Premier....place and service. (Premier Inn (York City Centre))

Member Name: kaitlinsmummy

Product:	Premier Inn (York City Centre)
Date:	05/11/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A really nice place to stay with really helpful staff.

Disadvantages: You would struggle to get the "£29" a room deal.

After enjoying our child free weekend away so much, myself, my husband and my "in laws" decided to indulge once more, this side of Christmas at least!

After reviewing the hotel that we stayed in previously in York, I would have quite happily gone back for another stay, but as my husband has now got a newer and somewhat larger car (has gone from a vectra to a zafira!), he was pretty insistent that our accommodation should have ample and secure parking, as once there and parked up we never tend to use the car again until travelling home!

After much perusing on the internet, and this time having a slightly better informed idea of the area we decided to take Lenny Henry's advice.....Premier inn!

I have to be honest, as someone who very rarely stays in hotels and such, I was a little worried. Last year myself and my family stayed in a Travelodge for one night for my husbands cousins wedding, the place was in short a dive, so being the naïve person I am I assumed that the Premier inn would be similar to there.....thankfully I was soooo wrong!

This delightful hotel is based literally just on the wrong side of the "walls of York", though please be warned from the main road it is a little deceptive as it has a hidden entrance for cars round the next turning and almost hidden by a taxi rank!

Once you have negotiated the turn to the car park you are faced with what I can only describe as a simply beautiful carpark and forecourt......I know, I was expecting a pretty generic area, only slightly differing from one hotel to the next, though in my opinion everything in York is beautiful and picturesque!

Parking firstly was pretty easy, though again, due to the size you may struggle to get a space if arriving at or just after booking in time, as this was a child free weekend, and the fact that this was the first time in nearly 9 years that my brother and sister in law have had a weekend away from their three daughters, we got there around 12!

Once parked up and approaching booking in time (2pm), there will be a queue, so we more than happy for the receptionist ( a very nice and polite polish girl, who couldn't do enough for us), to pre book us in when we arrived at, again a painless task as we had booked via the website a few months previous, then she simply handed us our keys when we came back at 2pm, much to some of the people in the queues disgust, but by that time I had already had a few child free drinks so I didn't give a stuff!

Aside from the front door, which is open all day, but then locked around 8pm, all connecting doors to the rooms themselves are card key access only.

We were lucky that our rooms were only a short walk from reception, though we did have to climb a flight of stairs, not a difficult task you might think.....not so easy after being in "Reflex" until 2am, and having to carry/be carried home by sis in law....that girl can drink! Lol!

The rooms themselves were large, well decorated and exceptionally clean. The bed was reasonably firm but very comfy with there being a good supply of extra pillows available.
There was a flat screen television with a selection of freeview channels, tea and coffee facilities, a nice vanity area for make up and such like, a wall mounted hair dryer and even a reclining chair incase you really had an aversion to sitting on the bed to watch the television, though ours was used as a clothes dumping ground!

The bathroom again was spotless and very cleverly decorated, many bathrooms I have seen have tiled walls with white grout, so when they are not cleaned correctly, mildew shows up straight away on these areas. The tiles in this bathroom had black grout so made the plain white tiles look sparkling!

There were no freebies to be had in there, though there was a wall mounted shower gel dispenser, Lux of all things which I of course indulged in! There was a sign however in the bathroom stating that if there was anything that you had forgotten to bring with you, there were small gender specific packs that could be purchased from main reception.
Packs included toothbrushes, paste, cotton buds, cotton balls and condoms....one of the reasons I didn't go and ask how much they were, still get all giggly about things like that, anyway I had enough of my own!
Also as with many of the hotels nowadays there is a an "environmental" drive concerning the towels that are provided, although the hotel do provide a good pie of towels for the guests use, they do try and guilt you into re-using the same towels for the duration of your stay, thankfully I was once a brownie, so I always take my own!

Another thing that surprised me about this particular hotel was the range of food facilities available on site.
When we initially booked the rooms we were told, albeit through a generic web page that covers all Premier in hotels, that breakfast and such like were available from a Weatherspoons pub that always seem to be in close vicinity to the hotels themselves, this hotel had no need for such close proximity, offering everything that you could possibly want.

