Premier Inn Abingdon (A34)

After reading some damning google reviews, my expectations of this particular Premier Inn were low. I was very pleasantly surprised, and aside from the restaurant closure in the evening (which I was warned of several weeks in advance) everything was exactly as I'd expect. The staff were very friendly, it was clean and well maintained. I quite frequently stay in Premier Inns and it is the only occasion I've witnessed a member of staff bring a diner their toast from the dreaded toaster at breakfast !

Checked in, went to my room only to find it had been half cleaned, mud allover the carpet, mud on the duvet cover and a long hair on my pillow. Spoke to the manager who changed my room only after she went to the room to check. Threw my things into the next room as I was now late for a lunch meeting. Came back to my new room for a shower only to find the entire plug hole full of hair...most of which was at least 12 inches long from the previous room occupancy. Complained to a different manager who apologised amd went off to get me a formal card with email details of the complaint department, she came back 10 minutes later and said they had ran out of cards... This place is less than a year old and it's vile. The restaurant is closed as the staff have quit as well plus there's absolutely ZERO phone network within the building. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BOOK A STAY AT PREMIER INN ABINGDON

Where to start? On arrival on Saturday 23rd November, around 3.30pm we were booked in, to find out that we had to pay parking. We had booked the breakfast package, and had intended to book the evening meal whilst there, however, the restaurant was not opening until 6pm, so we would not have had time to eat in, so decided to eat in Oxford as we were headed to a show. We asked what time the bar closed, and were assured that it would be open until at least 11, if not later. We arrived back at 10.40pm, to find no staff anywhere, and the bar had closed. Having driven into Oxford, we were looking forward to a nightcap, but this was not to be. After abut 10 minutes of ringing, knocking and calling, we finally found a young lad, who, although apologetic, informed us that the staff were "tired" and had gone home. We went to bed, looking forward to our pre-paid cooked breakfast, only to exit the lift, to see a note stuck to the picture, stating that because there was no chef, there would be no cooked breakfast. To say we were a little shocked and angry, is an understatement. The staff member initially was a little non committal and said to speak to the "guy over there" motioning with his head to the bar - where there was no staff member. We manged to get some more teabags and milk, and went back up to the room to pack. When we came down again, we spoke to a different member of staff (James I believe) who was equally as shocked that the bar staff had gone early the previous night, and who assured us that we would be refunded for the breakfast. He gave us a guest relations card and asked us to get in contact. As I said before, we were shocked and angry that Premier Inn did not have a contingency in place, or able to offer an instant refund of the breakfast cost. It's seriously made me re-think my hotel choices in the future, and would now probably stay elsewhere if given the choice. Not good enough for a National chain.