Premier Inn
Continuing the Welsh theme, Neville Blech tries one of a 600 strong hotel chain’s
premium hotels in Cardiff where (almost) “every prospect pleases”. Here’s his report
on Premier Inn Cardiff City Centre Hotel.
I am not a great one for chain hotels, but looking for a suitable hotel in Cardiff
within walking distance of St. David’s Hall, where we were booked to see the final
of the BBC Young Singer of the year competition last month, we decided to plump for
the Cardiff City Centre Premier Inn, which had had good reviews on various travel
websites. At £168 for two nights for two of us including a full cooked breakfast,
the price was quite reasonable, although as I understand it, you can get a room (without
breakfast) for as little as £30 a night under the right conditions.
Compared with other hotels in the vicinity of a similar rating it certainly was one
of the cheapest, certainly much cheaper than the hotel in whose restaurant we had
booked a special meal (but see malessere for this experience!) and only a 5 minute
walk away. In fact, the hotel is only a 5 to 10 minute walk away from everything
that is going on in the centre of Cardiff, bar the Millennium Centre down at Cardiff
Bay and we have already commented on where to stay if you want to see the Welsh National
Opera there.
One rather irritating drawback (but this is true of most hotels in the centre of
Cardiff) is the lack of car parking space. Car parking in the centre of Cardiff is
expensive – up to £25 a day, but we understood that The Premier Inn had a special
deal with an NCP car park just across the road for £10 a night instead of the full
charge of £16. Finding the entrance to this car park needs a degree in orienteering
but we finally made it, although it was a bit hairy having to schlep our suitcases
across two busy road junctions and up a flight of stairs in, as it so happened, rather
blustery conditions, to get to the hotel lobby.
Once in, we were met by friendly staff, who assisted us through the automatic check
in machines to get us to our quiet room (as we did ask for this on the booking form)
on the 8th floor of the hotel. We had driven down from London and arriving just after
2 p.m. we enquired if we could have lunch. We were told that the restaurant in the
hotel is not open for lunch, but we might be able to get a snack of some sort. After
waiting for 10 minutes or so we were told that there was no food available so that
was that.
Our room was spacious and comfortable with TV and coffee making facilities and a
very comfortable bed. Internet access was extra and not cheap either which was another
irritation especially as the trend is world wide to offer free internet access these
days. The bathroom and bath was a good size and the towels were large enough to accommodate
fat people like me.
We didn’t try the hotel restaurant – a glance at the menu showed nothing of excitement
but of course, the execution of the dishes may have been superb. Breakfast, however,
was good and plentiful, a definite cut above chain hotel standards where they did
make special efforts to cater for vegetarians and other odd eaters. Not, of course
in the same league as say, Tyddyn Llan in North Wales, or McMenamin’s Townhouse in
Wexford, Ireland, but these are exceptional places with exceptional breakfasts.
There is a bit of a lack of lounge space to sit around and meet people although there
is a dedicated business meeting room but I am not sure whether this is available
at an extra cost or not.
All in all a good stay and a place I would certainly recommend if staying in the
centre of Cardiff with few real niggles. But the parting niggle was when we came
to pay the car park. We had expected to pay £20 for the 2 days we stayed but actually
paid, via their automatic machine, nearly £28. When we enquired with the car park
attendant (when we finally found one) he explained that we were only entitled to
a 15% discount from the full rate by staying at the hotel. I wish that this had
been made clear to us by the hotel from the start but it was not.
Premier Inn Cardiff City Centre
10 Churchill Way, Cardiff CF10 2NB
T: 0871 527 8196
F: 0871 527 8197
Ratings
Accommodation 45
Breakfast 12
Service 7
Ambience 4
Value for money 13
Total 81
