Premier inn check in time disagreement

jackie151

Hello. I am hoping for some advice. Yesterday I took my young son to stay at a Premier inn hotel. I believed that we would be able to access our room from 2pm give/take time to queue. I attach a photo of the hotel info for you to see. When we got to the hotel a couple of minutes after 2pm we were told that our room was not ready and to come back later. Long story short we didn't get into our room until 2 hours later. When I pointed out to the manager that the room should have been available from 2pm he made no apology, simply stated that the website said it would be available from 2pm so that could mean anytime thereafter. Surely I have paid for my room to be available from 2pm? Thanks for any advice. 
 

neilmcl

So what difference  has a couple of hours made to you? What do you want from Premier Inn?

tacpot12

I think the manager has misunderstood the word "from". A price for a room may be "from £x" in an advert, but when a room is "available from" in a set of Terms and Conditions it means your room should available to you from that time (except in exceptional circumstances). Otherwise you could arrive at 9pm and still not have a room! 
I think you should complain to Head Office, and suggest gently that the manager needs more training in the hospitality business.  

jackie151

neilmcl said:

So what difference  has a couple of hours made to you? What do you want from Premier Inn?
 I have a young disabled son. We have to plan things carefully to make our time away work for him as best we can. We were stranded in the hotel lobby when we should have been having down time in our room. We were given no idea when room would be ready. I want someone to admit that they should have the room available from 2pm and apologise instead of fobbing me off making me feel like I'm expecting too much. 

Paully28

I would suggest a clearly worded email/letter to H/O, as, given their own T&Cs, I cant see how they can argue that any reasonable person would not think that the room should be ready at the latest 2pm, not anytime after 2pm. 

Manxman_in_exile

Make a formal complaint to Premier Inn.  Say that you relied on their T&Cs to mean that your room would be available* from 2pm.  Explain that you have to care for a disabled son and that it was very inconvenient and difficult for you having to wait a further two hours to be able to access your room.  (Did you specify a room with disabled facilities when booking so that your needs should have been self-evident?  I'm not sure if all PI rooms are disabled friendly or just some of them.)  Say you were disappointed by the unsympathetic response from the manager.

[*However, speaking purely for myself, I'm not sure I would interpret that extract from their T&Cs as meaning that all rooms or even my room would definitely be available from 2pm, otherwise it would say "...your room will be available from 2pm..." and it doesn't say that.  I would not be at all surprised to turn up at 2pm and be told the room isn't ready yet.]

As an aside, I've never had to provide proof of nationality at a Premier Inn.  Is this new or have I forgotten doing it?

photome

Manxman_in_exile said:

Make a formal complaint to Premier Inn.  Say that you relied on their T&Cs to mean that your room would be available* from 2pm.  Explain that you have to care for a disabled son and that it was very inconvenient and difficult for you having to wait a further two hours to be able to access your room.  (Did you specify a room with disabled facilities when booking so that your needs should have been self-evident?  I'm not sure if all PI rooms are disabled friendly or just some of them.)  Say you were disappointed by the unsympathetic response from the manager.

[*However, speaking purely for myself, I'm not sure I would interpret that extract from their T&Cs as meaning that all rooms or even my room would definitely be available from 2pm, otherwise it would say "...your room will be available from 2pm..." and it doesn't say that.  I would not be at all surprised to turn up at 2pm and be told the room isn't ready yet.]

As an aside, I've never had to provide proof of nationality at a Premier Inn.  Is this new or have I forgotten doing it?

It does say “your  room”

What's the earliest I can check in?

Your room will be ready for you from 2pm on the day you're due to arrive

OP as others have suggested get in touch with head office

p00hsticks

Paully28 said:

I would suggest a clearly worded email/letter to H/O, as, given their own T&Cs, I cant see how they can argue that any reasonable person would not think that the room should be ready at the latest 2pm, not anytime after 2pm. 

I'd agree that rooms should be available at 2pm, but can understand why this doesn't always happen. We stayed at Premier Inn the other week, and arrived around 2.30pm. Although we were able to be allocated rooms straight away (we'd already checked in online a couple of days before) this was only achieved because the receptionist amended one of the rooms, as the original one allocated wasn't ready. It did mean that the rooms weren't adjacent, as had been originally planned.

As checkout times are midday, then realistically if the hotel is full and everyone left on the same day at midday, two hours isn't going to be enough time to make up every single room in time for every new customer to check in at 2pm. It's difficult for the staff to keep track of who has checked out early and almost impossible for them to know who's likely to arrive bang on 2pm.

shaun_from_Africa

p00hsticks said:

I'd agree that rooms should be available at 2pm, but can understand why this doesn't always happen. 

In which case, Premier Inns should change the wording from:

Your room will be ready for you from 2pm on the day you're due to arrive

to

Your room should be ready for you from 2pm on the day you're due to arrive but this isn't guaranteed.

McKneff

Did they tell you to come back 2 hours later or did you just go away and entertain yourselves for 2 hours. In which case your room may have been ready 10 minutes after 2pm. 
Personally, i think you are nit picking, think yourself lucky you spent 2 precious hours one on one with your son. 

elsien

I would expect my room to be available from 2 onwards, from that wording.
However did you explain to the manager why it was important to be in your room as soon as possible, and did they suggest any alternatives. Was there nowhere quiet your son could have a sleep in his pushchair for downtime?

I think my response would depend on exactly what was said and what was offered to mitigate any inconvenience.