Premier Inn Good Night Guarantee only honored if you're prepared to report issues at 2 A.M.

Roaders

I regularly stay at Premier Inn hotels and have occasionally in the past claimed on their Good Night Guarantee (I might have claimed once or twice over the past 10 years or so).

I stayed at a hotel on the 1st April and had an awful nights sleep. I could hear another guest snoring, another guest moving about in their room and a whining noise coming from the fan all night (there was nothing I could do about this fan, even turning off all power to the room by removing the card from the slot did not stop it).
The next morning when checking out I mentioned the issues I had had and that I would like a refund. I would not do this at any other hotel but this is exactly what they offer so as I had not had a good nights sleep I requested a refund.

The staff at the hotel told me I had to report to central office and gave me a phone number to call, on phoning the number I was told to report by sending an email which I did. I got a response saying that they were busy and I wouldn't get a response for 20 days.

After quite a bit of back and forward the situation now is that management has reviewed the case and will not take it any further. The outcome:

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.

According the them "within a reasonable amount of time" means that when I was lying in bed in the middle of the night unable to sleep I should have fully woken up, turned on the light (waking up my wife who HAD managed to get to sleep), get dressed, go downstairs and try and find a memeber of staff who would then presumaby not be able to do anything about the noise - certainly not able to do anything without waking my wife.

This, to me, is utterly ridiculous. They only guarnatee a good night sleep if you're willing to report issues to them in the middle of the night. In my mind if I have to get up in the middle of the night and go down to reception even if they do instantly resolve the issue that is not a good nights sleep.

Small claims court is the next step I think.

cono1717

How long after staying did you report it? Seems the limit is 7 days, also it looks like their Ts & Cs have your specific issue covered:

Our Good Night Guarantee does not apply where you do not have a great night's sleep due to [...] 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

Undervalued

And given that your wife was apparently able to sleep OK I assume you were only asking for half of the room charge back?

Aylesbury_Duck

Seems fair that you have to give them a chance to address the disturbance first.  You didn't do so, which means you didn't comply with the terms of the guarantee.  Can't see your case standing up in small claims court.

Ergates

Do Premier Inn phones not have phones linked to reception?

Them wanting to be given the opportunity to rectify any noise issues seems a reasonable clause in the guarantee.

user1977

Ergates said:

Do Premier Inn phones not have phones linked to reception?

Them wanting to be given the opportunity to rectify any noise issues seems a reasonable clause in the guarantee.

No, there are no phones in the rooms. But you are given the phone number for reception when you check in.

I've fallen foul of this myself - it might be a reasonable condition where the cause is something which can be stopped, or if there's scope for you to be moved to another room, but (as was the case for me) if you already know the hotel is fully-booked and the cause seems to be largely poor sound insulation, I'm not sure what the advantage would be of marching down to reception in the middle of the night.

Murphybear

Oh that dreadful word “reasonable”.  There is no definition of it in law.  

I would have thought that reporting this issue first thing in the morning would be “reasonable” by any definition.  

born_again

user1977 said:

Ergates said:

Do Premier Inn phones not have phones linked to reception?

Them wanting to be given the opportunity to rectify any noise issues seems a reasonable clause in the guarantee.

No, there are no phones in the rooms. But you are given the phone number for reception when you check in.

I've fallen foul of this myself - it might be a reasonable condition where the cause is something which can be stopped, or if there's scope for you to be moved to another room, but (as was the case for me) if you already know the hotel is fully-booked and the cause seems to be largely poor sound insulation, I'm not sure what the advantage would be of marching down to reception in the middle of the night.

Always been a phone in the rooms when we have stayed in a premier inn. Going back over 10 years.

sheramber

born_again said:

user1977 said:

Ergates said:

Do Premier Inn phones not have phones linked to reception?

Them wanting to be given the opportunity to rectify any noise issues seems a reasonable clause in the guarantee.

No, there are no phones in the rooms. But you are given the phone number for reception when you check in.

I've fallen foul of this myself - it might be a reasonable condition where the cause is something which can be stopped, or if there's scope for you to be moved to another room, but (as was the case for me) if you already know the hotel is fully-booked and the cause seems to be largely poor sound insulation, I'm not sure what the advantage would be of marching down to reception in the middle of the night.

Always been a phone in the rooms when we have stayed in a premier inn. Going back over 10 years.

https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/faq/our-rooms.html#:~:text=Are there phones in your,be found in every room.

Are there phones in your rooms?

As the majority of our guests have personal mobile phones, some of our rooms don't have telephones. Local rate numbers for our reception teams can be found in every room.

photome

born_again said:

user1977 said:

Ergates said:

Do Premier Inn phones not have phones linked to reception?

Them wanting to be given the opportunity to rectify any noise issues seems a reasonable clause in the guarantee.

No, there are no phones in the rooms. But you are given the phone number for reception when you check in.

I've fallen foul of this myself - it might be a reasonable condition where the cause is something which can be stopped, or if there's scope for you to be moved to another room, but (as was the case for me) if you already know the hotel is fully-booked and the cause seems to be largely poor sound insulation, I'm not sure what the advantage would be of marching down to reception in the middle of the night.

Always been a phone in the rooms when we have stayed in a premier inn. Going back over 10 years.

I have stayed in a few over last couple of years and not had a phone in the room, 

Undervalued

Murphybear said:

Oh that dreadful word “reasonable”.  There is no definition of it in law.  

I would have thought that reporting this issue first thing in the morning would be “reasonable” by any definition.  

Well I wouldn't.

The hotel is presumably staffed 24/7. Anybody could falsely claim in the morning that they hadn't been able to sleep and there is no way of checking. If the guest is having so much difficulty in sleeping as to warrant a claim then I think it is perfectly reasonable to tell the hotel during the night. If there is an issue the hotel can resolve to help the situation it gives them an opportunity to do so. Presumably the guest would rather get at least some sleep?