Premier inn check in time disagreement

davidmcn

Given PI have a fairly generous money-back guarantee if you don't get a good night's sleep, I'd expect them to give a decent response to a complaint of this sort - though if you're really unlucky they might just give you your money back rather than apologise.

Tigsteroonie

I must agree with the OP, I'd interpret PI's wording to mean that my room would be available from 2pm onwards if wanted to use it; and, like the OP, may well have planned our day (with a disabled son who doesn't need accessibility facilities) around having access at 2pm - to drop belongings, to give him his mid-afternoon snack, before going out again.

This thread has made me realise that I now need to email PI regarding our booking later in the year to warn them that we may well actually need access from 2pm so could they prepare our room early. 

hollydays

neilmcl said:

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

Many people, me included, might have had a long journey and want to freshen up.This is the hospitality industry. Some people rarely stay in hotels and find it a huge treat. Some people might have a young child and need to rest.Some people might have health issues and need to,rest, but mostly , why should one have to explain.

Takmon

p00hsticks said:

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.

In reality that never happens. Some people check out very early just after breakfast and some people arrive much later than 2PM so if they started cleaning the rooms as people checked out then there should be enough ready by the time people are arriving without any delays. Over time they will be able to get a good idea of what time most people leave and arrive and make sure they have enough cleaners at the right times to ensure all rooms are ready for when people check in. 

This is a pretty basic part of running a hotel and there is no excuse for them to not be able to get the rooms ready at the check in time that they state. 

p00hsticks

Takmon said:

Some people check out very early just after breakfast and some people arrive much later than 2PM so if they started cleaning the rooms as people checked out then there should be enough ready by the time people are arriving without any delays. Over time they will be able to get a good idea of what time most people leave and arrive and make sure they have enough cleaners at the right times to ensure all rooms are ready for when people check in. 

This is a pretty basic part of running a hotel and there is no excuse for them to not be able to get the rooms ready at the check in time that they state. 

Yes, I agree (although as Premier Inn's 'check out' usually consists of dropping an unnumbered key card into a box on an unmanned reception desk I imagine it's difficult for the cleaning crew to see who's actually checked out in a timely fashion - when I stayed in one last week we actually had the cleaner knock on the door at 9am on check out day to ask what time we were planning on leaving).

It surprises me that (unless the OP had a very specific request such as a disabled room) that there wasn't a single room prepared and available by 2pm. I'm even more surprised at the attitude of the manager, as in my experience Premier Inn are usually pretty good at customer service and in similar circumstances I've had them either rearrange the room bookings or have an appropriate room cleaned straight away when we've arrived soon after two. I hope head office deal generously with the OP's complaint.

DCFC79

Any news OP ?

Manxman_in_exile

photome said:

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

Ah - OK.  I was going by the extract in the opening post which simply said "Rooms are available from 2pm on your arrival date" and not that "Your room will be ready for you from 2pm..." etc etc.  I'm surprised the wording is different.

In that case I'm also surprised at the unsympathetic response from the manager and I'd definitely be making a strong complaint, paying particular emphasis to the inconvenience and difficulty experienced as the son is disabled.

CardinalWolsey

We don't know if the OP required an adapted room or not. If they did, this restricts the number of rooms available to them - not every room at a PI is an adapted room. The OP is therefore very much dependent upon the time that the previous occupant checked-out of the room - who knows, perhaps the previous occupant needed additional time to vacate because of their disability, and this was granted by PI. Whilst the local service could have been handled better, I would have expected someone such as the OP to have communicated with the hotel prior to arrival, and to not have been rebuffed quite so easily.

hollydays

Does the op say her son is disabled?

powerful_Rogue

hollydays said:

Does the op say her son is disabled?

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