Budget hotels discussion

[BuhSnarf]

Will be interesting to see what reputation "Queensway Inns" gets. "Best" Western has long been on my avoid list as they're usually tired and expensive; I put them in the same category as "the democratic republic of X" in that if you have to state it it probably isn't.

Yep, I've similar thoughts about Best Western and in fact the one it took over was a very old style Premier Inn that never had the best reputation.

 

[WelshBluebird]

Looks like Premier Inn have picked up a hotel near Cabot Circus in Bristol from Future Inns, quite interesting since PI already have three other city centre hotels both within a 10/15 min walk of the new place.
I guess they did lose one by the bus station given that tower has been demolished now but still seems quite a lot!

 

[route101]

I stayed in the Premier Inn (West Brompton) and that is an old Holiday inn Express.

I have only ever had breakfast at Premier Inn. I did have some nibbles in the evening and everyone else seemed to be on the meal deal, as the staff were confused why we would order two side dishes with a few drinks.

 

[takno]

Will be interesting to see what reputation "Queensway Inns" gets. "Best" Western has long been on my avoid list as they're usually tired and expensive; I put them in the same category as "the democratic republic of X" in that if you have to state it it probably isn't.

Best Western is definitely one of those brands which are so toxic they'd be better off not being with a network at all. Even the ones which are slightly less tired usually manage to mess it up with rude staff, who often seem to be managing 2 other hotels, a local hostel and several Airbnbs from the one reception desk

 

[Bletchleyite]

Best Western is definitely one of those brands which are so toxic they'd be better off not being with a network at all. Even the ones which are slightly less tired usually manage to mess it up with rude staff, who often seem to be managing 2 other hotels, a local hostel and several Airbnbs from the one reception desk

I think it's the "Evri problem" - if you have franchisees or contractors with loose contracts and poor quality management, your brand ends up being dirt very quickly.

There's no reason a franchised business should have a poor reputation like that - you'd barely know a franchised McD was for example, and many Hilton hotels are operated by partners - but you do need very robust contracts and quality checking and management in place for it to work, so the franchisee/contractor has no incentive at all to cut corners to save money.

 

[DelW]

Best Western is definitely one of those brands which are so toxic they'd be better off not being with a network at all. Even the ones which are slightly less tired usually manage to mess it up with rude staff, who often seem to be managing 2 other hotels, a local hostel and several Airbnbs from the one reception desk

My impression has always been that Best Western is really little more than a booking agency. They seem to impose little standardisation on the individual franchisees, so the quality varies widely. I've stayed in some that were very good, but it ain't always so!

 

[Andyh82]

I recently stayed in a Premier Inn in Reading and this had a Beefeater that was seemingly closed a few years ago and refurbished, maybe as a trial.

Basically think of a rectangle and slice it in two three horizontally. The two parts adjacent to the outside walls is now around 4-5 rooms on each side. The middle part is now a smaller “The Social” in house bar and restaurant. It was just on the ground floor of the building adjacent to reception.

It remains to be seen how they deal with the ones where the pub restaurant was in a separate building.

 

[DelW]

Basically think of a rectangle and slice it in two three horizontally. The two parts adjacent to the outside walls is now around 4-5 rooms on each side. The middle part is now a smaller “The Social” in house bar and restaurant. It was just on the ground floor of the building adjacent to reception.

One advantage of that change might be to produce additional accessible rooms. My late partner had mobility problems and always tried to book an accessible ground floor room, but some hotels had very few if any available. She couldn't manage stairs, and was always worried about the possibility of an evacuation with the lifts unavailable. The contraptions used for getting people downstairs in those circumstances didn't appeal to her at all!

 

[BuhSnarf]

Thanks. Looks like they're aiming to build their own portfolio of "Queensway Inns" then, and that is the branding being used for the restaurants too.

Just drove by on the way back from my daughter's house and the Premier Inn branding appears to have all been replaced with the navy blue Queensway Inn logo.