Melton Mowbray hotel

The location was great for our needs, but we were dissapointed by this particular Purple Palace. The companies standards seem to be going down, with lots of cost cutting measures now becoming obvious to customers. From the use of self service check-in machines to just two members of staff doing everything on the day that we arrived. The "Manager" was covering front of house and frequent questions from guests as well as the bar, showing you to you dinner table and taking your order, all whilst trying to maintain the back office functions as well. The food offered here is very limited in choice, offering more of a convenience menu rather than a good selection. There is no seperate dinning space or restaurant here, as the policy now seems to be stripping those away, wherever possible. This leads to an experience which is much more in line with what I've always regarded as poorer competition like Travel Lodge. I will be looking carefully at what's on offer before booking with Premier Inn. They always used to be my go-to, as you knew what you were getting. Sadly this does not appear to be the case any longer.

Typical Premier Inn, however, having stayed in loads over the years, the care for customer has gone downhill. The lack of staff is obvious, poor man running around helping people check in at those horrible machines, running the bar, running the restaurant with just one person cooking. PThe lack of choice on the menu is disappointing. Premier Inn were once better than the rest, now the cutting of customer care has brought them down to Travel Lodge levels at a higher cost. Would def not bother with the meal deal if we stay again

The room itself was absolutely fine, very clean, quiet and comfortable. Excellent value on a Sunday eve. Parking a little tricky to find but otherwise ok. Breakfast however was quite poor - leave a good hour for breakfast as it took ages for staff to clear tables to seat guests, then take orders, keep the continental section stocked and bring cooked food. Took 30 odd minutes from ordering to be served. Not the staffs fault, they were very friendly - there just weren't enough of them.

We parked for free in the car park behind the hotel which is easy to find if you follow the directions on your booking confirmation (remember to register on the machine in reception) and went to check in at about 12 noon. We had booked an early check in but no-one was on reception, there was a sign to say that check in was 3pm and a buzzer to alert staff but a sign to say it wasn't working. So we waited...and waited but no staff member to be seen. I then tried ringing the hotel number but a staff member then appeared (Casey) who didn't apologise for our wait and gave us a rather cool welcome....to be honest, we felt that we were a nuisance! The room was usual Premier inn - clean and comfortable but I was surprised that we only had one hand towel and one large towel between the two of us. The hotel is perfectly located for the town centre and theatre. We didn't eat in the hotel and after our evening at the theatre, we had a drink in the hotel and were served by Edward who was pleasant and provided us with an extra towel. We were amused to see that a basket containing two stale croissants from breakfast were still on display at 11pm! Our impression was that the hotel is understaffed, unwelcoming and trying to cut back on basic things like towels. We had an equally uninspiring experience at another Premier inn recently, so assume that Whitbread's business model is now minimal staff and cost cutting so this was probably our final stay with them.

Very clean inside n out staff v freindly breakfast fab nothing to much bother staff are presented v well dressed and mannered v freindly to