Warwick hotel

I wish I had read the recent reviews before I'd booked this and had time to re-arrange. My experience was predominately consistent with those of recent reviews this year. I'd paid for early check in, which is 'from 11am', but having driven nearly 3 hours to get here and keen to check in to be able to rest ahead of the evenings events, sadly 'No rooms were available'. The hotel was full - this was understandable, The Pet Shop Boys were playing Warwick Castle that night, and the hotel had fans and the tour crew (stage-hands etc) staying. This is where I would have thought some joined up thinking would have been deployed, maybe keeping some rooms aside in order to manage the over-lap. Premier Inn obviously just pack em in, and leave the poor staff to handle the problem. So, I'm left in reception, like a lemon, with others, effectively waiting for people to check out at 12pm before the rooms could be cleaned and I could get in. To add insult to injury, people coming in after me, who had also paid for early check in, were given a room when it became available before me. It turns out the person in my room had checked out, but for some reason known only to themselves, left all their belongings in there. A call to head office to get permission to collect it all up, before cleaning could take place. I eventually get into my room about 1.45pm. To his credit, the poor guy on front desk handled the situation as best he could, and couldn't have been more apologetic. He deserves a pay rise for the problems he is left to deal with based on Premier Inn's policies. The room was clean, and the bed VERY comfortable. Around 2.30pm, while trying to have an afternoon nap, housekeeping knocked on the door, opened it and came in. There are no 'do not disturb' tags to hang on guests door handles, so this was somewhat alarming. Suffice to say, I didn't end up having a nap. The rooms seem soundproof from exterior noise, but guests closing their doors regardless of the floor could be heard all the time. The hotel itself looks a little shabby in places - it's clearly in need of an upgrade, and some more staff. Thankfully, I'd read reviews about breakfast, so got there at 2 minutes past 7am just after it opened. I waited to be served, despite all the roadies walking past telling me 'just go in mate' which I thought was pretty disrespectful. Despite this, breakfast was fine - plenty of food, nothing ran out, and was up to usual Prem Inn standard. Housekeeping knocked on the door again about 10:30am asking if the room could be cleaned but were happy for me to stay until just before check out at 12pm. I had no issues with parking - there was plenty of space when I arrived and car park seemed two thirds empty when I checked out. In terms of location its an easy 30 minute stroll into the town centre. Felt perfectly safe walking on my own at 11.30pm walking back. Would I stay here again? Only if I had no other choice but honestly, Premier Inn, sort out your room booking capacity issues. Your staff are a credit to the brand at this hotel, they did what they could under ridiculous circumstances.

There was no open restaurant because the chef was off sick due to stress. I had already paid for the £26.99 meal deal for 2 nights. They managed to refund £16 for the first nights meal, in the hope that the restaurant would be open on the second night, but it wasn't. Upon checking out, I explained this to reception who said they would get the second night refunded too, but that never happened, they just sent another invoice with only the first nights meal removed, so I'm still £16 out of pocket. Seems to be a recurring theme, as the chef at a different Premier Inn recently was overworked, where I had to wait 50 minutes for the meal to arrive. The kitchen staff are obviously over worked which needs looking in to!

While the hotel was nice enough with comfy beds, the hotel was clearly understaffed. We stayed for two nights with our four year old twins. We planned to eat our evening meal in the hotel restaurant both nights as it would have been easiest with the children. The first night we were told they were only allowing pre-booked dinner guests so we ended up ordering Dominoes that night and ate in the room. The second night, the restaurant wasn’t open at all so I went to Tesco and bought some food and we ate at a table in the bar area. While the staff member was very accommodating and got us hot water and cutlery, it was very disappointing to have purposely booked a hotel with a restaurant and then not being able to use it either night without previous warning.

After a long day at Warwick castle as a family of 4 which was very enjoyable, we arrived at the hotel to check in and were told there was no restaurant service available. We were very disappointed as we were all very tired and had booked this hotel due to proximity of the Castle and had planned to eat there. We went up to our family room and there was only 1 double bed. The 2 single beds had not been made up so had to go back down to reception. Had to wait as there were only 2 staff manning the reception, bar and everything else. We then had to wait nearly an hour for our room to be ready. The hotel was very dated and shabby. Later on after finding somewhere to eat in town, we noticed that we had no mugs or glasses in the room so couldn't even make a brew. We really couldn't be bothered by then as we just wanted some sleep. Breakfast the next morning was so slow and items on the self service weren't being refreshed as more guests arrived to eat. DON'T STAY HERE! We won't ever stay here again, don't put your family through it. If you really have to, ring forwards and make sure what Premier inn says available at this hotel actually is because you have paid for those services from them.

Everything was a little lacking. The worst part was how little sleep I got, which is the one thing you generally want from a stay. The room was far too hot for me; the air conditioning is programmed not to go below 19° but that’s way too warm for me to sleep comfortably. I called reception three times through the night and was reassured that the air conditioning in my room could and would be switched back on. It may have been, but it didn’t feel any different. The second person I spoke to, at about 3am, was more helpful than the first. She offered to switch my room if the air con still didn’t make it cooler, but I didn’t want the upheaval of switching rooms when I’d be getting up at 7am anyway, plus it would’ve meant giving the housekeeping team an extra room to clean. One suggestion would be to have electric fans available for guests to borrow for their stay, please. I’ve seen this done in other Premier Inns and Travelodges before. When we arrived for our stay, we were told that the restaurant was closed due to staff shortages. I know this can’t be helped, but it was the first of lots of disappointments. The TV in my room was old and many channels didn’t work. The remote was painful to use - taking upwards of ten seconds just to change channel. Again, I know these are first world problems, but it’s not what you expect when you’re a paying guest. The night was very disturbed, as I’ve said. The next morning, I went down for breakfast and met my mother and her partner. They, thankfully, had a good night’s sleep. When we went up to the buffet, there was a lot missing, including plates. We waited a little while and, after 5 minutes or so, had a lovely breakfast that was cooked very nicely. The staff shortage must have continued into the next day, because it was difficult to find someone when we needed something. The coffee machine ran out of milk, so a young member of staff filled it up from the jug of milk on the counter (for cereals, etc.), which was fine for a while, but he then didn’t refill the jug of milk so there was another wait for other guests who were waiting to eat their cereal! All in all, the staff were friendly if quite lacking in training and service. It felt as though they were all feeling the effects of not having enough support through being short-staffed. I didn’t ask how long it had been the case, but it seemed as though it wasn’t a new problem. If I were to stay in the area again, I think I’d try to book a different hotel over staying at this one again.