In the reception itself there was a vending machine just for the purchase of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, I know I nearly wet myself at this fact alone! These of course were extortionately priced, but when in need of a sugar rush after a night out, more than useful!

Alongside this there is a small branch of Costa coffee, that sits snugly in between the reception and the bar, and serves everything that would be served at the larger branches, this includes a vast selection of coffee's, toasted Panini's, freshly made sandwiches and of course a small selection of cakey treats, though my sis in law made me laugh by actually buying a large jam tart as it had been sat on it's own in the display counter since that morning, and she couldn't stand to see it on it's own anymore!

Alongside this is a small bar and restaurant, that doubles as a breakfast room in the mornings, as with all the facilities available they are slightly over priced, but a small price I was willing to pay due to the
Wonderful service from the staff and the cleanliness of the hotel, though 5 minutes after I arrived and sat down with a coffee I did have to complain about how anal the cleaner on duty was being, especially when he started high dusting over my head, now I am all for cleanliness but not when it comes with a layer of dust in my coffee, thankfully the man who runs the coffee counter moved him along!

The bar is well stocked, and you are not rushed along even if you have been sat with the same drink for an hour, which we did after walking around York for 7 hours, we literally couldn't move! As this is open to the public also at night, there is plenty of smoking areas available, there is even a separate pub that backs onto the Premier inn forecourt, with a beautiful heated decking area.

Room service is available all day and night, though the menu is restricted for daytime, so nights there is a small selection of sandwiches available only.

Breakfast again is a superior affair, I have to be honest I love my weekends away for the breakfasts themselves, setting you up for the day, though after the Friday night out with the sis in aw I could only manage a couple of Costa coffee's!

Breakfasts are advertised as a buffet, you simply choose whether you want a continental or full menu breakfast, you can either pre-book and pay when you arrive with the room fee (pricelist coming up!), or turn up downstairs and pay there and then, chip and pin facilities available!

First the continental, for this it will cost you £5.95, and for your money you can have porridge, eggs, unlimited toast and croissants, pus the obligatory juice, tea and coffee's. I did like the fact that you could hep yourself to unlimited Costa coffee's, with there being a machine there from the Costa bar, that was fun in itself trying to work it!

The unlimited menu costs you £7.95 and this, to be fair, is vast! Alongside cereals, yoghurts and fresh fruit salads, there is the obligatory full English breakfast, toast, croissants and again juice's, tea and coffees.
I was a compete pig, and have to say I more than had my moneys worth! There were a few other selections on the menu, my favourite being the "grab" items, these were simply grab a croissant and coffee for £1.99 and go, there were quite a few people who did that too.

Checking out was again a simply affair, when you first book a room the hotel do like to take your card details, this of course covers their backs if you don't turn up, cancel last minute and refuse to pay, or just do a bunk, they then have the means to get their money back immediately! Though I have to say their cancellation policy was one f the best I have heard of, being at liberty to cancel up to 1pm the day of arrival without incurring any penalties.

Price wise there are some rather big variations, concerning more the area I think, than what room you book.

There are a selection of rooms available, single, double, twin and family. Now if the adverts are to be believed we should have been able to get a room for £29, after all "everything is Premier but the price" (thanks Lenny!), but after a little perusing of the website booking form I can only conclude that these deals are only available in the middle of nowhere and difficult to find!

For our two night stay in a double room, it cost us £182, which I think is very fair considering the service and quality of the place, though my brother in law has re-booked the two rooms for another jaunt to York in March, same rooms, same time span and he has manage to get the rooms at £30 cheaper a night!

There are many other facilities on offer that we didn't feel the need to use, these being internet access in the lobby, with a few computers to choose from, wi-fi in every room, air conditioning throughout (disguised as pictures, hence the reason I didn't use it!), and many extras perfect for business trips including concessions for a travelling business person.

This is a fantastic hotel that I fully intend on using again and again, clean hotel, helpful staff and may I add at this point so close to York city centre, that it a ten minute walk to the shops and the shambles (shopping area in York), any closer and I would be staying in Bhs!

For more information visit - www.premierinn.com

All bookings and enquiries came be made via this site, and there are 500 hotels in this country, with the site even stating that there some as far a field as India and Dubai!

Highly recommended!

Thanks for reading x

Summary: See review.