3-Star Hotels in Chessington

There is no staff working at this hotel. The only time you are graced with the presence of people donning the premier inn uniform is towards the end of breakfast ‘service’ (very loosely termed as there is no service and the buffet is not replenished) . Alas the chef cooks some fresh hot items and you will see the hungry people appear. Needless to say there is no customer service at this hotel. If you want to ring the bell on the reception desk then don’t expect this to immediately beckon a member of the elusive team to you. You will indeed be expected to wait until they can be bothered. There is no housekeeping at this hotel and no fresh towels or tea bags/sugar etc are provided. However if you do require any of these things, please head down to reception to try and conjure a member of staff. Door to the car park downstairs is not easy accessible from the outside due to the unlock/lock function being broken. Please remember to press the button to reception for assistance and BE PATIENT. This could take a while. The lifts frequently break down but you will certainly get your steps in whilst also working those muscles lugging your cases up and down the stairs. Don’t just assume your keycard will work once activated. The keycards get deactivated several times throughout the day. Not to worry though, just pop on down to reception. Remember to ring that bell and BE PATIENT. Car parking is the bargain price of £8 per 24 hours. The receptionist (I know, shockingly we did manage to spot one of these mythical creatures) who checked us in advised that you need to pay at the same time every day using a new scannable token. However on reading the signage you can pay in advance for the whole stay using the app/website. The one redeeming feature of this hotel is the proximity to the train station.

This afternoon: there are (not one but) three cars who have parked in the disabled bays close to the reception door of Premier Inn, Chessington. NONE of these vehicles are displaying a Blue Disabled Badge in their front windscreen. Their owners have decided to be lazy, and occupy disabled parking parking spaces for their own convenience. Thus depriving genuine Blue Badge holders of being able to park & access the front entrance easily. Why do companies like Premier Inn ignore this increasingly illegal situation that is happening more and more everywhere? And such companies just “hope”the general public will be courteous enough to respect “disabled parking bays”. Believe us: until a fine of some sort is slapped on the offenders’ windscreens…. It is, and will keep, happening every where. CHECKREPORTUK.

The first time we ever had a short break away here was in 2012 and it was amazing. On arrival, we were checked in by a person who gave us wristbands and told us everything we needed to know about early park access, breakfast check in, times, and everything you needed to know. We also had access to the walk around the zebra and giraffe (and the other animals) enclosures after the park had closed. Which was amazing. This time around it was completely different. We had to check ourselves in, which also cost an additional £15 for room keys. (which you do have back once you check out) No one behind the counter had informed us that some things had changed, so we went about things like it was back in 2012. On the second day, the day we were supposed to be granted 1 hour early in the park the early access gate was closed and locked. We decided to try the main entrance and after fighting our way to the front of the main entrance and trying to explain to staff that our entrance was closed, we still had to argue with one of the staff members to gain access. By the time we got to someone who was willing to let us in they were letting the public in anyway. So we lost our early access. The park was amazing the staff there were lovely and the rides were great and we really did have a cracking day. At the end of the day when the park had closed, we decided to go back to the hotel and change so we could enjoy the walk among the zebras and other animals. But again, the gate was closed and locked. I went to ask a member of staff on the main desk what was going on and why the gate was locked both times we attempted to use it and was informed that they don't allow hotel guests to have that privilege anymore. I was very disheartened by all this and this probably could have been avoided if we were informed during check in like we were in 2012. I get that it may be easier for some people but why am I doing hotel receptions jobs for them by checking us all in and trying to scramble the Internet and my email inbox to try and find out information. Everything else is fantastic and I really do love this place. They just need to make more effort to inform people about their stay and not just lump us with 100's of emails and expect us to go through them all for one tiny piece of information they could have easily told us in person.