole place felt dated and clearly hadn’t had the same renovations done to it as other Premier Inns that we had stayed in previously, but our bedroom especially felt dingy and tired. The small lights that were in the room were very dim and the one small window was covered entirely by a fence, meaning there was barely any natural light coming in to the room. We were definitely immediately disappointed by what we had turned up to, but tried to remain positive, and got on with our day. We dropped our bags and headed back out quite quickly after checking in as we had plans with family, and didn’t return until a lot later into the night. When we came back to our room, we noticed that there was a damp and fusty smell throughout, but especially in the bathroom, which had a strong smell of urine. When I went to brush my teeth and get a shower, I noticed that the bin in the bathroom had also not been changed since the last guests that stayed here, as there was a nappy and some used teabags inside. The shower also had very weak pressure and kicked out some gunk before starting, and would only work with the bath tap running at the same time, however we didn’t report this at the time as we were so tired and it was late and we wanted to get some sleep, which I know is on us and our fault, however it felt as though the list of complaints just kept getting longer, and I just wanted to sleep and get our stay over with so that we could go home well-rested the following day. Well-rested is definitely not how we spent the next day, unfortunately. The walls here are definitely thin, we heard the entirety of next door’s conversation / argument whilst trying to sleep, and it sounds as though the neighbouring shower / bath running is coming from your own bathroom, which led to us having a rather unsettled night. Our morning was then started abruptly at just before 9am, when we were awoken by a member of staff walking into our room saying they “were told we’d left”, which I understand was a human mistake, but followed by kids running up and down racing in the hallway and the family staying beside us being noisy, meant we barely slept during our stay. We also struggled to understand why, if checkout isn’t until 12pm, you would attempt to enter a checked-into room at 9am anyway, as people would be sleeping in the surrounding rooms, and surely cleaning would awaken your guests. We also couldn’t understand why / how anyone could say that we’d left when we hadn’t checked out, hadn’t spoken to or seen a member of staff, and hadn’t left the building since arriving back at night. Checking out, no member of staff was at reception once again, and we had plans with family again, so didn’t have the time to wait around to speak to someone to explain our dissatisfaction or check-out in person, so used the self-drop box to leave our keys and left. In summary, I would not stay here again. I’ve never had any complaints about our stays at Premier Inns before, and we’ve stayed in many across the country. I’ve never even reviewed a single place on here before, but I feel as though people booking should know what to expect, and when you are booking online it’s very deceiving. This place needs some serious TLC, and we are very disappointed with our experience. The location is probably all that is going for it, and the beds are obviously always great at these hotels, but that’s all I have to say about it positive-wise.

Worst premier inn experience. Bathroom smelled of urine. Receptionist mopped it out and sprayed air freshener- without success. No alternative rooms. Would have given up if I could. To be fair, breakfast was ok and I slept fairly well but I expected better.

Usual good standard of accommodation, helpful staff, easy check in enough parking available. Rooms were comfortable and clean. TV reception was intermittent and programmes were prone to breaking up (in both rooms). Outside there are major building works so anyone lingering in the hotel or back early afternoon were subjected to a pile driver which literally shook the hotel taking place from around 9.15 a.m. to 18.15 pm. Noisy and annoying. Many works vehicles in the car park so parking was at the furthest end of the car park.

A fantastic little Premier Inn. Whilst the rooms might be showing their age slightly - it is only slightly! The hotel is set in a really convienient location for visiting the town and the surrounding area. Particularly for places like Shildon, Darlington and even Beamish. All within easy access. Particularly if like us you are visiting with Rail 200 in mind. The hotel is attached to the Brewers Fare restaurant which is very very good for both breakfasts and for evening meal. The £5 value meal available from 12-6pm is well worth it and the portions are still pretty big. I cannot recommend this accommodation enough.

They made us pay £15for each room because we were one hour earlier, but then we had the room only half an hour earlier!! In the room there was nowhere to put the luggage on to open it! To find the hotel very difficult even with the GPS because of a lot of roadworks and closures around. couldn't see the hotel and find the entrance. We had to go around the main road twice! I visited 87 countries for business and pleasure and this unfriendly, unnecessary, unprofessional way was the first time!!