Cockermouth hotel

Stayed here for two nights, booked plus room and it’s not worth it, it’s an old room with small improvements, a fridge, coffee machine and ambient light behind the bed that was faulty, ( don’t waste your money on the upgrade). We requested for the room to be refreshed, the request was how they like it, told the night before and again the morning we wanted it, nothing done! I took the towels to reception and asked for clean, she replied I’m busy with checking in guests but will bring them up as soon as I’ve checked them in, my wife was in the bath, 45 minutes later she had to get because the poor extraction the room was so humid she felt poorly, got her out wet the floor became extremely slippery, how we stayed on our feet I’ll never know. Don’t write back premier inn asking for the booking reference pretending you care, I complained to the hotel, I complained to head office, I complained on Facebook. They really do not care, Whitbread your hotels used to be great now, well we are searching other ideas for the future😤

The hotel prominently advertises free parking for guests. On arrival for a two night stay we parked in the car park and checked in manually with a member of staff. There was no mention of the need to register our car. Several days later we received two citations for parking followed by fine notices issued by Horison Parking which is apparently a partner with Premier Inns. It seems Horison staff creep around the parking area looking for unsuspecting guests who may not have registered their car and issue citations. Premier Inns guest relations refused to assist in the matter and we have had no option but to pay. Its sharp practice all round.

As Premier Inns go, the hotel is pretty standard. We’ve used this hotel before and, other than the rooms being on the chilly side with the heating thermostat making no difference whatsoever, it’s fine. However, Premier Inn seem to have taken over the adjacent Brewers Fayre and that doesn’t seem to be going well, affecting both the hotel and the restaurant. When we arrived, we checked in with the machine but there was nobody staffing the reception desk. Other guests were having problems and there was nobody to help. We went to the Premier Inn restaurant next door and after waiting over an hour for our food we asked for a refund and, due to the time, had to go to the local Sainsbury’s to get a mean deal! There seemed to be lots of unhappy customers in the restaurant waiting a long time for food. When we got our refund, it became clear that the manager was acting as the chef, waiting on the tables and dashing next door to deal with the reception desk. We felt so sorry for the staff. Clearly they were being expected to run a restaurant with too few staff and without adequate training. The staff were very apologetic and one was almost in tears. Very poor of Premier Inn to put their staff in this position.

This was an ideally located stop between Scotland and Yorkshire for a recent family trip. Easily found and, despite being on a roundabout, was surprisingly quiet with no road noise to be heard from the rooms or the car park itself. We had a family room (2 adults, 2 children, 1 infant) and whilst it wasn’t the Ritz it more than did the job that it was for and really - what more can you expect for a budget option. The room was clean, good water pressure in the shower and the baby enjoyed being able to have a bath after a week of showers on our trip. Breakfast was nice enough and the staff were friendly. The food kept getting replaced and was always hot. When we went for breakfast, the member of staff asked if she could get a high chair for us and I noticed that she was cleaning it fresh before she brought it over which was a welcome surprise.

Premier inns have being going downhill for a few years now, always used to rely on them but not anymore after this experience!!