Premier Inn Saffron Walden hotel

The hotel itself is a typical Premier Inn, so no complaints with that, it was what we expected. However, the member of staff on reception upon arrival was not the most helpful. And then when we went down for dinner, our table was booked for 18:00, 4 of us, we were the first people in the restaurant but we were in there for 1 hour and 45 minutes, we had a main and the kids had a dessert, the restaurant never at one point got busy. The chef prepared the food and rang the bell numerous times but ended up bringing the food over herself. At breakfast, a lot of the plates, bowls, cups and cutlery were dirty.

Great place to stay. Usual great quality You'd expect from this Chain. They were very short staffed, but the staff worked really hard mucking in and doing all the jobs they could. Behind the bar, Serving, front of house and clearing away. Definitely recommend

The hotel is fairly typical for a Premier Inn, perhaps feeling slightly tired even though the hotel was only built a few years ago. Bed was comfortable, shower/WC fine. There are no views from the hotel as it is on a small commercial site. Plenty of parking. Around 20-30 minutes to walk into town. The restaurant is very poor however. The Beefeater (also owned by Whitbread) closed in July 2024. The restaurant now only serves people staying at the hotel. Many food items on the menu are unavailable even early in the evening. They list 8 bottled beers on the menu but only had Heineken the night we were there. There was only one person working in the kitchen. He looked to be quite efficient, but simply couldn't keep up with the demand. The "waitresses" were also running the front desk. That leads to neither task being done properly. The low levels of stock and staff makes me wonder if the restaurant is being deliberately run down. If so, it is a shame. With no restaurant the hotel becomes a lot less appealing. There is a notice of a planning application to change the internal layout of the hotel. Perhaps that is related to removing the restaurant or moving to breakfast service only? Aldi is nearby for buying snacks and salads, and Costa does breakfast items but it isn't the same as having a restaurant in the hotel. The hotel staff were doing their best, but looked rather "frazzled". There was a fire alarm at 1:30 am. The fire service took 20 minutes to attend (which isn't the hotel's fault of course). No communication to everyone stood outside during the wait, although, as we walked back through the doors there was an apology for "any inconvenience".

Convenient for Stansted airport. Handy as able to walk into town. Disappointed in cleanliness of room and corridors. We stayed here soon after hotel opened about 4 years ago and it was lovely. No standards of cleaning and inspection are really letting it down.

I have stayed at this hotel a number of times. This time we were staying prior to a family wedding. I had recommended it to other members of my family and friends. In the past there have been issues with the restaurant - lack of staff, availability of food. On arrival we were informed that the restaurant was unavailbale that evening (Sunday) and also for hot breakfat on the Monday, due to "a fire in the kitchen." Why was the Permier Inn correspondence System unable to pre warn us of this? Can it be that difficult? What compounded my annoyance was that other members of the extended party were told that the reason for the restaurant being unavailable was due to the chef not turning in. I do not appreciate being lied to. I contacted Premier Inn Guest Relations only to receive a bland response with no recognition of my central complaint.

Reliable good standard of accommodation, clean and comfortable. I was only staying one night on my way to the airport at Stansted. It's a good choice if you have an early flight out of Stansted and you're driving to the airport as it's only about 30 mins to the airport and has free parking. It would be nice if Premier Inn could provide conditioner in the shower. The shampoo/body wash will literally have your hair squeaky clean. Given the profits recorded by Whitbread PLC, you'd think they could afford to provide conditioner for guests. Also a shame that you can't provide this sort of feedback directly to Premier Inn because the 'Contact Us' page on their website won't load properly.