Premier Inn Eastbourne (Polegate)

Had booked at travel lodge as the location was better but one night there on an awful bed was enough. Moved to Premier Inn Polegate and had a great sleep which is always the case with their comfy beds and pillows. I would not have continued with my break had premier inn was not available.

Second stay two years apart. This time dreadful. Staff were very good but room was very tired and showing lack of maintenence as was the shower room which had no functioning extractor fan or heating. So very disappointing. Also the restaurant next door has changed hands and is being run by hotel staff. Again the staff were excellent but the menu was awful particularly for evening service. Too few staff. Poor quality food ingredients. So again very disappointing.

3 or average may be a bit harsh. In truth, we were looked after by friendly staff, slept in a comfortable bed (probably the strongest signature feature of Premier Inns) and had a dinner and (particularly) breakfast which were value for the low prices we paid. Couple of negatives: an odd request on a card in the room to place any recyclable material ‘next to’ the waste paper bin might have been better dealt with by providing an extra bin? The stairs up to our room floor had been incompletely cleaned. Overall, we paid for an unpretentious level of comfort and cuisine, and that was delivered. We would go back.

Great location, near my family in Hailsham, close to Eastbourne. Stayed here many times, would recommend it. The staff are all lovely. Beds comfy, rooms clean,although carpets could do with cleaning ,quiet at night when I was there. Breakfast was good,lots of choice . Lovely staff both mornings, especially Anjie,I think that's her name. Jolly personality, friendly and nothing too much trouble ,great asset to company. Need to get the evening menu sorted,outrageously expensive for a microwave or shoved in oven offering. That's why we went elsewhere.

We received a friendly welcome, he room was clean and at a pleasant temperature, and the bed comfy. However, the room refreshments were very basic and there were no decaffeinated drink options (you had to take these from the dispenser in reception), and some items in the bathroom looked very tired. The room did not have any drinking glasses in it either, you had to ask at reception if you wanted some. When asked about gluten free foods, the receptionist said they had gluten free cereal and bread available for breakfast, but didn't know about any others such as sausages or hash browns. She also said we would have to ask in the restaurant about gluten free options for dinner. The menu in the room did show vegan and vegetarian food options but no gluten free ones. Being a vegan or vegetarian is merely a lifestyle choice, if you need gluten free food it is because you will be ill if you eat gluten, and it is extremely irritating to be given no information on gluten free foods on a menu. The kitchen in the restaurant (in the 'pub' next door) closed at 8.45pm. We would have expected it to close at 9pm and it was annoying that the only hot food option we could see within easy walking distance was McDonalds - which we don't like. We had to make do with cold food from the Asda Express in the petrol station which was a disappointing end to a long day. In addition, the two beer pumps we saw in the 'pub/restaurant' had towels thrown over them indicating they were out of use, so there only seemed to be bottled beer in the 'pub/restaurant', and only one of those was a real ale.

We arrived at 6.00 pm this eveningand Alex showed us to table 15. Throughout our time there my wife and I were the only customers, with no one at the bar either. We have frequented this restaurant almost monthly for 5 years or more when it was called the Treacle Well, owned by Whitbread. Before now we had nothing but praise for it in all respects. Tonight was our first return since the Premier Inn took direct control over this and nearly all the 'attached' restaurants nationally. In our opinion, a very bad move. - The menu was reasonably priced but only a few options were available for each course. - Even with no one in the restaurant and my wife not having a starter, my starter of Chicken Goujons took 23 minutes to arrive, and then only when I had to get up to enquire with the waiter when it was going to be ready. - The chips came already salted with my wife's main course, whereas she normally opts to add salt herself for health reasons. She was not given this option. - Her pizza was nothing special but not bad either. - Although the taste of my Chicken Makhani curry was good, the chicken was rubbery and hard to chew as if it had been overcooked. - The picture on the wall showed a garnish of perhaps corriander or parsley on the curry, and also a spoon. There was no garnish on my curry and no spoon was offered. - My wife ordered a Fruit Salad which was good. - I ordered an ice cream with wafers & chocolate sprinkles which came without the sprinkles. - At no time during the evening did Alex, or anyone else, come and ask if everything was satisfactory! Before Alex (the waiter) went away, my wife brought the missing sprinkles to his attention. He went away & returned with the news they had run out. It was here that I asked to speak with Alex as things had not been ideal. Instead, he shook his head and walked away! I followed straight after him to where he had stopped to talk with another member of staff around the corner, and started to say to him that not everything was down to him and he walked away again into the kitchen, not wanting to engage! Alex was new there, but walking away from a customer twice, who only wanted to constructively help him understand what went wrong so as to help things improve, was inexplicable, unwarranted and downright rude. Naturally we then had to escalate this and make his manager aware. Mia was very understanding and our conversation was mutually beneficial. We left just after 8.00 pm and still appeared to be the only customers in there. As we are pre-booked in the restaurant for 2 breakfasts and 1 more dinner while we stay in the Premier Inn hotel next door, we hope that things may now improve.