Tonbridge North hotel

There's a lack of choice in Tonbridge for a good hotel. Premier Inn is now over priced with increasingly poor service. You can collect an Amazon package at reception in the lockers - but you can't get a proper cooked breakfast but they will sell you an over priced and under cooked bacon roll... What might be helpful - have your breakfast at the now detached pub next door. It's nice there, but pricey. Premier Inn used to train their new staff well - not any more the new girl was polite but inept and initally wouldnt book me in with my booking number. I have never had this before - and sadly stayed in a Premier Inn the last two weeks elsewhere only requiring my name. Premier Inn are now no different to Travel Lodge, all profit and no service. It has good parking, which is a saving grace.

I’ve stayed in lovely hotels all over the world, but none as expensive as a single room for a single night in Tonbridge, at the Premier Inn Tonbridge North. This room, which cost an eye-watering amount, didn’t have an air-conditioning unit (fair enough, wasn’t advertised) or a working TV (which was advertised). It did have a car park view, though; we were on the ground floor, while they put my elderly mother-in-law on the first floor against her express wishes. The TV remote was broken, and the staff (who were lovely, by the way) told us they’d known about it for a couple of weeks. They gave us a WiFi voucher instead, which would usually have been another fiver on the bill (charging for WiFi, classy) – but the problem was, my teenage daughter doesn’t travel well and was relying on the TV to lull her to sleep. As a result we were waking up all night because she couldn’t get a proper night’s kip. Aha I thought, I’ve seen those lovely adverts on TV (not that TV obviously, because I couldn’t turn it on) talking about the Premier Inn’s “Good Night Guarantee” – I’m sure they’ll be suitably apologetic and offer me some vouchers or something. Well dear reader, after a week’s back-and-forth over email I eventually got some snotty reply along the lines of “this doesn’t qualify for our guarantee, and this is our last correspondence on the matter”. I don’t blame the person who wrote the email – I’ve done jobs like that, and companies like these just employ a bunch of kids who’ll do whatever they’re told for peanuts. The point is that, for all its slick advertising, the Premier Inn Corporation really only seems interested in screwing as much money as they can out of the paying public, using any loophole they can, because they think we have no choice. Well I do, and I choose never to use them again – in fact I was in Tonbridge again a couple of weeks ago for a birthday party, and got the midnight train back to Brighton rather than stay in what I now call the Dernier Inn, because it’s the last place I would pick to spend a night. And I’d urge you to think again if you feel you have no choice but to stay in a Dernier Inn in good ol’ Rip-Off Britain – there’s probably a lovely Air B’n’B nearby where your custom is actually valued.

My husband and myself had a one-night booking, which we booked online. We checked in around 4pm after a lovely day at Hever Castle. Surprisingly, given the time of day, there was a queue at Reception which meant a wait of around 10 minutes. When we got to our room, which was on the first floor – no lift, of which we were not aware – I noticed that the mugs had not been washed up and that there were crumbs on the tray. Then I spotted that the bin had not been emptied, the bed was unmade, and there were towels in the bath: clearly, the room had missed being cleaned. My husband went down to Reception to request a fresh room, and the Receptionist came back up to our room with my husband and showed us a new room, which was in the same corridor, and even helped to move our small case; he was very apologetic and clearly embarrassed. The new room was fine – until we turned on the TV. Very strangely, every time we turned the volume up or down using the remote, the TV went off! We did not want any more hassle, having at last settled in our room and made a well-deserved cuppa, so we did not report it. And anyway, my husband found a way of turning the volume up without the TV cutting out by turning the remote on its side ;) A nice stay otherwise, despite the bad start and the technical blip with the TV. There was a bit of road noise due to the central location, which we expected, but earplugs helped.

Stayed for my son's wedding! Had a wonderful stay over the bank holiday weekend. Breakfast was a bit disappointing as we felt the standard wasn't as good as it used to be. Rooms were super clean but very warm but there was a fan in the room. My sister had a Premier Plus room the air conditioning was definitely worth the upgrade if your looking to book here. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Lucy who was a breath of fresh air on arrival and the friendliest staff member that we actually encountered during our stay. She was so accommodating with our early check in and took so much pride in what she did including to help get our room cleaned for us in time so we could check in early. Lucy is a credit to your brand and we hope she gets the recognition she deserves.

Short one-night stay to visit friends / family. Disabled room & 1 other booked. Rooms not initially close as requested but receptionist rearranged rooms to meet our needs without fuss. Rooms comfortable, clean & good size. Threshold into disabled wet room difficult to get wheelchair over, but good space in wet room. Wanted to use pub across car park in the evening but discovered at 8.25pm that their kitchen closes at 8.15pm which was disappointing. Not clear on booking that full breakfast options were available so boxed bundles pre booked but breakfast room staff happy to provide plate & cutlery to make eating easier.