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

Jumblebumble

Undervalued said:

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

As the guarantee is specifically for the room charge I very much doubt it 
If a family room was booked for 4  and 3 members slept would you expect only 25 % refund ?
It is clear to me that Premier Inn are weasling out of honouring their guarantee by using their T and C which as the OP has found renders the guarantee worthless ( I for one  am certainly not going to base any decision on whether I stay in PE or Travelodge on the guarantee going forward ! )

This seems to be a new development and is probably because they are trying to claw back money lost during lockdown

jon81uk

Jumblebumble said:

Undervalued said:

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

As the guarantee is specifically for the room charge I very much doubt it 
If a family room was booked for 4  and 3 members slept would you expect only 25 % refund ?
It is clear to me that Premier Inn are weasling out of honouring their guarantee by using their T and C which as the OP has found renders the guarantee worthless ( I for one  am certainly not going to base any decision on whether I stay in PE or Travelodge on the guarantee going forward ! )

This seems to be a new development and is probably because they are trying to claw back money lost during lockdown

Given the T&C are set out before making a booking they are just applying the terms, not "weasling out". The terms state that for the guarentee there are exclusions and one of which is "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)". Given the OP didn't report it in a way that could have been rectified, which is reasonable for a noise issue this claim does sit within the exclusions.
Now if they were staying two nights, reported it in the morning expecting a solution ahead of the next night that would be different.

p00hsticks

Roaders said:

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).

Just for future reference....

Assuming that the noise was coming from the air conditioning unit in your room, and not elsewhere, then what you needed to do is turn it off via the temperature control that should be mounted on the wall somewhere - removing the keycard from the slot won't do it.  In the one I stayed in recently there was an instruction sheet advising how to adjust the temperature and.or switch it off completely left on the desk in the room alongside the restuarant menu and other info. 

And no, my room didn't have a phone either......

Undervalued

p00hsticks said:

Roaders said:

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).

Just for future reference....

Assuming that the noise was coming from the air conditioning unit in your room, and not elsewhere, then what you needed to do is turn it off via the temperature control that should be mounted on the wall somewhere - removing the keycard from the slot won't do it.  In the one I stayed in recently there was an instruction shhed advising how to adjust the temperature and.or switch it off completely left on the desk alongside the restuarant menu and other info. 

Which, had the OP contacted the hotel staff at the time, they would presumably have told him and solved his problem!

Roaders

well thanks for all the replies. To answer some of them...

This was reported as I checked out in the morning. Well within the 7 days that are stated in the T&C.

As someone else mentioned I have previouly been offered a refund in the morning when I wasn't even complaining, they just asked how I slept and I said not very well.

I would content that any night where you have to get up in the middle of the night to walk down to reception is not a good night's sleep.

There was no phone in the room - it has been a VERY long time since I was in a premier inn with a phone.

I have had maybe 2 refunds ever on the guarantee. I have probably stayed multiple hundreds of nights at Premier inns.

I was not given the phone number when checking in and this have never happened when I have checked in (unless it's written on the card that they give you with the key in - never noticed it if it is).

Talking about "reasonable" I would say it is entirely unreaseanable to have to get up in the middle of the night to report an issue to reception. By that point you've not had a good night sleep. The guarantee is for a good night's sleep. If I had got up to talk to reception I would still not have had a good night sleep. If they had moved us (the only solution that might have worked) then neither of us would have had a good night sleep.

Aylesbury_Duck

Let us know how they respond to the threat of court action.

user1977

Roaders said:

I was not given the phone number when checking in and this have never happened when I have checked in (unless it's written on the card that they give you with the key in - never noticed it if it is).

Yes, that's where it is. Think they often point it out when handing it over.

sheramber

Roaders said:

well thanks for all the replies. To answer some of them...

This was reported as I checked out in the morning. Well within the 7 days that are stated in the T&C.

As someone else mentioned I have previouly been offered a refund in the morning when I wasn't even complaining, they just asked how I slept and I said not very well.

I would content that any night where you have to get up in the middle of the night to walk down to reception is not a good night's sleep.

There was no phone in the room - it has been a VERY long time since I was in a premier inn with a phone.

I have had maybe 2 refunds ever on the guarantee. I have probably stayed multiple hundreds of nights at Premier inns.

I was not given the phone number when checking in and this have never happened when I have checked in (unless it's written on the card that they give you with the key in - never noticed it if it is).

Talking about "reasonable" I would say it is entirely unreaseanable to have to get up in the middle of the night to report an issue to reception. By that point you've not had a good night sleep. The guarantee is for a good night's sleep. If I had got up to talk to reception I would still not have had a good night sleep. If they had moved us (the only solution that might have worked) then neither of us would have had a good night sleep.

The guarantee is for a good night's sleep. If I had got up to talk to reception I would still not have had a good night sleep. If they had moved us (the only solution that might have worked) then neither of us would have had a good night sleep

But you would have been able to claim a refund under the guarantee,

p00hsticks

Roaders said:

I was not given the phone number when checking in and this have never happened when I have checked in (unless it's written on the card that they give you with the key in - never noticed it if it is).

Yes it is - both the phone number and email address for the specific hotel are stamped on the card holding the key (in fairness, I'd never looked for or noticed it until the topic came up in this thread, and I just happen to be staying in one this weekend!)

p00hsticks

Roaders said:

The guarantee is for a good night's sleep. If I had got up to talk to reception I would still not have had a good night sleep. If they had moved us (the only solution that might have worked) then neither of us would have had a good night sleep.

I think the fact that your wife did apparently manage to get a good nights sleep rather diminishes your argument. True she may be one of those people who could sleep through WW3, but on the other hand you could be one of those people who get woken up by the slightest thing - or - like my OH - can't get to sleep worrying about WW3!

In your shoes I'd draw a line under this one, use another chain of hotels if you're no longer happy with Premier Inn (although as far as I'm aware no other chain even attempts to offer a similar sort of guarantee so you'll be no better off on that score) and invest in some ear plugs for sleeping (which I guess is another solution that might have worked if the receptionist had had any).