This recently built Premier Inn offers us all the expected facilities at a modest price – a modern clean room and helpful staff. It is conveniently situated close to both the city centre and docks of Southampton.
We were advised, both on the website and by email just before our stay, that the hotel has limited parking for blue badged cars only. However, guests can use the nearby West Quay Car Park at a discounted rate of £5 per day. We found this arrangement to be both convenient and reasonably priced.
We chose to book a meal deal for both days of our stay which offered good value for breakfasts plus dinners. Buffet breakfasts were up to Premier Inns’ usual standard.
However, dinner was a game of two halves! The hotel was full on the first night of our stay. Curiously this was a Sunday – usually a quiet night in hotels. A multitude of guests were made up of cruise passengers for the three ships sailing on Monday plus fitters setting up the Southampton Boat Show which was to open on the following Friday. We tried to book a dinner table in the restaurant as we arrived at 1800 hours but were advised that the earliest available time was 2030. We opted to take our chance and got a free table in the bar at 1900 hours and ordered our dinner. Clearly the kitchen, restaurant and bar were overwhelmed and our simple two course meal took 2 hours to complete. So, contrary to the slogan not only the price but also the service is not premier. There were no problems with Monday’s dinner, booked on the Sunday and served in the restaurant in reasonable time and as expected, reasonable pub grub.
Moral – at Premier Inns you get what you pay for. If you buy a meal deal, reserve your table at the time of booking.