Hereford Holmer hotel

I’m a local resident, so I’m lucky enough to experience this hotel’s “charm” all year round. It sits right on the main A49 on the outskirts of the city, a wonderfully peaceful road that just happens to carry a constant stream of heavy goods vehicles through Hereford. If you enjoy the soothing sounds of lorries rumbling past, you’re in for a treat. The surroundings are equally idyllic: a housing estate, racecourse, skate park, allotments, and leisure centre. Fine if that’s your thing, although if you were hoping for somewhere to eat nearby, you may need to pack walking boots for the fairly decent trek into the city centre. At this time of year the local gull population also migrates into the area. They’re particularly thoughtful about ensuring guests are awake bright and early with their enthusiastic dawn chorus. The hotel management are also very proactive when it comes to blaming local residents for noise. Apparently they’ve even had to refund guests because of it. When asked how many complaints they’ve received, they can’t say because they “don’t keep records” head office does. Head office, meanwhile, says the hotel keeps the records. Reassuringly efficient all round. Promises of return phone calls to discuss these mysterious complaints are made regularly… and kept with equal regularity, which is to say, not at all. Sometimes you’re even promised a call from the “multi-site manager”, which sounds very impressive until that call never arrives either. If you read the TripAdvisor reviews, do make sure to pay attention to the negative ones. Normally I take those with a pinch of salt, there are always people hoping to complain their way into a freebie, but on this occasion they’re actually rather accurate. The hotel itself is quite dated, and the windows clearly have excellent soundproofing… assuming your definition of excellent means “you can hear absolutely everything”. They’re currently doing a refurbishment, which I’m sure will transform the décor. Sadly it probably won’t transform the guests who seem to think throwing empty alcohol bottles and cans over hedges into neighbouring properties is part of the holiday experience. Hereford and Herefordshire are genuinely wonderful places to visit, a beautiful rural city with plenty to offer. The good news is there are also far nicer and often cheaper places to stay much closer to the city centre. So by all means come and visit us. Just maybe look for a locally owned hotel or B&B or even an AirBnB and support local people rather than this particular chain hotel.

This was the worst Premier Inn i’ve stayed at for a number of reasons including bad odour in the room, lack of water pressure, lights not working when you turn them on, wifi was awful and 4G was just as bad.

The staff are very friendly. The food is below the standard I expect from a Premier Inn It felt more like a canteen than a restaurant. I was surprised that wine was dispensed from tin cans! The hotel was tired but clean. The bed was 10 out of 10 Overall not what I have come to expect from a premier inn

As a family we use this "brand" very regularly. Like most Premier Inns this one has reasonable room quality and size, free parking...... and so represents good value for money. This site... Previously known as the starting gate, a now closed beefeater that provided the on site restaurant for the inn... Is conveniently located for the race course and town centre. Our main issue concerned the reception and check in. We arrived about 19.45, with two young and very tired children. We waited and could not see any staff. We discovered a buzzer concealed by literature and used that. No response. A guest entering said that all staff were probably busy in the restaurant area, beyond the key controlled door, and he would tell them we were waiting. Nothing. So we buzzed again. One of out party followed a resident in and went to inform staff we were waiting. He relayed back to us that she was talking to another staff member but would come. Nothing. We continued to buzz and I called central bookings but got an automated service. The next time the door opened I went and "Debbie" was talking to another staff member and I requested again that someone came to book us in. In total we waited in excess of 20 mins. The family room was adequate but the beds are so close together that the double bed users can only get in/out on side. A the two singles have no clear space at the sides. Not a problem for us for one night. Would have like more tea/coffee etc and 2 cups for 4 people is not very useful. When we went to pay for the booked breakfasts the receptionist noted there was 6 booked for our party of 4. I was informed they no longer take walk ins. I was aware of this so had a phoned the hotel the week prior and asked could they accommodate 2 extra family members and was told they could. They kindly comped our breakfasts...3 x adults when I suggested we would go instead to another well know chain pub which serves breakfasts and coffee. The area they now use for meals and breakfast is in the main building and possibly an area converted for a couple of bedrooms. It is small with little to no room between tables and although just about adequate for the buffet breakfast we would definitely NOT eat a main meal here! The $1000 question...would we use here again? Whilst we love the brand and what they offer this particular site would not be used by us again. We would look elsewhere for a site with proper restaurant facilities.

Lovely area we have been several times before and expected the same service, however the place is looking slightly tired and needs a good refurb, wallpaper hanging off door architrave looking knocked and damaged, and since the pub on site has closed the breakfast offerings is a bit of a joke. The next time we go back to Hereford we may look at a place in the city it's self