Budget hotels discussion

[westv]

As the price for a full cooked breakfast is around the £11 to £13 mark it would be quite easy to find a reasonable sized cooked breakfast for less*.



*northern England, not your London prices.

The price is a full cooked breakfast + continental choices + unlimited coffee/tea/juices so I think it's good value if you choose to fill up for the day.

 

[ChrisC]

In Premier Inn, kids eat free at breakfast. Premier Inn are not a charity food bank, therefore the cost of that free breakfast is being recouped from somewhere. I object to subsidising other people's children so I never buy a breakfast there!

I normally wouldn‘t go quite as far as saying that but I must admit that there was one occasion when I really did think that.

A good few years ago I was staying in a London Travelodge which was very understaffed at breakfast time. It was very difficult to get a full breakfast as there were always some items missing and a queue of people waiting for the food to be replenished from the kitchen. Every time items were brought out of the kitchen a group of greedy teenagers ran straight to the front of the queue, and grabbed all the food before adults who had been waiting could get theirs. Their parents never said a word. At the time I was really annoyed and thought to myself I’m paying to subsidise their free breakfast. It was even worse when you saw their plates piled up with muffins etc.

 

[Trackman]

I normally wouldn‘t go quite as far as saying that but I must admit that there was one occasion when I really did think that.

A good few years ago I was staying in a London Travelodge which was very understaffed at breakfast time. It was very difficult to get a full breakfast as there were always some items missing and a queue of people waiting for the food to be replenished from the kitchen. Every time items were brought out of the kitchen a group of greedy teenagers ran straight to the front of the queue, and grabbed all the food before adults who had been waiting could get theirs. Their parents never said a word. At the time I was really annoyed and thought to myself I’m paying to subsidise their free breakfast. It was even worse when you saw their plates piled up with muffins etc.

I am a placid person, but queue jumpers are something I cannot abide with and must speak up.

Going back to breakfasts, I dont bother unless it's in with the room.
Once I stayed at a Travelodge in north wales, and I fancied a bacon sarny in the morning- as advertised. Went to reception, a few minutes later they re-appeared with said bacon sandwich, it was terrible! Basically it was a cheap microwave affair.

 

[TheSmiths82]

I've also stayed in the one in Chester and it was pretty dire - room not properly cleaned before I got there. But had much better experiences with Travelodges in other places.

One thing that got me about Travelodge is having to pay extra to use the Internet (beyond a certain fairly low 'freebie' amount of data). I get that part of being a budget place is that you pay separately for extras, but Internet seems such a basic thing that it seems odd for it not to be provided automatically for guests. I can't recall ever being charged to use the Internet in any other hotel.

I rarely make use of it as I am always out of the hotel anyway, it is just a bed but at times when the 4/5g signals have been poor it is useful. Most other budget hotels (apart from Easyhotel etc) offer free internet now. I would have thought that would put business users off.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Have Premier Inn made another major change to their room design in recent refurbishments or new openings? I've heard a couple of people hinting at this and newest one I've stayed in in recent memory. Have been openings around 2021 or thereabouts

 

[Howardh]

Travelodge offer a room upgrade, where for a few pounds more you get free wifi, more drinks options and a couple of comfy chairs. I have used it and while normal Travelodge rooms are fine for me, I appreciated the extra for the extra! But in all honesty, the "upgrade" was the equivalent of a standard Premier Inn room!!

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Have Premier Inn made another major change to their room design in recent refurbishments or new openings? I've heard a couple of people hinting at this and newest one I've stayed in in recent memory. Have been openings around 2021 or thereabouts

Premier Inn offers 'Premier Plus' rooms which have a mini fridge, better wi-fi and things.
I don't take detailed notes, but the design of the standard room must change over time. For example sometimes you get a plastic chair, sometimes a wooden chair, sometimes something a bit more padded. Some have USB chargers by the bed.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I think the bedside USB has been standard since about 2020 but have never yet had a plastic chair

 

[antharro]

Premier Inn fan here; they're my go-to whenever I need somewhere to stay. I used to always stay at Travelodge, but found they became more expensive. The final straw was when I was doing a lot of driving for my job. Different hotel every night. I was staying in one up near Runcorn, got to the room very late in the evening to find they'd replaced the tea and coffee with a sign stating along the lines that "to provide the best value for money, the tea and coffee making facilities have been removed". The following night I stayed at a Premier Inn, paid less, got a better room ...and full tea/coffee facilities!

