Premier Inn Southend On Sea (Eastern Esplanade)

Lovely big clean room with tea/coffee making facilities plus a sea view which I hadn't expected. Parking is £7 for 24 hours payable on leaving - voucher to scan to enable payment is given on check in. Staff friendly. Usual Premier Inn standard which is a compliment.

The room had a side sea view, which was nice, and was pretty clean - also ✅. Hotel reception were good - when they were there! Change in who now provides food and operates the bar - really poor! Breakfast was average, or below. Food was not hot, Luke warm at best. The fried eggs - we overheard a lot of complaints; like rubber etc. They did look awful, so we didn't have any. The bar: Doesn't open until 5pm, therefore you aren't able to sit in the lounge/bar area during the day for a lunchtime drink of any kind, alcoholic or not! So basically, stay in your room! Also, they will not serve non residents!! We had a social gathering Friday night, and Saturday night and residents had to buy the non residents any drinks they had, as the staff were not allowed to serve them drinks OR food!!! What a ridiculous policy!? Really unwelcoming and inconvenient. Unless they change back to Brewer's Fayre, or something similar, we'll find somewhere more accommodating and reasonable to stay!! Which, btw, many people were saying - so you are going to loose a lot of customers with these policies!!

I inadvertently left behind a pair of shoes . After realizing I had left the shoes in the room, I called the hotel directly at approximately 6AM from Southend Airport and spoke with the night porter. He assured me he would check the room and get back to me, but I never received a return call. Over the following three days, I attempted to contact customer services multiple times . Customer service is not easy to contact and I was unable to get through. Eventually, I was given the direct number for the hotel, and when I followed up, I was told the shoes were not in lost property.I am extremely concerned and disappointed. How could the shoes disappear from the room within such a short window of time?

Hotel was ok - but very noisy people in the room next door and the sound of their arguments came through the adjoining door at 7am like it wasn’t there. The room was also a bit smelly - not surprising given the windows didn’t have any way of opening. The biggest issue was the breakfast. I honestly don’t think I’ve had worse. I went to get some hot food and found: no sausages at all, 3 rations of bacon that were lying in a deep pool of fat, 2 black pudding slices that would have worked well as ice hockey pucks, one fried egg that was folded in half and didn’t see to have a yolk, scrambled eggs that had a weird green tinge, beans that you could slice. Honestly dreadful. We gave up - but eventually the chef replaced things - which included dumping more bacon into the pool of fat… replacing the other items with hotter versions of the awful things there before. We’ve stayed in loads of Premier Inns and they have always been good value, simple, clean hotels. This one isn’t up to the usual standard - especially the breakfast… which will live with me for some time.

Comfortable and affordable. Well worth staying if you are visiting Southend for a short break. Easy to check in, room was well equipped but there was a faint humming all night which made it difficult to get to sleep. Overall though a good stay

I’ve left an extensive review for Premier Inn with their own survey. It saddens me to say this as we love Premier Inn but this is the worst one I’ve stayed in. My family and I wouldn’t stay again. Issues with the room, issues with lack of staff or attitude of staff at the front desk (although check in was very smooth and staff member dealing with us was very pleasant). Forget the breakfast at this branch -not enough staff, dirty, items not cooked properly, one toaster doing 4 slices for the whole restaurant, struggled to get cutlery, tables not cleaned properly, empty condiments, the list goes on. Ultimately this is down to what I believe is poor management. When your staff are stressed and demonstrating a poor attitude and it’s more than one member of staff then this speaks to the culture of the work environment here.