Sunderland City Centre

Good location - 10 minute walk from Main Station and close to shops, restaurant bars. Staff friendly and helpful. Standard Premier Inn rooms - basic but clean and comfortable beds. If you've stayed at any other Premier Inn, you know what to expect. If you haven't it's a reliable basic hotel chain.

For some reason I found this Premier Inn a bit lacklustre. Check in was somewhat slow- both check in machines were out of order so I had to wait until the receptionist was free. That took longer than average as she had to go elsewhere for some reason. To use the lift you need your room card. My room was on the third floor . There was a socket next to the bed to charge my phone although I didn't find it at first as it was hidden by the bedside table. There was a couch in front of the window which meant drawing and opening the curtains was a bit fiddly. The aircon was on and the room was cold. I turned it up to 24 but that had no effect whatsoever in raising the temperature. It all felt a bit dowdy and in need of a complete refurb. However the worst aspect of my visit was the reason I had chosen this hotel- a free breakfast. We had had a very tasty breakfast last year at a PI at Gatwick Airport so I was looking forward to it. The only other guests when I arrived were two young men. They insisted on conversing with me in very loud voices when all I wanted was to eat in peace. They went outside to smoke and banged on the window to attract attention. They were causing problems with the lady on duty to the extent I would have called security and got them to leave. All in all I did not enjoy my stay especially and would not return

15 of us were spending a weekend at Beamish and stayed here on Saturday night. We had intended to have dinner together at the hotel, but on arrival, we were told this was not possible, as someone had failed to put an order in, and there was no food. We found this amazing. We were also told that we couldn’t have breakfast until 8.45 am on Sunday as the restaurant was full. As we had to be back at Beamish before 10, this was not suitable. We were also told that if we came down earlier we were welcome to some food and take it to reception and have it on our knees. This is simply not good enough. 6 of us decided to go out to eat, it discovered on Sunday that everyone who stayed behind had managed to get a meal. Seems the only thing they were short of was staff! We did go down about 8.15 for breakfast and we were told that tables had been reserved for us after all. My room was clean and warm, but found that the hairdryer wasn’t working, which was a bit of a pain, but the poor experience with the restaurant was more than disappointing. I hope that when I stay at your Headingley hotel in 10 days things will be a bit better.