I quite like their Premier Plus rooms, and they come with their higher tier of wifi for free. And then there's the Premier Inn breakfast... which I am rarely up in time for, but enjoy when I can make it! One downside though, I find a lot of their hotels have really poor 4G/5G signal. I have a dual SIM phone (one SIM on GiffGaff/o2, the other on 1pMobile/EE) so I can nearly always get around it, it's just a bit annoying!

 

[birchesgreen]

Guildford travelodge has been refurbished since i was there last year, pretty good though it wasn't that bad already.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Is the current refit doing much to the rooms other than coat of paint and perhaps some carpet
What I'm finding with some of the first generation builds to have the new new all plastic pod bathroom is that these are now very much showing their age, but presumably refurbishment of such a pod is harder

 

[birchesgreen]

Repainting and new carpet i think, the standard artwork over the bed has also been changed (though i prefer the old one). The bar/restaurant was also refreshed.

 

[Cross City]

Being a former BOH managerial restaurant employee for Whitbread none of this is in the least bit surprising. The hotel part of the company is by far the most profitable.

I doubt they regret selling Costa to Coca-Cola, that deal was far too good to turn down and likely subsidised the restaurant side for a good few years in the hope that they could turn it around. Coca-Cola only wanted the brand to expand their bottled drink operation, they couldn't care less about the cafes and its obvious with how poor the in-house experience has become in Costa branches.

The trouble with Whitbread's restaurant arm is that because they're attached to the biggest chain in the country they have to cater for all needs. Because of this the menus are far too big and the workload they put their skeleton (since Covid) poorly paid kitchen teams through is unsustainable. Staff turnover is very poor, even for hospitality work.

Their multiple brands didn't help. There is no need for Bar & Block, Beefeater, Brewer's Fayre, Cookhouse & Pub and Thyme to all exist at the same time serving only slightly different markets at different price points. 70-90% of the ingredients were shared between the cheapest brand (Brewers Fayre) and the most expensive (Bar & Block). There was a lot of menu crossover too as in identical items on all menus at different prices. Their most popular dish the 'smothered chicken' was £12 at a BF but pushing £20 at a B&B and was identical at all brands.

As for the future. I expect the number of brands to slim down massively, as will the menus. They will cull all but the best performing restaurants converting the others into hotel rooms.
Premier Inns now which don't have restaurants now still usually offer breakfast out of small kitchens with modest dining areas. I expect many to convert to this set up when their restaurants close.

I do not mourn for the demise of this company, I can only empathise with their employees.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Yes, I think I agree with all of the above to be honest and I had also noticed that the menus were broadly similar as you say at different price points depending on where you ended up
I can only hope that Premier Inn refocus on quality and price of hotel operations. Once this probably very messy transition from being a publican and restaurateur to primarily a hotelier is complete as I've begun to look elsewhere for hotel accommodation now as there's a few too many inconsistencies and the prices have risen to a point where others are offering the same or better for less
I think they're also going to have to box very clever on what they do about offering some kind of basic evening catering to hotel guests that isn't a vending machine as they will very quickly fall into the same trap that other hotel providers with no evening offering, even if it's just basic and possibly even collect from a service area and take back to room style which I know some on here really dislike but nonetheless, or their hotel business will also crash and burn

 

[Cross City]

I can only hope that Premier Inn refocus on quality and price of hotel operations. Once this probably very messy transition from being a publican and restaurateur to primarily a hotelier is complete as I've begun to look elsewhere for hotel accommodation now as there's a few too many inconsistencies and the prices have risen to a point where others are offering the same or better for less.

I imagine that some part of their price risen have been to keep the restaurants afloat, of course along with the inflation in all costs that every other business has experienced.

Their price rises over the past 5 years have been notably above inflation though, probably for the above reasoning, and it's quite stark in some places. I used to be able to get an outer-London hotel (Perivale being a usual haunt) for £30-60 a night depending on what day of the week it was, now you're lucky getting change out of £100 a night or £200 in Central.

I think they're also going to have to box very clever on what they do about offering some kind of basic evening catering to hotel guests that isn't a vending machine as they will very quickly fall into the same trap that other hotel providers with no evening offering, even if it's just basic and possibly even collect from a service area and take back to room style which I know some on here really dislike but nonetheless, or their hotel business will also crash and burn

So Premier Inn's in-house brand is called Thyme, they're fairly common but the food is notably worse than in their real restaurants. They do the usual breakfast and evening dinner. A few do light lunches and corporate offerings but that's all dependant on whether the hotel has business facilities or not.

