Portsmouth City Centre hotel

Sophia was absolutely brilliant during my stay. She quickly actioned my issue with the room and kindly helped move me to a much warmer room with a proper shower. Her efficiency, positive attitude and excellent customer service turned what could have been a disappointing experience into a very positive one. She is a real credit to the hotel and I hope her efforts are recognised by management.

Visiting Portsmouth with my two teenage boys, there are limited choices for family rooms. The Premier Onn was able to provide a large room with double bed and two singles. It’s not luxurious but it’s very fair value. The breakfast was probably as you would expect, but did have gluten-free options.

This hotel was handy for going to the show that we had booked. My main concern was the way breakfast was handled. It was buffet style but it looked like it was ordinary staff, I.E. receptionist, waitress that was actually doing the cooking.5 eggs cooked at a time, few sausages, etc, not enough bread, cakes, yogurt out. This should never have been a buffet service, it should have been ordered and delivered to the table.

Arriving in the afternoon, Josh was SO friendly and helpful. He made us tea and welcomed us to have dinner in the hotel later on. We were going to the theatre and so wanted our meal early, around 5.15pm. We arrived promptly and Josh took our order. I ordered fish and chips. Josh came back a little while later, as two other couples arrived. He told us that they had no fish left. I then ordered sea bass instead. He took drink orders from the other couples and then came back to us saying that they had no sea bass either!! By this time we were getting a little anxious as we didn’t want to rush our food. We both then ordered a chicken burger. We sat there for well over 45 minutes waiting for our food, as did the other couples. I approached Josh asking what the hold up was and he said that he only had one chef on. We knew that we could not go anywhere else as it was now getting too late to start again. It was now 6.30pm - we had been in the restaurant since e 5.15 and were still waiting, as were the other three couples. We had to be in the theatre by 7.15. Our food eventually arrived at 6.45!! It was one chicken burger in a bun, a spoonful of coleslaw, two slices of tomato and a few French fries! A very easy and straightforward meal - and we waited one hour and a quarter for this to be ‘cooked’. Josh was very apologetic and discounted our meal, as he did for the couple behind us too, but it was a complete fiasco. The meal wasn’t even hot! It really did spoil our whole evening. We had to rush to get to the theatre and we had rushed our food too. The worst hotel experience we have ever had!!

Negatives; The outside of the hotel isn’t the prettiest, looks a little run down. There was no fridge in the room. Shower was damaged and flooded the floor. We were woken at 07.10am by repair work being done in the surrounding rooms, drilling and banging. A little annoying. Pros; Staff were very helpful and friendly. Breakfast was great, and there were no queues. Bed was comfortable. Close to all amenities.