BBC star livid as Premier Inn staff didn't clean his room because he didn't ask
A Premier Inn guest returned to his room after a day out only to discover it hadn't been cleaned.
Paul Lewis, who hosts Money Box on BBC Radio 4, called out the hotel chain for not sprucing up his room. The irate journalist asked hotel staff why a tidying up had not taken place, only to be told that they only happened on request.
He tweeted: “In @premierinn hotel but after a day’s work no clean towels, no cleaned room, no made bed. I complain but am told I must ask to have my room cleaned. No one told me! I’ve stayed in hotels all over the world and never had to do that. I will never stay @premierinn again. Beware.”
His furious tweet has since sparked a wild debate about the hotel firm, which is generally well regarded when it comes to budget chains. It recently came third in a run-down of the best low-cost hotel companies in the UK.
On the Premier Inn website it notes that guests must ask for room-cleaning at reception and put a hanger on their door before to 12pm. On Twitter/X, many commenters told Lewis about the policy and claimed similar ones were in place at other hotels.
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Premier Inn has a policy where you need to ask for your room to be cleaned during shorter stays (Premier Inn)One user wrote: "To be fair, that is the procedure and it normally says in the folder alongside the menu. If you are staying multiple nights you need to ask for your room to be cleaned."
Another added: "Paul, it’s very common now - I’ve clocked up 35-plus hotel nights this year, mainly in the UK, and the Ibis Hamburg Alster Centrum just this week was the first to service the room daily without asking."
Others sided with the radio presenter, arguing that standards in hotels had slipped in recent years. One person griped: "Customer service is getting worse and worse in every industry." Another agreed with Lewis, that the practice was not normal. They said: "I’ve stayed in hotels in various countries and never ever had to ask for a room to be cleaned. It is purely bad service."
In a survey by Which? Premier Inn was ranked very highly, with its off-shoot brand Hub by Premier Inn coming in second place, just behind Hotel Indigo. The main chain received four stars for cleanliness and five stars for bed comfort and "description matches reality".
A Premier Inn spokesperson said: "For stays more than one night the guest simply has to ask at reception that they would like their room tidied, though we’ve found not having the room tidied daily is popular among people choosing for sustainability reasons. If they choose not to have a daily tidy, their room will automatically be tidied after the sixth night. However, the overwhelming majority of people stay with us for one to two nights anyway, so it’s not applicable to most people.
"Guests can request more towels, tea and coffee and so on at any time and we’ve introduced new ‘help yourself’ stations for guest amenities, where guests can self-serve on things like teabags and milk in some sites."
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