Premier Inn refusing to honour their good nights guarantee

ratcliffe_mike

My wife, myself and our two disabled 8-year-olds stayed at the Premier Inn in Haverfordwest on 13 February.

At 6:15AM there was a very loud noise that left us all sat bolt upright and frightened my children. It was a very loud scraping noise caused by the staff dragging what sounded like a very heavy table across a tiled floor. Quite honestly, it could have woken the dead and there was no way my children were going back to sleep after an experience like that.

Sounds like a very clear case for us to claim the Good Night guarantee right?

We complained to the lady at reception about 2 hours later. She acknowledged the noise and said almost proudly "Yup, that would have been us." I asked whether we could claim the Good Nights Guarantee but she just ignored me, rolling her eyes as she walked away.

Not being the type of person to accept being fobbed off like this we looked at Premier Inn's website to see how we can make the claim. The website says that in order to claim the Good Night Guarantee we should report the issue using the website feedback form, which we did on 15 February. This mean that we made the complaint on the day the staff woke us up and also complained one day later but our complaint appears to be falling on deaf ears. Both of these claims were well within the specified 7 day period and it appears that they are purposely making it difficult for their customers to claim back money that they are rightfully owed.

This was their response:

> Firstly, thanks so much for taking the time to get in touch to share the experience of your stay at our Haverfordwest (North/A40) hotel. We’re so sorry to hear your experience fell short of your expectations on this occasion.
> Rest assured that your feedback is valuable to us and has been shared with  the hotel management team to help us improve and do better.

> Our Reception team are around 24/7, always on hand to help you with any issues that might pop up during your stay. We advise guests to talk to someone sooner rather than later so that any problems can be sorted out there and then.  We like to ensure all our guests have a great stay; however, our Good Night Guarantee is subject to terms and conditions. As this wasn’t reported to our team within a reasonable amount of time, we will not be able to provide you with a refund on this occasion.

What the heck? We complained about 2 hours after the incident occurred and again via the feedback form 1 day later. Both of these claims were well within the specified 7 day period.

Again, not being the type of person to accept being fobbed off like this I wrote back:

> "As this wasn’t reported to our team within a reasonable amount of time, we will not be able to provide you with a refund on this occasion."

> We don't understand... we stayed at the Premier Inn on 13 February and complained to staff as we left on 14 February. The staff refused to honour the Good Night guarantee despite clearly admitting that their own actions had resulted in them waking our whole family at around 6:15AM.

> We then decided to report the issue as your website specified by using your feedback form on 15 February.

> This is just a day after leaving the hotel... this means that we made the complaint on the day the staff woke us up and also complained one day later but our complaint appears to be falling on deaf ears... we WILL take this to the media if necessary as you are blatantly refusing to follow your own terms and conditions because both of these claims were well within the specified 7 day period and it appears that you are purposely making it difficult for your customers to claim back money that they are rightfully owed.

This was their response:

> Rest assured that we do take such matters seriously but on this occasion, we would have to reiterate that your request for a refund does not fall within the terms and conditions of our Good Night Guarantee.

> Whilst we understand that this is not the response you were hoping for, your case has been reviewed by our management team and the decision previously advised still stands.  This is our final resolution in this matter and we can advise that we will not be corresponding further and consider this case closed.

This makes no sense as our case falls clearly within the terms and conditions of the Good Night Guarantee so I have written again:

> "Rest assured that we do take such matters seriously but on this occasion, we would have to reiterate that your request for a refund does not fall within the terms and conditions of our Good Night Guarantee."

> We don't understand as these are the only possibly relevant terms and conditions that we can see:

> 1. Claims must be made within 7 days of the end of the stay to which your claim relates.

> We stayed at the Premier Inn on 13 February and complained to staff as we left on 14 February. The staff refused to honour the Good Night guarantee despite clearly admitting that their own actions had resulted in them waking our whole family at around 6:15AM.

> We then decided to report the issue as your website specified by using your feedback form on 15 February.

> This is just a day after leaving the hotel... this means that we made the complaint on the morning that the staff woke us up and also complained one day later but our complaint appears to be falling on deaf ears.

