Premier Inn Blackpool (North Pier)

Location: Highly convenient proximity to Blackpool Train Station, Winter Gardens, North Pier, Blackpool Tower, and the beach .(based on 1 review)

We've been to a premier inn before and this one was better than the last, building seems newer, the staff were so helpful and attentive from reception to breakfast staff, even the odd one you meet in the lifts always said hello, good morning. The food at the restaurant was top notch. The beds were comfy, quiet and a Seaview as well. The only drawback was having 1 working lift out of three when we stayed but that was down to work being done.

You always know it’s going to be a different kind of stay when you arrive at your hotel and get told they lock the doors at 9pm due to the town centre location… Of course, this is a covert commentary on what the area is like at night and has nothing to do with the ‘town centre’ location at all. We’ve stayed in many premier inns across the country in similar locations and never had this sort of restriction. Obviously you can gain entry with your keycard so it’s not as if you are locked out past 9pm but the whole thing is a little off putting and makes you wonder what trouble they’ve had in the past. Now I will admit here that I didn’t read any prior reviews on this property and I definitely should have because directly opposite is a night club. Said night club is open from 10pm - 4am every night (including Sundays, or so the advertisement says out front) and if you are as unfortunate as we were you’ll get a room directly across from this venue. On the plus side the black out curtains do block out the flashing lights on the facade of the club, on the not so plus side the noise is not dampened much by the window glazing so the usual premier inn promise of a good nights sleep is null and void here. We were lucky enough on our second night for the club not to open, perhaps they realised how silly it is to open for minimal patrons, who knows but I’ll take a bit of luck where I can get it. The room itself felt small and the floor was quite uneven and creaky. The bed was terribly uncomfortable and again creaked and groaned the moment you tried to turn over. We tried the attached restaurant (the three piers) for dinner one night and though the food was lovely we had a bit of a false start with who we assume was the manager. We were asked upon arrival if we had booked which we hadn’t, and then were quickly told they were understaffed and only had 2 tables free as they were fully booked. Personally I don’t feel like this is the correct way to welcome people, making them feel like a nuisance. We were there for all told 1hr 30 and there were lots of empty tables that were never seated, so I have no idea what the issue was. The only positives of this hotel is the seafront location and the friendly check in staff who were very pleasant to deal with. I know people will say ‘why didn’t you raise these issues with the staff at the time’ but really, we were only staying a couple of nights so there was no point in having the hassle of moving rooms. If we were staying longer we would have. But for these reasons this is not a hotel we would consider staying at again.