Elgin hotel

The staff is friendly, and the facilities are clean. We stayed in an accessible room with a wet room, and it was very comfortable and spacious (With the Premier Inn app, it is easy to book this type of room). Although there is no air conditioning, the room stays very cool. The hotel is a two-minute walk from McDonald's, KFC, and other places. It is also a two-minute drive from a petrol station. There is a restaurant next to the hotel; the food is decent enough, but the very friendly and attentive staff really make the difference. We will return to this hotel.

I’ve used this hotel a few times now over the years, usually as a stop off on castle-bagging trips in Moray. Conveniently located just off the A96, with a number of fast-food restaurants, supermarkets and garages within either walking distance or a short drive. Rates are usually reasonable, particularly when compared to staying in Inverness. The car park is large and since the closure of the Brewer’s Fayre restaurant, I’ve never had an issue with parking (remember to record your number plate on the tablet when you book in). On this occasion I chose to book a Premier Plus room, which I think was around £8 more, and it was definitely worth the extra cost, as it includes wifi (normally £5 – you get 30 minutes free in a standard room), a fridge containing 2 bottles of complimentary water and two bars of chocolate that worked really well to chill drinks quickly, a Nespresso coffee machine (I normally don’t bother with coffee in hotels as it is usually instant), a large walk-in shower, an adjustable swivel chair for the desk (this was a leisure trip rather than work, but this still made a significant difference when writing some notes up or typing a few emails) and a high-backed chair that is ideal for reading. There was the usual comfortable bed, large television with loads of channels and plenty of sockets to charge devices, including bedside sockets with USB. There was no air conditioning in the room, however there was an Igenix fan, which did an excellent job of keeping the room comfortable. My room was facing the A96 but there was no issue with noise. Staying at this hotel the biggest noise issue comes from the seagulls in the car park, but the windows usually cut this out and it dies off after dark. I didn’t eat breakfast in the hotel. I might have considered dinner, however there was no menu online or in the room to see what was available. Meals are served in the Linkwood Lodge beside the hotel, which was previously a Brewer’s Fayre but no longer open to non-residents. The local papers were running a story during my stay that the Linkwood Lodge is to be demolished to allow a further extension to the hotel.

The hotel is in a convenient location. The atmosphere is rather limited by the standardisation of the building design and decor. The rooms are spatious and comfortable. The air circulation in the room was provided by a fan, but did not really deal with the heat absorbed by the concrete walls during the previous heatwave. This is a design issue that will have to be addressed in respect to climate change. The accommodation clean and the internal noise levels were low. Overall the accommodation was of reasonable value for money. Apart from the cook not showing up to provide the evening meal on the second night, the service was good.

Hotel good, restaurant terrible food poor standard and restaurant dirty, outside area dirty and unkempt Have stayed before and restaurant always nice and food good, but has gone down hill.

The Inn is on the outskirts of the town. In my opinion Premier Inn has gone down in value and quality. The staff seem to have been cut back too far. You have to ask for your room to be serviced, and when you do the ask is it only the towels you want replaced. We even had to ask for the toilet roll to be replaced as it hadn't been done. We were staying for seven nights and not once was the bottles of water replaced nor was the cups for your tea/coffee replaced. I know it might be trivial, however I would not expect to have to wash the cups every day, especially when you have paid the full rate. It would have been done for any new guests that were just arriving. On the Thursday when we arrived, there was only one member of staff on in the restaurant, and he was expected to serve the tables and look after the bar. They were only taking a couple of bookings every half hour as that was all he could cope with. We did see a few guests being turned away, and as the hotel is on the outskirts there was only a Macdonalds or a KFC nearby. We will not be back