> 2. To make a claim you should raise your complaint with the team at the hotel who will advise you of the process. If you did not raise your complaint at the hotel or were unable to do so, you must contact us through our web form.

> We made the complaint on the day the staff woke us up. They admitted responsibility but walked away as soon as I mentioned the Good Night's guarantee. We also complained one day later via the web form as per your terms and conditions... these complaints were both well within the 7 day period.

> So can you please explain exactly why our claim doesn't fall within the terms and conditions of the Good Nights Guarantee?

This is completely ridiculous. The company are blatantly disregarding their own terms and conditions here and it feels like it is impossible to fight for our rights. Don't get me wrong, it is only a small amount of money but it has to be illegal for them to act in this way.

How can I somehow escalate this?

jon81uk

When the staff member rolled their eyes at you, did you then ask to speak to a manager?

comeandgo

Surely 6 .15 am is not regarded as “night”?

Westin

"Whilst we understand that this is not the response you were hoping for, your case has been reviewed by our management team and the decision previously advised still stands.  This is our final resolution in this matter and we can advise that we will not be corresponding further and consider this case closed."

Somewhere along the line you have wound them up and they seem to have dug their heals in and are refusing the claim or even now to correspond further with you on the matter. 

"we WILL take this to the media if necessary"

Rather an overkill statement which probably has not adhered them to find resolution in the way you wish.

I think you have hit the wall. Perhaps time to let this go.  Other options are for you to take this legal but I doubt the time, effort and cost is worth it - or fulfil on your promise to take your story to the media.

theonlywayisup

ratcliffe_mike said:

> Rest assured that we do take such matters seriously but on this occasion, we would have to reiterate that your request for a refund does not fall within the terms and conditions of our Good Night Guarantee.

I haven't read your entire post.

Perhaps your claim isn't within the T&C.

Our Good Night Guarantee does not apply where you do not have a great night's sleep due to (i) circumstances arising from the lack of a facility at a hotel where that facility was not included in the facility set of the hotel displayed or communicated to you when you made your booking (for example, due to hot weather and a lack of air conditioning, you did not have a great night’s sleep, but air conditioning was not listed as a facility at that hotel in the booking process – so please carefully check the facilities at your hotel when booking); or (ii) circumstances that are beyond our reasonable control as hoteliers such as extreme weather conditions, fire, fire alarms, flood, lightning, earthquake, explosion, terrorism, war, civil disorder, epidemics, embargoes, labour disputes power cuts, third party building works, internal hotel noise (which you have not reported and provided us with a reasonable period to rectify and it was safe for you to report it), and/or external noise arising due to the location of the hotel including but not limited to airport noise (for airport hotels).

It was one noise incident, which presumably they could have rectified had you alerted them to it being loud. 

You need to move on.  To be woken at 6.15am is not worthy of a full refund. 

soolin

I think it unlikely the OP will return, but I do agree with some of the other posts that being woken at 6.15 am hardly constitutes a poor night's sleep.

Penguin_

Surprised they weren't woken by the ferry traffic there!

jon81uk

soolin said:

I think it unlikely the OP will return, but I do agree with some of the other posts that being woken at 6.15 am hardly constitutes a poor night's sleep.

The staff's attitude seems like a bigger issue than the cause of the poor sleep.

Jaybee_16

Going back a few years, cannot remember which Premier Inn I was staying in but when I arrived they were extending the hotel. Being booked into a room next to the works, I was assured no work would begin before 8am.
Next morning I was woken by workmen at 7.30am.
Complained at reception and received a refund and a week or so later an apology letter dropped on the doormat.

Thrugelmir

jon81uk said:

soolin said:

I think it unlikely the OP will return, but I do agree with some of the other posts that being woken at 6.15 am hardly constitutes a poor night's sleep.

The staff's attitude seems like a bigger issue than the cause of the poor sleep.

Perhaps they've encountered similar complaints before. 

TripleH

The stupid thing is if they put felt pads on and lifted rather than dragged tables this issue could be avoided.

Had similar problem in previous home where heavy furniture scraped on concrete and tile floor caused reverberations. Although there it wouldn't wake you.