It wouldn't surprise me to see more of these in the future with a better food options, but that leads back to the same problem of having bigger menus, more expensive staff in greater numbers, and all of the associated issues.

They should just cut their losses and only offer their (actually very decent) breakfasts in their hotels TBH. I'm not sure why anybody would chose to have their evening meal in a PI Thyme when 9/10 times there are better options within walking distance. Maybe only reserve that for hotels in places like airports or near things like conference centres on industrial parks with limited other options.

It's a shame what the restaurant side has become. When I first started working for them they were a good company who were on the ball with latest trends but that still looked to their heritage and ran by people who genuinely cared. The company got greedy, laid off all of their expensive (but excellent) management and put a load of yes men penny-pinchers in charge and it wen't down hill very quickly.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I imagine that some part of their price risen have been to keep the restaurants afloat, of course along with the inflation in all costs that every other business has experienced.

Their price rises over the past 5 years have been notably above inflation though, probably for the above reasoning, and it's quite stark in some places. I used to be able to get an outer-London hotel (Perivale being a usual haunt) for £30-60 a night depending on what day of the week it was, now you're lucky getting change out of £100 a night or £200 in Central.



So Premier Inn's in-house brand is called Thyme, they're fairly common but the food is notably worse than in their real restaurants. They do the usual breakfast and evening dinner. A few do light lunches and corporate offerings but that's all dependant on whether the hotel has business facilities or not.

It wouldn't surprise me to see more of these in the future with a better food options, but that leads back to the same problem of having bigger menus, more expensive staff in greater numbers, and all of the associated issues.

They should just cut their losses and only offer their (actually very decent) breakfasts in their hotels TBH. I'm not sure why anybody would chose to have their evening meal in a PI Thyme when 9/10 times there are better options within walking distance. Maybe only reserve that for hotels in places like airports or near things like conference centres on industrial parks with limited other options.

It's a shame what the restaurant side has become. When I first started working for them they were a good company who were on the ball with latest trends but that still looked to their heritage and ran by people who genuinely cared. The company got greedy, laid off all of their expensive (but excellent) management and put a load of yes men penny-pinchers in charge and it wen't down hill very quickly.

If I would be trialing a basic cafeteria style, menu of sandwiches, salads, jackets, burgers, pizza and a selection of sweet treats along with a basic bar service and seeing how this went down with those that used it. I agree that perhaps their City Centre hotels don't need to bother with it, but there are still plenty of roadside locations or indeed rural locations that it would make sense to do this at if they don't want or can't make a thyme restaurant pay
Incidentally, I've always found that time is better in terms of quality and on average at a midpoint price wise. Although I'll be very sad to see many brewers fares go as they've always been a favourite
The decidedly above average inflation price rises which were a thing even before the pandemic. Need to be looked at though. Or they're going to spend millions of pounds fitting out thousands more hotels and refurbishing ones that are getting the upgrade to match quite possibly only to find that it's too little too late and all of a sudden an 850 odd strong hotel estate goes bang fairly spectacularly

 

[HullRailMan]

In Premier Inn, kids eat free at breakfast. Premier Inn are not a charity food bank, therefore the cost of that free breakfast is being recouped from somewhere. I object to subsidising other people's children so I never buy a breakfast there! As the price for a full cooked breakfast is around the £11 to £13 mark it would be quite easy to find a reasonable sized cooked breakfast for less*. As it happens I can't face an 'all you can eat' breakfast anyway. The continental breakfast isn't a particularly healthy option and at around the £10 mark again a cheaper option is available from any corner shop. For example a Tesco Meal Deal (Sandwich for lunch later, fruit pot and juice for breakfast) does the job for £3.40 (Clubcard prices).

I complete agree with this. I’m a regular at Premier Inn and never pay for the breakfast - why should I (1 adult) pay the same as the next table which has three mouths bring fed? Far more sensible to put in place a ‘kids eat for £x’ offer and reduce the adult price accordingly. A Quaker porridge pot and banana in the room do me fine for less than £1.50!

Sadly, kids eat free offers are all the rage at the moment which essentially discriminated against those of us who don’t/can’t have offspring’s.

