A man claims his stay at one of Weston-super-Mare's Premier Inn hotels was ruined after he ended up having to barricade his family in his room.
Nathan Morrison, from Swansea, was staying at the A370 Premier Inn on Easter Sunday (April 17) when a bunch of 'youths' began to kick at his door. The incident left Mr Morrison and his family fearing for their safety, with a chair propped up against the door to help stop any intruders from entering, reports Somerset Live.
Mr Morrison told Somerset Live: "We checked in at around 8pm on Sunday night. A few hours later - around midnight - we heard commotion coming from a nearby room. We understood that this is fairly common, so did not think anything of it.
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"They then began hammering at our front door and shouting to be let in. They also began kicking it. We were worried. I then had to prop a chair up against the door and sit on it for around 20 minutes to prevent them from getting in. We tried getting through to the hotel staff, but our calls went unanswered."
Mr Morrison said he could hear the fighting and arguing calm down eventually, at which point he decided to head to the reception. He found a single member of staff, who had already alerted the police about the behaviour of the guests and said they had already been asked to leave the premises. The staff member then walked Morrison back to his room.
He added: "I sat on the chair for another hour before going to bed. We eventually managed to get to sleep at around 4am. We're a young family and we were not provided with a safe place to stay."
A spokesperson for Premier Inn has since confirmed that police eventually arrived to evict the noisy neighbours, and have written a formal apology to Mr Morrison.
The letter read: "Please accept our sincere apologies for any disappointment encountered during your recent visit to our Weston-Super-Mare East (A370) hotel. At Premier Inn, we strive to provide a high standard of service and we are sorry to learn that on this occasion we have failed to achieve this.
"We were most concerned to learn of the unfortunate incident that occurred during your stay where you have advised that you believe another guest in the hotel was dealing drugs from their room. We are also very sorry a situation arose where your door was damaged causing you to barricade yourself in overnight as there were no other rooms available in the hotel for you and your family to relocate.
"Please be assured that we do take such matters very seriously and therefore, we have requested a thorough investigation be undertaken by the regional operations manager. We have been advised the guest was not dealing drugs but was smoking an illegal substance whilst in their room.
"As you may be aware, the odour from such a substance is very distinctive and upon the night team member performing their corridor checks it was established the odour was coming from this guest’s room. Our rooms are fitted with sensitive smoke alarms however, this had been covered and therefore, the main alarm board in the back office of reception had not been triggered.
"The guest was approached on several occasions to request them to leave the hotel for the safety of all guests and team members however, they refused to do so. In line with company policy, the police were requested to attend and unfortunately, due to matters beyond our control, there was a delay in the police attending.
"Action has also been taken whereby the guest is no longer able to return to a Premier Inn hotel in future. It is also regrettable that an alternative room could not be provided for you due to the full occupancy in the hotel that night. Please be assured this is not a regular occurrence at this hotel and every endeavour is made to ensure the safety of both staff, and guests at all times.
"Whilst it is practice for this site to operate with one night team member, as the hotel is generally a quiet property, all night team members are fully trained in how to deal with difficult situations, with full emergency access to the police should they be required. Please be assured that full risk assessments are undertaken at all Premier Inns and the rota for team members on duty is considered with these risks taken into consideration.
"By way of apology for any upset caused, we have issued a full refund of the cost of your stay and £94 has been reimbursed back to the card used for payment. Please rest assured our guest and team members’ safety is of paramount importance to us and every effort was made by our night team member to ensure this issue was handled in line with company policy. However, it was unfortunate that the police were unable to attend to the hotel in a speedy timeframe."
Avon and Somerset Police have since confirmed that their officers did attend to evict the guests, but they were not present at the premises. The officers reported no disclosed offences.
