Another day and another new Premier Inn appears. This time it’s Lichfield that benefits. This delightful little city in the Heart of England gets a new build hotel and restaurant from England’s most popular hotel chain. It was worth the stay to see how the brand is evolving. Many will be relieved to hear that it really isn’t, although the owners are developing a new segment with their ‘Hub’ brand, which I have yet to be invited to see.This new build, open 6 weeks when I visited, epitomises much of what makes the brand such an effective player in the hotel game. Triple glazed windows ensure that their promise of a great night’s sleep or your money back is not broken by external noises. The brand ensures that they give the guest the most comfortable nights too using Hypnos beds, perhaps the best hotel beds in the market (although the organic beds of Naturalmat are a strong competitor for that title too).
Good blackout ensures that the darkness is broken by little other than standby lights on TV and smoke detector. The bathroom has both a bathtub and a shower even though the shower is above the bath – but this is a budget brand that booked in advance sells for low, low, prices (£48 for two on a Saturday night). The presence of both bathtub and shower shames those supposedly better hotels that see the youth market or the business traveller as their target market, and offer a shower only – forgoing attracting older guests,families with children or simply the 30% OF TRAVELLERS WHO SAY THEY WANT A BATHTUB!
Sorry to shout, but it does annoy me that accounting decisions can hold more sway than guest preferences from people who pretend they are in the hospitality business. It’s OK, appropriate even, if you are an urban youth oriented chain who put the emphasis on communal areas such as Citizen M. There, small bedrooms encourage the target market to leave the room and socialise, but why oh why do supposed luxury chains seek to go down this route? Do they really think that impecunious youth is going to choose them?
