Radio 4 presenter Paul Lewis tweeted: 'I will never stay @premierinn again'.
Radio 4 presenter Paul Lewis tweeted: 'I will never stay @premierinn again'.
A BBC journalist has posted a scathing tweet targeting Premier Inn, revealing that he would never stay at the hotel chain again after he returned after a day of working to a room that had not been cleaned.
Paul Lewis, who hosts Money Box on BBC Radio 4, 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 chain.
Premier Inn does say on its website that hotel guests must ask for room-cleaning at reception and hang a door hanger on their door prior to 12pm.
Multiple X users pointed out the Premier Inn’s policy to Lewis, with others revealing that the hotel chain’s approach is actually quite common.
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.
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, meanwhile, commented: “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.”
However, other users chimed in with the radio host, saying that they have noticed a decline in standards.
One person tweeted: “Customer service is getting worse and worse in every industry.”
Another agreed, writing: “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.”
The tourism and hospitality struggle is real; some hotel rooms are not being serviced daily because of staff shortages. Photo / Getty Images
This year, Premier Inn was named the second-best hotel chain in the UK by Which?, with an overall customer satisfaction score of 75 per cent, Daily Mail reports.
The chain received four stars for cleanliness and five stars for bed comfort and “description matches reality”.
A Premier Inn spokesperson revealed: “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.”