 

[johntea]

I've stayed in a Travelodge SuperRoom before, a bit like first class rail travel for me in that if the price is maybe a tenner more than the standard I'll be interested otherwise I'll just survive with the usual

One extra advantage I have noticed with them is they're generally situated on the upper floors so they're less likely to be affected by external noise factors

Premier Inn Breakfast is 'OK' as it includes some continental items as well as the 'cooked' options, and as long as they have a machine free refills of decent hot drinks (I have seem some locations just fail over to flasks though which is nowhere near as good!), it does strike me as rather amusing how some locations guard the breakfast area like a millitary operation to ensure only paid guests are getting in while sometimes they just leave it wide open and you can sneak in without having actually paid a penny for it!

 

[Cross City]

Far more sensible to put in place a ‘kids eat for £x’ offer and reduce the adult price accordingly.

They did look into this at one point when I was at Whitbread. Having kids eat for free subsided by the price of the adult breakfasts brings in more money than charging for kids and reducing the cost of an adults breakfast.

Around 50% of adult hotel users over the course of a week have their breakfasts paid for them by their company as they're on business trips, but the free kids breakfasts fill out the hotel restaurants of a weekend with families (not just hotel stayers either, PI breakfasts are popular with locals too).

They'd definitely be shooting themselves in the foot charging for kids breakfasts. It's also not discriminatory.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Where perhaps PI could improve. Is the provision perhaps of being able to sell breakfasts to walk in guests off the street at hotels with the thyme restaurant concept in house? This might make them some money if they're in City locations near transport hubs such as airports and bus stations where people might have considerably just arrived or be about to depart and want good value but better quality breakfast option then Greg's or spoons

Someone up thread touched on Travelodge Superooms

I find that these actually pay if you're going to spend a lot of time in the room. For example, if you're a business traveller hybrid working round several events or meetings, for example, although where I think they perhaps need to improve slightly on the design is a bigger desk. Although this is my complaint in a lot of hotels at the moment where the current minimalist room designs have put the desk and working surface on the bit of a weight loss program in several brands

 

[AlterEgo]

I complete agree with this. I’m a regular at Premier Inn and never pay for the breakfast - why should I (1 adult) pay the same as the next table which has three mouths bring fed? Far more sensible to put in place a ‘kids eat for £x’ offer and reduce the adult price accordingly. A Quaker porridge pot and banana in the room do me fine for less than £1.50!

Sadly, kids eat free offers are all the rage at the moment which essentially discriminated against those of us who don’t/can’t have offspring’s.

Kids stay for free at Premier Inn with a full paying adult. Every time you're staying at Premier Inn you're subsidising children anyway, if this is the sort of reductive turbo-thrift logic you want to dig yourself into a trench with!

 

[Cross City]

Where perhaps PI could improve. Is the provision perhaps of being able to sell breakfasts to walk in guests off the street at hotels with the thyme restaurant concept in house? This might make them some money if they're in City locations near transport hubs such as airports and bus stations where people might have considerably just arrived or be about to depart and want good value but better quality breakfast option then Greg's or spoons

This has always been a thing. Anybody off the street can walk into a PI restaurant of any brand, even Thyme, and get a breakfast.

Obviously hotel guests get priority over table bookings and suchlike but if there's room in the restaurant they will serve you.

There is nothing stopping anybody calling up and PI and booking a table for breakfast. All PI reception staff have access to the attached restaurant's table booking system.

 

[Belperpete]

PI are definitely the better quality, but they also charge significantly more. My go-to brand is Ibis, which is slightly less plush but significantly cheaper. Note that I am talking "standard" (red) Ibis, not the budget (blue) Ibis, which is pretty much the same as TL. There is a budget Ibis at Heathrow that was all too obviously a TL previously, all they have done is taken off the TL name outside and replaced it with Ibis - everything else unchanged! I actually had to check with the receptionist that it was an Ibis. Likewise the budget PIs are nothing like the usual PIs.

I think all PI were built from new, although can have very different feels. One I stayed in had a very Crossroads Motel vibe! Whereas a lot of TLs and Ibis have been converted from something else, so there can be a lot of differences between hotels. One TL in Croydon used to be an office block, and has absolutely massive rooms. I think a lot of the Ibis hotels (and other Accor brands) are actually franchises, owned by someone else but run under the Accor brands.

TL charging for internet is surely a minor niggle - I just use my mobile data.

