Swindon West (M4, J16) hotel

Hotel itself and accommodation was ok. Basic but comfortable. Very clean and tidy. We really appreciated the Air-con. In the room we weren’t disturbed by any noise in the corridors or from outside. The bed was actually a bit too high up for me! I’m 5’3 and it was awkward to get into and out of. The mattress and bedding were all comfortable. The staff were very friendly and as helpful as they could be. What really let the experience down was the food. We had added on the meal deal to make life a bit easier whilst travelling. With this you get breakfast, dinner was 2 courses and a drink. None of the food was very nice. Poor quality and not cooked to a good standard. Everything was hot but felt like it had sat under the heat lamps for too long. The chips just felt, hard dry and saturated with fat, rather than fresh and crispy. When asked if we were happy with the food, I said it wasn’t very nice. The server/ manager did genuinely care and asked what wasn’t nice and if she could change anything for us. So we appreciated that. We were served promptly, however several guests around us we left waiting for an hour to be asked what they would like to order. They were not happy about having to wait so long and their food was slow to come out once ordered. At breakfast it felt like they were rationing everything. All the juices were almost empty. After a while we had to ask for them to be refilled. As someone who doesn’t drink hot drinks, that was frustrating. But the pastries and cooked items were few and far between. It seemed bizarre that guests had to keep asking if more food was coming out, rather than it being monitored and provided by staff. It’s a shame that the restaurant experience let down the overall stay.

Our Room was fine and Premier Inn staff good. The Thyme Restaurant inside the old beefeater was shambolic. Had booked a reservation, not on sustem, asked for meal deal bought wrong menus. New staff seemed to have little idea of basic service skills and presumably the place was being managed by the Premier Inn Manager who seemed to have no knowledge of how to organise and run a restaurant. You could hear people constantly chasing to get staffs attention, chase bills (which we heard on quite a few occasions including ours were wrong). Tills went down, manager kept clearing tables rather than sorting. Took 2 hours to get two course which weren't great. Breakfast the next day was not much better. Most cooked food was cold and my wife was banned from the buffet as she has a SEAFOOD allergy in case of cross contamination!!! At breakfast?. Overall Avoid the place.

As always , the standard of rooms is excellent value . The receptionist was very polite but her appearance was unprofessional. The hotel has meal deal offers with the adjacent partner beefeater pub … this is an area of service that needs attention as staff in there certainly lacked training in terms of knowledge for meal deal offers . The young man didn’t have any idea of what was included in the deal . 45 minute wait to eat despite having a pre booked slot also left a poor impression The more mature staff were far better overall

Always love this premier in . Staff friendly and helpful. Clean rooms, it is a bit of an older hotel but you always know what you’re getting. Thanks again

I cannot fault this travel lodge. The gentleman on the desk could not have been more helpful. When I found that the room I was allocated did not suit my needs he quickly realised and looked to see if he could find me an alternative (NB The issue with the suitability of the room was all my fault as I did not look properly at the height of the property and it was higher than I thought, I have disabilities which mean I can only do ground or first floor rooms!). He went above and beyond and did not stress that I'd managed to cause a queue as it was busy. The room was lovely and had air conditioning which was on which was very welcome after a very long hot drive. Everything was clean and tidy, with tea and coffee making facilities. The noise level was good and I was not disturbed at all. The bed was amazingly comfortable, I suffer with a bad back and have a special bed at home and this one matched my own. I was pleased there was a plug point right next to the bed as I have a machine I need to plug in overnight for my disability, many competitors no longer have this and I end up plugging in an extension lead which drapes across the floor. There was a beefeater next door so I was able to get something nice to eat which was really welcome after my drive as I did not want to go out looking for food. Staff were helpful and friendly. I booked the table when I booked into the Premier Inn whish was helpful. I would stay here again and would recommend.