We were given tickets for The Ashes at Durham County Cricket Ground, Chester Le Street and wanted somewhere to stay for the night before the game.
As it was a last minute arrangement, all of the accommodation in Chester Le Street was fully booked, so we looked slightly further afield and selected The Premier Inn (Metro Centre) Gateshead, a twenty minute drive from the venue..
We made our booking online for one double room.
The Premier Inn (Metro Centre) is close to all routes south and about a five/ten minute (depending on traffic) drive from the large shopping/entertainment centre – Gateshead Metro Centre. However, apart from a Taybarns restaurant and a garage there is nothing immediately beside this Premier Inn – going for a walk really isn't an option!.
There is a free car park immediately outside the hotel door. The car park is spacious.. We parked the car and went inside.
The Reception area is small but tidy with a good supply of neatly stacked leaflets showing local attractions.
We were warmly greeted by a staff member who went through the procedure of staying at Premier Inn, explaining their good night's sleep guarantee., then he gave us the key to our room.
The room we had been allocated was on the second floor at the end of the corridor. It was a hot, sunny day and despite the fact the hotel had placed what looked like air cooler machinery on the floor at the end of the corridor I found the heat in the corridor almost impossible. The room was even hotter and the noise from the large machine/fan outside carried through into the room.
We went back to Reception and asked for another room. The staff were very good, it was not a problem to them to allocate us another room. We took the lift to the first floor. The corridor along to the room was a bit cooler, there was no banging from air cooling machinery. We went into the room and it was fine, very clean and tidy. There was a large floor fan which we were grateful for.
On their website Premier Inn mention this hotel is near a main road, they state they have extra glazing to keep noise to a minimum but warn traffic noise is possible, in all rooms, especially at the front of the property. Our room was at the rear of the property, when the windows were closed, the extra glazing ensured there was no noise, when the windows were open there was a little noise but it was not all that bad – we managed to sleep all night with the window open without experiencing excessive noise.
The Reception staff member offered to book us a table for breakfast and evening meal at the adjoining Taybarns restaurant. We usually have breakfast when staying at a Premier Inn, but we never book, we just like to turn up, so we didn't bother booking for breakfast. However as we were tired and did not want to drive anywhere else that day looking for a place to eat, we decided to go to take Premier Inn's recommendation of the adjoining Taybarns for an evening meal.
The choice on offer was an all you can eat buffet. When entering the restaurant there was a staffed till, but I am not sure what this was for, we were instructed by the till staff member to go to the small bar to order, pay for our food and then get a seat. The bar area is small, the restaurant busy, so we had to wait a while for our seat. .
Along the length of the wall are sections offering a variety of international food. I am not a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination and there is no type of food I do not like, but I struggled to obtain an edible meal. I tried from every section available – indian Italian English and various other types, the food was either over cooked, dried up, or fatty, some sections were empty. For the desserts there was a wide selection on offer but when I tried the apple crumble, the crumble stuck together like glue and had to be peeled off the fruit.
The evening meal had not been a pleasant experience, we decided we would be silly to attempt to have breakfast there. So the next day, we drove to the food hall at Gateshead Metro Centre to enjoy breakfast.
Although my review is about the Premier Inn I have spent time writing about Taybarns because at this hotel Premier Inn use Taybarns to provide their guests with breakfast and when booking in to this Premier Inn, they offer to book an Evening Meal for you at Taybarns. Additionally there is nowhere else within walking distance to eat when staying at this hotel, so I feel it is relevant to mention it. .
The accommodation at this Premier Inn I found to be good, the staff I found to be lovely, but the restaurant was in my opinion poor.