If you want a cooked breakfast or evening meal with Ibis or TL, you have to be sure to book a hotel with a restaurant - not all have them. I find the cooked breakfasts at TL just as good as those at PI (a cooked breakfast is a cooked breakfast), and at a standard £9.95 significantly cheaper than PI. Cooked breakfasts at Ibis equally good, but the prices are inconsistent from one hotel to another, and can be more expensive than PI - however you can usually get them cheaper if you book the night before (but they don't seem to advertise that much for some reason). Standards generally consistent across the brands, but as with everything there are outliers, and dependent on how busy they are.

All 3 chains being discussed operate dynamic pricing, with prices varying quite dramatically from day to day, and also going both up and down over time. You can therefore sometimes get a better deal in a PI - always worth checking. Also worth checking that prices haven't gone down, on one occasion the rate at an Ibis dropped from £120 to £70 a night, so I rebooked at the better rate.

 

[jon81uk]

So Premier Inn's in-house brand is called Thyme, they're fairly common but the food is notably worse than in their real restaurants. They do the usual breakfast and evening dinner. A few do light lunches and corporate offerings but that's all dependant on whether the hotel has business facilities or not.

It wouldn't surprise me to see more of these in the future with a better food options, but that leads back to the same problem of having bigger menus, more expensive staff in greater numbers, and all of the associated issues.

They should just cut their losses and only offer their (actually very decent) breakfasts in their hotels TBH. I'm not sure why anybody would chose to have their evening meal in a PI Thyme when 9/10 times there are better options within walking distance. Maybe only reserve that for hotels in places like airports or near things like conference centres on industrial parks with limited other options.

I would agree with this, there probably isn't much point them offering evening meals in some locations and in the more rural ones they would be better off branding it as a full Beefeater and encouraging more external diners.

There used to be a much bigger difference between Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, maybe ten years ago it felt like Beefeater refocused on being a decent steakhouse but more recently has just gone back to cheap ingrediants, I only try them when they email a 40% off voucher, I don't feel its worth full price.

 

[dorsetdesiro]

Yes, like Ibis, think Premier Inn also has sub-branded hotels - not sure if these are experimental to be converted back or closed down once the trialling is over.

These are compact urban hotels with tiny rooms in city centres also basic Easyhotel style hotels like that one I think is in a Cardiff industrial estate.

 

[Cross City]

Yes, like Ibis, think Premier Inn also has sub-branded hotels - not sure if these are experimental to be converted back or closed down once the trialling is over.

These are compact urban hotels with tiny rooms in city centres also basic Easyhotel style hotels like that one I think is in a Cardiff industrial estate.

PI "Hub" hotels have been around for several years, they're definitely here to stay.

Only stayed in one once but found it more than fine tbh, small but nice enough room with their usual bed.

I don't usually find the saving staying at a "Hub" worth it over choosing a normal PI hotel. The rates often aren't that much cheaper.

 

[X-City-WM]

I would agree with this, there probably isn't much point them offering evening meals in some locations and in the more rural ones they would be better off branding it as a full Beefeater and encouraging more external diners.

There used to be a much bigger difference between Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, maybe ten years ago it felt like Beefeater refocused on being a decent steakhouse but more recently has just gone back to cheap ingrediants.

Bar + Block is now Whitbread's "premium steakhouse" brand, so I guess they've cheapened Beefeater to give it a different market position.

 

[jon81uk]

Bar + Block is now Whitbread's "premium steakhouse" brand, so I guess they've cheapened Beefeater to give it a different market position.

I had assumed that brand was only in city centres?

 

[Cross City]

I had assumed that brand was only in city centres?

Nearly all of them are yes. They're quite a different market to most Beefeaters.

See what I was talking about about brand confusion

 

[jon81uk]

Nearly all of them are yes. They're quite a different market to most Beefeaters.

See what I was talking about about brand confusion

They should be able to maintain the three brands done properly, Brewers Fayre is cheap family friendly pub classics, Beefeater focuses on steaks plus some other dishes, Bar + Block is a premium city centre steak restaurant.

Mitchell & Butlers have managed to keep lots of brand identies very well, Stonehouse, Harvester, Toby Carvery, Brown's, Miller & Carter, Nicholsons, All Bar One. They all have different menus and identities. Whereas Whitbread have opted to go in the other direction and serve the same bland rubbish everywhere.