Newcastle Airport (South) hotel

Ok if you are using the the airport maybe, stayed here a lot in the 2000s and it does appear to have been updated since, rooms are old fashioned and in need of a refurbishment. The breakfast in the pub next door wasn’t great. Booked for two night but decided against the second night. While I have good memories of staying here as kids with parents visiting family I wouldn’t stay again

Firstly l want to thank Shona the receptionist who had endless patience and lent me a screwdriver to fix my case. I has a big double room. Really clean and a lovely hot shower. Book through holiday extras. Only issue no lift so struggled with my case but another guest helped.

It was beyond terrible!! I would avoid this hotel at any cost and would given it a lower score if that were possible. We arrived and were told to make sure that we closed the bathroom door when having a shower because it would set off the fire alarm. If that wasn’t an indication to leave there and then, I don’t know what was. We were allocated a room away from the main building so we had to walk to our room, around the pub, which was quite lively, and in the dark because the path and steps were poorly lit. On entering the building to the side of the pub, my suspicion’s were confirmed. The place was unclean and in need of a serious refit. Unfortunately for us, it didn’t end there. On entering the room there were cobwebs all over including on the ceiling. These cobwebs were housing two very big spiders which had clearly been there for some considerable time. My daughter is petrified of spiders so she didn’t even want to sleep in the bed and I had the task of removing them. The saga continued when we realised that there was no heating. I rang reception and was told that I could come and collect a portable heater because they couldn’t relocate us as the hotel was full. I didn't realise that the heater was a full radiator and proved extremely difficult to carry it all the way from the main building and up stairs due to its size and weight. On getting our things ready for the morning (we had a very early flight), we realised how filthy the room actually was. There were numerous cobwebs everywhere, dust sitting all over the walls, that had clearly been there for some time and thick grime on the skirting boards. The hairdryer was in the most ridiculous place, with no mirror anywhere near and the only mirror had no socket anywhere close to be able to get ready in the morning. Unfortunately, when we went to bed, all we could hear was the noise and shouting from the pub. We could hear the metro, cars and even the conversations from downstairs. There was a huge flood light outside the window, which shone into the room so you can imagine how much sleep we had - very little. It was only when we woke in the morning that we realised that we had no hot water from the shower. In addition to that, the tap water was dangerously hot. I fed my complaint back to Premier Inn and they didn’t even have the courtesy of writing to me. Instead, they refunded me £37 from the £78 which I paid, which I believe to be unreasonable due to the lack of basic amenities. My daughter had recently paid less to stay in hostels that had better amenities and were cleaner than the room we were in. I think the sheer lack of customer service by Whitbread is completely unacceptable. The trip was a very short birthday treat for me and my daughter after a very stressful year and we couldn’t even get ready in the morning before leaving. Surely, that’s a basic expectation when staying in any hotel? If I'm being honest, it put quite a dampener on the start of our trip and if we hadn’t been catching a flight very early the next day, I would have left immediately. The sad thing is, my family and I stay in Premier Inns all the time and they could check this historically. I’m fact we have three more reservations in the next couple of months and I explained this, yet that bore no relevance when they considered the level of compensation they offered for our disappointment and inconvenience. As a result of this, I will certainly be reconsidering where I stay in future because they clearly hold no value for customer loyalty.

Lets start with the positive, very close to Newcastle airport, that why we chose it as we had an early flight, so we wanted an early night. This was not to happen as there is a football pitch right next to the room which had noise and bright lights to 10pm. Then there is the noise from the flights, which the room seemed to have no noise insulation given its proximity to the airport. In the end one of worst nights sleep I've ever had.

The rooms in the pub are very basic and seem tired. Bedding very clean, bed a bit hard. Receptionist was lovely. This is not to the same standard as the Premier Inn closer to the airport. Wouldn’t willingly stay here again.