Southport (Ormskirk)

This is the best premier inn, the staff are outstanding! They reply to emails and always ensure our needs are met. We are regular customers here. The rooms are kept very clean,excellently maintained and comfortable. Parking is easy and feels safe.

I booked into this Premier Inn, Southport (Ormskirk) with my mum from the 23rd of December to the 3rd of January. I booked an accessible room for the whole period except for one night when it was already booked. The accessibility room was excellent the bed was the right height for my mum to get on and off, and the bedding was lovely and cosy. The bathroom was very well designed for a person with mobility issues. The bedroom had plenty of space for my mum to get around with her mobility aides. All the staff, reception staff, and cleaners were so helpful and supportive throughout our stay. My main issue, was when I tried to book online the accessibility room was not available for one night, however, the system told me there was no availability for the whole period from the 23rd to the 3rd. It was only when I decided to ring the Inn directly that I found out I wasn't able to book because the accessibility room had already been booked for ONE night out of the 11. The receptionist (Wendy) who I spoke to was extremely helpful and explained to me that the room was available for 10 of the 11 nights I wanted to stay and that for the night it was booked I would have to book a standard double room. The Premier Inn booking system doesn't allow the members of staff at the Inn to book rooms for you, so I spoke to someone at the booking /central office. Unfortunately, they didn't understand the issue that I had and that I needed to make three separate bookings. Because the member of staff at the Premier Inn Southport (Ormskirk) had done such an excellent job of explaining the system to me I had the confidence to then go online and make my 3 separate bookings. As I have already stated the staff were so helpful and supportive.

(This is the Premier Inn on Southport Road in Scarisbrick, halfway between Southport and Ormskirk.) Excellent in most ways – well maintained, everything works, and the beds are very comfortable. Next door is a Beefeater restaurant called the Morris Dancers that is the restaurant for the hotel. You can get a meal deal at reception that costs £27.50 for dinner and breakfast, all very good. Pity there is no lift. The building is only 2-storey, and my wife and I have no accessibility problems, so we were all right, but I can see this being a problem for some people. The only major problem is comms. My wife and I both found our tablets connected to the hotel wi-fi easily, but then you need to register. I never got a prompt to do this, so couldn't access the Internet throughout our 2-night stay. My wife did manage to register, but still only got very slow and intermittent access. As for mobile phones, I had to go out to the car park for that to work. The hotel receptionist said this is a known problem – it's a "dead spot" all along that road. He gave no indication that Premier Inn are trying to solve the problem. Can I suggest they should install landlines? An old-fashioned solution, but if nothing else works maybe necessary. What do you do if you have an emergency in the middle of the night?

Staff were helpful and friendly. Room was cold on the first night and had to keep air con on full blast all day to keep a reasonable temp after. Squeaky floors are noisy You have to let staff know if you want your room cleaned/fresh towels, it's not automatic here! Twin bed was not nice, couldn't sleep on it as so uncomfortable. Double bed was great and as expected from premier inn. We stayed on the ground floor of the main/original building so other rooms on 1st floor or the newer building may be better.

The best experience!!! You never know when you hire staff if they are genuine caring people, Janet is! She cares about guests happiness and experience and goes above and beyond. I had no way of getting any coins for the pool next door and it is the day after Boxing Day (most people would be down in the dumps to be back in work). In the restaurant I had asked the staff, to which they explained they did not do cash back which is completely fair. I thought I would check with the premier inn just in case. Janet gave me two pound coins of her own money simply to see me smile. What a wonderful act of kindness to receive nothing back in return. Give this lady a raise! Thank you Janet, I hope you receive the best wonderful good Karma and Merry Christmas!! I hope management know what an asset Janet is to the team!!

Check-in was easy enough, handled by a lovely lady very efficiently. However, the corporate money-grabbing kicked in and we were charged £10 for a (＜1 hour) early check in. Had to pay this as we were in a hurry. Our room was spacious and clean throughout. The shower was one of those 'over-the-bath' types. Got the water to the correct temperatuture through the bath taps, but was greeted with a brief shower of freezing water as I turned the valve to feed the shower. Brrrr! No worries - just a shock - it soon warmed up! Only significant issue was that there were only two small, flat pillows in the room. The manager who checked us in was also very helpful, calling us a taxi to our venue. She couldn't have done more to be amenable. Our breakfast was lovely and taken in the adjacent pub/restaurant. A very pleasant staff member greated us. Food and coffee decious. My main gripe was the £10 charge for early check-in to our room that was already serviced and ready. Absolutely shocking, sharp practice by the company. There are no obvious, transparent mentions of this charge when booking. No mention of it on my original booking confirmation either. Probably hidden away somewhere in the T&Cs - so, granted, my bad for not reading them. Leaves a bad taste, which Is the main reason for giving a two-star rather than a four-star review. I cannot abide this snide way of getting more ££s out of cutomers. It wasn't as though our room had to be specially prepped as it was ready and waiting! Shame on you Whitbread Group PLC/Premier Inn.