Southend On Sea (Eastern Esplanade) hotel

On arrival cleaning staff were laid out on the chairs in reception and between the 4 members of staff not one acknowledged us. The phone rang twice and each time one receptionist walked away from it leaving it unanswered, something we had experienced in the days up to our stay when trying to contact the hotel, no one answered. When we were booked in we were overcharged charged but receptionist was not having it and we had to go through everything with her before she agreed to a refund. We got to our room and noted hair on the bathroom tiles. The following morning the ill fitting sheet had come untucked and we noticed the mattress protector was disgusting, very dirty all over, we also noticed under tea tray fingernails, the whole room was dusty and the furniture was very battered. We complained and the bedding was changed and the room smelt cleaner than when we arrived, but still dusty, however trying to find a member of staff was impossible, reception wasn’t manned. The restaurant food was good and one male member of staff seemed to be carrying the others. One member of staff took our order and then never returned but was serving at the bar. The carpark had an overflowing skip together with abandoned furniture and the bin outside the back entrance was overflowing with dirty nappies and cigarettes butts on the floor, this was like it for 2 days. Would not recommend a stay at this premier inn, such a shame as have always had a good experience with them but Southend eastern parade has let them down. We contacted customer services as advised on website but all we had was tooing and froing and no real acknowledgment and was told staff said all was ok.

On reaching the Premier Inn the car park was closed then we were informed the kitchen was closed and to top it all we had a room with a balcony but the door was permanently locked and we only had one set of towels for two of us.

Avoid this place. Normally love a Premier Inn but this was one of the worst value hotel experiences I’ve ever had. For £130 for a night we stayed in a hotel that is partially a building site, no car park, no restaurant , bedroom like a sauna with AC not working, a “free” breakfast (offered for the inconvenience of there being no restaurant) which consisted of pre packaged pastries and a coffee machine that didn’t work properly. To cap it all off, needed to use the toilet after checkout before hitting the road and there were none available in the reception / lobby due to the building work. Good times.

We enjoyed our recent visit and the upgrade to a sea view. However, we feel this is primarily due to the fact that there is so much construction going on at the hotel. It did not directly affect us as we did not want to use the bar or restaurant which were closed for refurbishment. However, the car park was a bit of a nightmare. It does stay on the booking that no car parking is included however but it really means currently is you have to park Next Door and work out how to pay for the car park which expires at 9 pm the staff were not able to advise on how to play this and on a Sunday morning I didn’t fancy getting up prior to the car park opening to put more money on my ticket. I finally worked out using the second car parking app that I could pre-pay this. Much time would’ve been saved if staff would’ve known this or been able to advise. Shame as the hotel is in a nice spot. Very hot as limited air-conditioning and windows do not open, not even a crack. Personally, I hate being in a hotel room that you can get no fresh air, although I do understand why they do it. What I say again, probably not currently with the heat particularly

very accessible for wheelchair users, pleasant room with a sea view, but sadly unable to access the balcony as no handle on the door and on the day we were there, the room's aircon wasn't working. Also disabled parking was provided. They had work taking place when we stayed so unfortunately the bar and food area was closed but tea and pastries were provided.