Poole Centre (Holes Bay) hotel

A rather sad looking property, showing it's age. There is ample parking (which is free provided you register). Communal areas are faded, grubby and need repairs. The bedroom and bathroom were clean. Accommodation was quiet. The most disappointing aspect was that the attached restaurant seemed unable to meed the needs of guests either early in the evening ('we don't have enough staff') or later on ('sorry mate, we've done last orders'). Due to the hotel location there are no alternative dining or drinking options within walking distance. Fortunately, other hotels are available should we need to stay in the area again ...

We were served by a tall black chap with a lovely smile . Did not get a chance to get his name but the food was lovely and the bar man was friendly.

Poor location, middle of nowhere. Room was clean but stained pillow and bedsheets. Very high sided bath, could prove difficult for some to use. No lift. No toilet brush, can be embarrassing when you are a couple. Lack of staff, no one in reception to complain to when checking out especially as we were woken up in the middle of the night by the fire alarm! Rude staff when we were checking in. Worst Premier Inn we've stayed at and we use Premier Inn all the time, well we did do!

First the positives. The room had clearly been renovated quite recently and was clean and nicely decorated. We had an evening meal in the restaurant both nights of our stay, and it was very nice with friendly and helpful staff. The negatives. When we arrived at reception we joined a queue of three other parties who had been waiting to check in and ringing the buzzer for 15 minutes. Neither of the self check-in screens were working. After another 10 minutes, my partner went across to the restaurant and came back with one of the staff who said there was nothing he could do as he doesn't have an access key to the hotel. Eventually a woman appeared from the lift with a trolley and asked what people were waiting for. When we explained, she said that she'd been making up rooms and "sorry, but I can't be in two places at once". I get that she was stressed - and was the only member of staff on duty - but this is not the response you'd expect. The water from the shower/bath tap was very hot, with no facility to adjust the temperature, which made standing under the shower impossible. In order to bathe my child I had to use the kettle to put cold water from the sink into the bath. The breakfast was dire. The hash browns were rock hard, and I'm pretty sure that if you dropped the scrambled egg onto the floor it would have bounced! There was a shortage of cutlery and several of the tables we went to sit at were dirty. The restaurant itself was very shabby and in need of urgent TLC. Overall, there just seemed to be a real shortage of staff. This seemed to lead to a general lack of motivation, and staff being so stressed that they tended to snap at customers who made reasonable requests (such as cutlery, or being able to check in!) We have stayed at several Premier Inns this year and have noticed a very definite downward trend in standards. Others have said the same thing, and Premier Inn really needs to up its game if it doesn't want to lose more customers. I think they might well rue the day that they launched their latest advertising 'You know what you're getting with Premier Inn', as customers might be thinking "not much" in response!

Lovely clean room at the front of the hotel so had a nice view , the evening meal and breakfast was great , friendly staff doing their best even though they were over stretched