Hemel Hempstead West hotel

Good that there is free parking at this hotel. Room wasn’t ready even though we had booked and paid for an early check in. Staff were friendly and helpful. Bar/restaurant area clean and tidy. Breakfast was quite good. Hotel does require some refurbishment. The bedrooms are a bit shabby, dark and need new paintwork and bathrooms need new grouting. The heat was the worst thing though. There was no air conditioning which I knew but thought it would be okay as it was September and cool outside. However, the room temperature never went below 26°. Two fans were provided with little effect. The hotel definitely needs air conditioning and I would be reluctant to stay again because of this.

The room (110)was incredibly hot ( 28 degrees) despite the fact when we got to the room at 11pm the outside temperature was about 19 degrees. We tried to adjust the thermostat from 28 - it went to 16 for about 10 seconds and jumped back to 28. We tried numerous times to reset it but it was clearly malfunctioning. We opened the window and put the fan on but it made no difference the temperature remained at 28 degrees. Consequently we had a very poor night sleep. I told the manager this at breakfast. He said that he knew the rooms were hot but there was nothing he could do. Subsequently complained to customer services but they are not interested and they say it is not covered by their good night guarantee ( if this isn’t I can’t imagine anything is covered) as this room should never have been allocated to customers if they knew already that the thermostat was malfunctioning and the room was too hot to sleep in

The rooms are stifling, fans are provided but give little to no relief especially for a family of 4. Not enough cups for occupants and no direction given as to drinking water. Breakfast was excellent and couldn't fault the variety on offer.

When we arrived the carpark was plenty big enough and it looked ok. Checked in with no problems. Went to the room, it was like a sauna. Went to open the window and a dirty sock fell out of the curtain! Had to close the window shortly after as the noise from the road was bad. Looked at the food menu with my kids and chose what we wanted, walked down to the restaurant where there were several dirty tables with plates that had been left uneaten. Asked the barman if we could get some food to be told that it would be a wait and that they were on a restricted menu. I asked to look and there were about 10 items to choose from, none of which we wanted. Not sure why there was a wait either, there were only two tables with people sat at. Chose this premier inn because it had a restaurant, when I could have gone to one close by without and saved myself some money! Then onto a very uncomfortable night sleep in a very hot room with no bulbs in the bedside lights. So sat in bed with the main bright lights on until sleep. No glasses in the room to drink water so had to go back to reception to get mugs. Overall a bad experience and a shame because we use premier inns often. Still waiting 10 days later for a response to my complaint, will not be using premier again.

Very friendly and customer caring staff. Room was spotlessly clean. Wonderful breakfast. Good value for money. Overall - first class