*Updated* Premier Inn Sleep Park Fly, not as good as it sounds

Charliezoo

I booked a Premier Inn Sleep Park Fly package at Gatwick Airport for our 2 week holiday. I chose the more expensive hotel situated right at the North Terminal, the idea being to drop the car off on the evening we arrived at the hotel and then the next morning we could just conveniently walk straight into check in for our very early long haul flight with young kids in tow, no transfer buses or faffing around necessary. It wasn't the cheapest option by far but I thought it would be a nice treat and would make the morning of our flight quick and stress free.

After booking the non-refundable package it became clear that the package was one day short of parking for us to be able to drop the car at the valet the night we arrived, it appears the only option is to park at the nearby short stay car park at an additional cost of £20 and then the following morning go back at the crack of dawn to move the car to the long stay car park nearby, therefore being nowhere near as convenient as expected.

Just a warning for anyone considering booking in the future to maybe phone and check exactly how the system works at your hotel – it appears to be slightly different for every hotel and its very vague on the website until you’ve booked and confirmed the package. Seems odd considering many family holidays are a standard 14 nights, you would’ve thought that Premier Inn would’ve taken this into consideration when coming up with the package and added an extra day. Very disappointing!

Podge52

I've just had a look at the website and it makes it perfectly clear on the sleep, park, fly page that complimentary parking on the night of your stay is not available for gatwick north.

duchy

Could you not have paid extra on arrival to start the valet a day earlier ? Plenty of people do have odd duration holidays after all

Charliezoo

Podge52 wrote: »

I've just had a look at the website and it makes it perfectly clear on the sleep, park, fly page that complimentary parking on the night of your stay is not available for gatwick north.

It says this -

This Premier Inn does not have onsite parking. Over night parking is available in the North Terminal short stay car park number 6 at a discounted rate of 19.50 GBP.

But I presumed this was applicable to to people not paying for the hotel + parking package, it doesn't really make sense to pay for a parking package only to find you have to fork out more for additional parking on arrival and then have to faff around moving your car to another car park a few yards away in the morning. Its just not a particularly well thought out package, especially considering we're going on a standard 14 night holiday.

Duchy - I'm hoping to pay for an extra day's parking but its proving to be a bit of a pain so far as Premier Inn don't offer the option to do that and Gatwick Parking say its Premier Inn we'd need to arrange that with, not them.

Podge52

Seeing as how the premier inn at gatwick north doesn't have onsite parking, did you not enquire what the parking process was before you booked?

Charliezoo

No, I presumed that a parking package would include parking for the full duration. I have started this thread to warn others to check this out before booking and not assume that a sleep park fly package includes parking.

photome

Charliezoo wrote: »

No, I presumed that a parking package would include parking for the full duration. I have started this thread to warn others to check this out before booking and not assume that a sleep park fly package includes parking.

But the package does include parking for a set number of nights.

ie 8 or 15. so if staying 9 nights you would have to choose the 15 night option or pay for 1 nights parking

I have seen that before even with some of the guest houses in Horley

Charliezoo

I spoke to Premier Inn customer relations this afternoon. They admitted that the package for this hotel needed amending as the service was designed for hotels with parking which even if usually chargeable, is waived as part of the package. This hotel was one of the few exceptions and they would either be making it a 16 night package or at least allowing the option of extending the car parking from September when their new website went live.

They said that he'd looked through the complaints log and there had been several complaints regarding the exact situation we're in and there was no need to use the short stay car park for the first night as extra nights could be added on in Long Stay for £15 which there is currently no mention of on the website. He gave me a choice of doing this or said he would be happy to refund the full amount of our booking due to the misleading nature of the description on the website.

I chose to pay for the extra night in the car park, it would've been nice to know there would be extra costs before booking but the service is still going to be convenient for us. Customer relations were excellent and I'm pleased with the outcome.

pollypenny

OP is right. If you choose the parking package at Manchester Premier Inn, the night before is complimentary.

peachyprice

As an aside, it worked out cheaper for us to book the room at £29 and the parking at £58 independently than booking the Premier Inn package at £108. So check before you book.