Ipswich Town Centre (Quayside) hotel

We stayed on a Sunday night in a room on the 2nd floor. The hotel is on the ring road but we didn't hear any traffic noise. Room looked like it had recently been refurbished. All staff we met were lovely and helpful. We parked in the underground car park. £9 for 24 hours via the hotel. Great location over the road to the marina. You get a great view from the restaurant. Breakfast was lovely and fresh. Sausages could have done with being a bit more browned off though. Will definitely stay here again next time we are in Ipswich.

We stayed for one Sunday night, we dropped our bag with reception and we were offered 24 hours complimentary parking which was a nice touch. Our room was on the second floor and was very quiet, no traffic noise at all. We both had a great nights sleep. The room itself was very clean and everything looked brand new. Breakfast was typically premier inn and was really nice to have a view of the marina from our table. The two ladies that run the restaurant were very friendly. Location is perfect for the marina and not too far from the town centre. Highly recommend the Waterfront bistro on Sunday afternoon they have live entertainment and the Soul man was excellent and is literally across the road from the hotel.

To start with calling this hotel QUAYSIDE is a bit of a deception. Like Stansted Airport is nowhere near London, Quayside is not really near the quayside. Looking out of the window in the direction of the quay, the view is a mish mash of odd tower blocks - a mixture of residential and recently failed businesses. You cannot see the quay. But it is there! The car park is not attached to he hotel, being on the other side of a road and we parked about 100m away. Wading past litter and skips I was glad it wasn't raining. This "hotel car park" charged by the 24 hours. As a guest we were entitled to a discount from £10 to £9 per night. Stepping off the pavement and entering the building you find yourself not in a reception but a public area that includes a parcel pick up locker. A sign indicates you are to find reception on the first floor. This is a security issue apart from an unfriendly start to a stay. At night, anyone may loiter inside the building. Reception is a misnomer as well as there is a small unmanned counter and two flat screen self check-in terminals. A harried and impolite staff member bolted towards us pointing at the screens and telling us to use them. Not the best greeting I've ever had in a hotel. We asked for a second key and this staff member made a second card for us. Waste of time as it turned out, as it happens everytime we go to Premier Inn, the self service machines NEVER successfully make a second key card. This one was no exception and simply didn't work. Only the Premier Inns with proper receptions seem to be able to provide working second keys. The room looked OK and we were relieved to find it had an opening window. However, we were surprised to find it was a full blown tilt and turn window which is safe if you just tilt is back, but I wouldn't leave a child un-attended as the the window can be fully opened up and the fall is straight down to the pavement below. We were on floor 4. A fall would almost certainly be fatal. Despite the hotel being quite new, the air conditioning system was typically naff. The room was very hot and, of course, these turn themselves off after a while and you wake up so hot you have to open the window. The problem with the window being open is the two lanes of traffic 1.5metres away from the front of the hotel. The hotel is on an island with two lanes going one way out of town on one side and two lanes coming in on the other. It was very noisy and at 5am, we had to shut the window again to block the noise. During the early evening we returned from the rather underwhelming quay (we had found it) having found very few places to eat or drink, with most venues either closed or simply gone. We went to the hotel Thyme restaurant and stood by the "Wait to be Seated" stand. It was 7:30 and there were exactly 5 people on 3 tables in the restaurant with about 20 tables empty. The staff member came up to us and asked if we had a reservation. We said we did not. She told us we could have a table at 8:15. I queried the fact that there were plenty of tables empty to be told the problem was not enough cooks! I've eaten in plenty of Thyme restaurants before and although quite tasty, they are basically out of a packet and warmed up. It's hard to see the problem. I would have been furious if I had been silly enough to pre-pay for a Meal Deal only to find there were not enough cooks! As we were not invited to sit at a table with drinks until the cook could cope with unpacking a couple of curries and putting them in the oven, we decided to scour the area again to find someone who did want to serve us. Breakfast at 9:00 was equally uninspiring. Buffet breakfasts are becoming the Premier Inn norm unfortunately and they can be good or "disappointing" - nothing in between. This one had some cooked items solidifying under the heaters but quite a few items missing. Fair enough up to point - no one wants to see food wasted. However, where as most of these have a cook in attendance to cook missing items fresh, there was none in attendance here. We waited for a bit and other guests queued with us. After awhile I leant over the counter and called out for anyone able to wield a spatula. A cook emerged from somewhere out of sight and took orders for, eggs, black pudding etc. While I waited for those to cook, I went to make toast to find no brown/granary bread. I could have asked someone, if I could find someone, but was losing the will to stay in this dump any longer. About cleanliness; I used to think that Premier Inn could be relied upon to provide a nice clean and quiet room (they used to do a good night sleep guarantee!). Covid provided the excuse to change daily clean to clean on departure OR if requested (who would you ask at an unmanned reception?). The room we had was VERY deficient this time. You are provided with one bath towel and one hand towel hanging in the bathroom and one bath towel folded on the shelf below the tea and coffee. The first annoyance was when my wife went to the toilet and closed the bathroom door, she found a used and wet towel was hanging from the hook on the back of the door. So much for cleaning the bathroom on departure! The second fundamentally more foul incident was when I took the second towel off the shelf and went to use it after my shower and found, hidden in the folds a large brown stain. I like to think that a previous guest had allowed tea or coffee to drip onto the towel and refolded it to hide the stain. The alternative is too foul to consider. Either way the way these towels are left on the shelf leaves them open to abuse, by silly or malicious guests. It is clear that this towel was not provided for our booking and if APPEARING not to be used, these shelved towels may be there for weeks I suppose. Yet another sign of Premier Inn racing to the bottom to take Travelodges place. Interestingly they don't leave the extra pillows unbagged and unsealed. Just the towels.

A very clean hotel. Friendly, helpful staff. We had a normal room. Very clean, lots of hot water for showers etc. The staff worked very, very hard. Receptionist was doing several jobs (well). She checked people in for breakfast, cleared tables, set tables in between assisting guest requests and guests leaving the hotel. The lady preparing and cooking all the food for breakfast was very helpful - lots of choice. My only criticism is the noise of the traffic and when this was quiet the aircon kicked in and was equally noisy.

Leanne is so helpful. She really did make a difference to my dealings with PI. If you go, and all of the colleagues are anything like as friendly and professional, you are in for a real treat!