Kendal Central hotel

Stayed one night at Premier Inn Kendal (Lake District) for a leisure trip. Overall a solid stay with only a couple of minor gripes worth flagging. The room was comfortable, clean, and exactly what you'd expect from Premier Inn — good bed, decent temperature control, and a quiet night's sleep. Staff were friendly and helpful throughout. Good value for the area, especially given the Lake District location. Two things let it down slightly: parking is a real issue here. No parking and couldn’t find a space near the hotel. Wouldn’t stay again due to this. Also, only one towel was left in the room despite it being a standard double, which meant a quick trip to reception. Small thing, but worth mentioning.

Shockingly poor. An awful experience. Only after booking, we found out there was no restaurant, so no cooked breakfast or anywhere to sit to eat. Belatedly we were also then told no car park. On arrival as a blue badge holder we were directed to a public car park 0.5 mile away. No restaurant and no car park was due to planned major construction work at the hotel. As this was planned months in advance, why not shared with guests when booking? Poor, very poor. There is so much more I could write about this awful stay, but I won't waste anymore of my life on this awful experience.

Avoid if you have an infant — distressing experience We stayed at Premier Inn Kendal Central over the long weekend and left genuinely shaken by how it ended. Before booking, we called specifically to confirm our room would have a fridge, as we needed to store expressed breast milk for our 6-month-old daughter. We were told Premier Plus rooms have fridges, so that's what we booked. We were already aware that due to construction, there was no breakfast service and no on-site parking, frustrating, but manageable. The serious problem came on our last morning. We left at 10am for breakfast, leaving a few items in the room including my wife's expressed breast milk in the fridge, stored in clearly identifiable baby bottles. The room also still had a baby cot set up in it, so there was no ambiguity at all about who was staying there or what those bottles contained. We still had the room key card with us the entire time. When we returned at 11:40am to check out, the room had been cleaned and the breast milk was gone from the fridge. Cleaning staff eventually handed us our belongings in a black bin bag. The milk was warm and we had no way of knowing whether it or the bottle had been contaminated, as the same cleaner could just as easily have been cleaning the bathroom moments earlier. The Breastfeeding Network's guidance is that breast milk should only be kept at room temperature for up to 2 hours, and the room was warm anyway given the weather outside. Once it had been removed from the fridge, handled by someone we don't know, and left out for an unknown length of time, it simply wasn't safe to give to our daughter. Staff told us it was "an honest mistake," but we were holding the key card the entire time, the bottles were obviously baby bottles, and there was a cot in the room so I genuinely don't understand how it happened. When I tried to explain how serious this was, the receptionist spoke over me and didn't listen. When I asked if she had children herself, she replied "thank God no", an astonishingly cold thing to say to a parent standing in front of you describing exactly this situation. Reception said she would add noted to our booking and I have not heard from anyone. Our daughter was due her feed at 2pm. My wife had no spare milk and, understandably stressed, sitting in the car was unable to pump more. I walked to a pharmacy for formula in 30°C heat. Our daughter had never had formula before and refused to drink it, despite clearly needing fluids in that temperature. My wife sat in the car in tears and there was nothing I could do. What I can't accept is the dismissiveness afterwards, the lack of basic care about what had been removed from the fridge, and a frontline staff member who responded to a distressed parent with sarcasm. For any family travelling with a baby, I would look elsewhere.

There is building work going on at the Kendal Premier Inn, with no car parking and no food. Doubly annoying as we booked with the free breakfast offer. We complained to reception, who gave us the phone number for guest services. Guest services told us to speak to the duty manager, who told us that they couldn't do anything and directed us back to guest services! To add insult to injury, we were woken at 3am by something banging close to our room. I dressed and complained and a receptionist investigated. The banging stopped, only to start again at 5.30am. The builders then started at 7.30am. I could go on, but the message is don't come here until all the building work is well and truly completed.

Great location in Kendal. Comfy bed, clean room, good lighting and sufficient space for two. Friendly staff. Free continental breakfast option to counter balance the works on site and hence lack of parking was a nice touch. Note that not all rooms are accessible by lift so check with reception if you are trying to avoid stairs. (If works are still underway or car park full use the Busher Walk car park by the police station/ council building)