An angry mum travelling North for her daughter's graduation has warned other parents to check they might be in for a nasty surprise if they have booked into Premier Inn's newest Durham hotel.
Sam Jones, from Staffordshire, is heading to the city with her husband Rob to celebrate with their daughter Megan as she graduates in geography from Durham University. But Sam says if it wasn't for a chance comment made by her daughter's roommate, she and Rob may have been scrambling for suitable accommodation at the last minute, despite booking a room in Premier Inn's Milburngate hotel at the end of 2022.
The couple made the two-night booking for July 3 and 4 on December 28, knowing the city would be packed as families travelled from all around the UK to watch the prestigious university's latest graduation ceremonies. They filed the confirmation and looked forward to celebrating Megan's big day without the stress of finding for a hotel room when everything started to fill up as the date approached.
"We booked it and didn't think much more about it," said Sam. "But then Megan's housemate, whose parents were also booked in to the Milburngate Premier Inn, said that her parents had received an email to say that the hotel would not be ready for their stay.
Read more: A fifth of Durham University graduates facing delay in receiving degree results
"When Megan told us, we spent hours on the phone to Premier Inn and was eventually told that we will be transferred to the group's hotel on Belmont Industrial Estate, which is absolutely not what we wanted," said Sam. "Luckily, we managed to sort out a stay in the Marriott in the city at a reasonable price, as we really wanted to stay in the city. But it has still cost us more money than we planned to spend.
"Premier Inn did eventually email us but we wonder how many more parents were left scrabbling for a room if they wanted to stay in the city centre rather than on an industrial estate. And of course, with less than a month before the graduation when we found out, hotel prices in Durham had jumped as they filled up."
And the Joneses are not the only ones annoyed at the sudden change of plan forced upon them by Premier Inn, with others taking to review site Trip Adviser to vent their frustration.
Lucy J advised people not to book. She said: "Booked this in December for three nights to go to my daughter’s graduation - cancelled one month before graduation and offered an alternative on an industrial park outside of Durham. The hotel has been accepting bookings and then cancelling for over a year now. Can’t book anywhere else as everywhere in the centre of the city is now booked or £1000s."
And Louise T described the hotel listing as 'awful and misleading', saying "We were meant to be stopping for our daughter’s graduation beginning of July 2023, only to chance upon the Premier Inn website information that the reservations we had made would NOT be met because this hotel isn’t due to open until September 2023!! Like many others, I think we would have only been told days before our intended booking that we were not able to stay in the city hotel and offered an alternative hotel miles away from the city centre. It is disgraceful of Premier Inn to allow bookings to be taken, knowing this hotel is not fit for purpose as it is still under construction."
Sam said: " I just think it's really poor and has put people to a lot of unnecessary stress. And I hope parents don't turn up for the graduation expecting to stay in Premier Inn's Milburngate hotel as they will struggle to get booked anywhere else now. I wouldn’t stay there again. There’ll be so many other parents going to Durham for the graduations and if they didn’t have the email like me they might not find out until they get there. Some are charging £800 a night. Premier Inn have left it far too late to tell people, surely they knew sooner that it wouldn’t be ready.”
A spokesperson for Whitbread, which owns Premier Inn, said: "Our latest opening in Durham City Centre at Milburngate was originally scheduled to open in 2022 as part of the wider mixed-use redevelopment. Unfortunately, delays delivering the new development have had an impact on when we are able to open the doors and welcome our guests to the new location.
“Whilst we work with the project team to confirm new dates for the opening of the development and our new hotel, our team have been working tirelessly to ensure all of the guests who had made a booking at the hotel have either been booked into a nearby Premier Inn in Durham or in the surrounding area.
“However it can happen that due to high customer demand, the nearest available Premier Inn hotels may be a little way from where guests originally booked to stay. All guests will have been contacted to ensure they have advanced notice of the situation and we do apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused. To minimise any further impacts to our guests we have closed the booking channels to the new Durham Milburngate Premier Inn – and we hope to share positive news on when we will open very soon.”
