Glasgow Pacific Quay (SECC) hotel

Having stayed in plenty of Premier Inns previously including this one I was looking forward to it. How disappointing it was. The room was filthy, thick dust on all surfaces, dirty fridge inside and out. Dirty coffee machine and hair in bathroom sink. Skirting boards and wall splashed with coffee and the carpet was disgusting. Keep in mind this was a premier plus room and we paid extra for the privilege. Had to ask for the WiFi code and decaffeinated coffee. Room came with sweets, well one sweet - not sure if it was for sharing. One of the cleaning team was helpful in rectifying our concerns however at no point did a supervisor or manager make contact to apologise - wasn’t important enough obviously that a customer had been allocated a filthy room.. The reception area furniture was also very dirty and dusty. The hotel is well overdue for a deep clean although I believe they have just finished a deep clean and passed their cleaning audit - this makes a mockery of an audit process. Whilst Premier Inns are usually of a good standard I would avoid this one.

Lovely rooms in a great location, and very good value for money. The evening food was awful and service pretty bad throughout the stay, apart from Luke and Holly who were very helpful. Breakfast was good except being shouted at for not taking an allergy document, despite my allergy not being included in it (had checked it before dinner). Would stay again as it’s cheap and handy, but will bring sandwiches.

1. Firstly, I was soaked to the skin when I checked in, and there was nowhere, no way, or nothing to dry my clothes on, because you’ve got ridden of radiators, and just have stupid air source heating. So I had to put wet clothes on in the morning, despite having aired them out all night in my room. And had to have the heating on high. 2. There was no bath. I don’t like showers, I like baths. I thought all Premier Inn’s had baths? 3. The Freeview TV was terrible. How does Premier Inn think it’s Premier when you have only Freeview and not Sky or BT or something with lots of different channels. It took ages to change channels and I couldn’t get the menu to come up at all. It might be a big screen TV but it was so unresponsive and rubbish. If you charge people for better TV in a premium room that is disgusting, should be available for everyone. 4. And of course as usual the WIFI was poor unless you pay. 5. No Hot Chocolate sachets. Honestly the Argyll Guest House and Hotel over in Kelvingrove is better (and the Sandyford), in their Budget Basic Single room, alright that place might not have a bath either, or hot chocolate sachets. But it has a largish TV and easy to flip through the channels, and the wifi is 50mbps for free. And a free breakfast. And a comfy bed. And a radiator to dry things on. And at least they have ginger biscuits…. The only reason I went here was for convenience at night after a trip on the Waverley. It’s good for that. You can just check in, it’s nearby. But I didn’t have any food this time. Just a disappointment RE baths, the TV and not having anywhere to dry my clothes.

Let’s leave aside the inadequate bedroom hanging and shelf space, what’s really disappointing is that Premier is trying to run this hotel with less than adequate staff levels. No-one was at reception to welcome guests when we arrived or most other times we passed. Instead there were impersonal machines which were good at throwing room cards on the floor but hopeless at picking them up. A email had offered a room upgrade for a price - ‘just ask at reception on arrival’- but how can you ask a machine? Similarly there was no-one at the restaurant entrance to greet and take money because staff were also expected to clear up. One could have had a free breakfast if dishonest. Oh, and the breakfast berries were a solid frozen mass impossible to break up and eat presumably because the kitchen was too undermanned to organise thawing. If Premier can’t be bothered to employ people to provide minimum service levels then it may find travellers can’t be bothered to stay. We used to be Premier regulars - not any more, thanks to a previous bad experience made worse by a customer service organisation whose function is clearly to drive customers away. The staffing situation at Pacific Quay suggests the company is intent on continuing its downwards trajectory.

Very handy for the Exhibition Centre. Easy to get there by bus or car. Clean room, very friendly staff. Have stayed here quite a few times and booked to stay again shortly for a concert at the Hydro.