Customer service

Consumer group Which? has ranked hotels based on customer feedback – with pub chain Wetherspoons given a ‘great value’ gong and Premier Inn losing Recommended Provider status as it slips down the list

The Britannia Hotels chain has been ranked the worst place to stay for the 12th year running in a poll, as Wetherspoons beat Premier Inn and took home the ‘top value’ prize.

Consumer group Which? gave Britannia, with more than 60 sites, a lowly customer score of just 44%. It managed just one star out of a possible five for the quality of its bedrooms and bathrooms.

One Britannia customer at the Grand Burstin Hotel in Folkestone, Kent, described witheringly as a “total dive”. Another said they had three nights booked but left after one because of the poor service, room and food.

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Britannia’s chain include a number of historic and landmark hotels. They include Liverpool’s famous Adelphi, which scores just 2.6 out of possible five on Tripadvisor as the website says guests “frequently cite noise issues due to thin walls”. Britannia’s Grand Hotel in Scarborough gets an even lower 2.4 on Tripadvisor, which says rooms are “basic and dated, with mixed reports on cleanliness.”

The firm’s hotel in London’s Docklands has been the scene of protests amid reports it was being used to house asylum seekers. It has been given a score of 2.8 on Tripadvisor. The Britannia group is controlled by tycoon Alex Langsam, who also owns holiday camp Pontins and was criticised after its Southport’s site sudden closure in early 2024.

The Mirror confronted Mr Langsam at the time at his 10-bedroom mansion in Cheshire. But when asked if he had anything to say to the workers who left in tears, he claimed: “It’s nothing to do with me, I am nothing to do with Pontins.”

Top in the Which? large hotel category was a pub chain with 35 inns. The Coaching Inn Group received a customer score of 81%, with “often historic buildings located in beauty spots or market towns where they aim to be ‘the best venue in town’.”

Pub giant JD Wetherspoon, which has over 50 hotels across the country, was also praised. It came fifth and was the only chain to be awarded a Which? Great Value badge. At just £70 for an average night’s stay, Wetherspoons got four stars for value for money and the majority of other categories, including customer service. One guest commented that the hotel was “clean, comfortable and good value”.

It came above Premier Inn, which slipped to seventh in the large chain table, and lost the Which? Recommended Provider status. While customers still ranked Premier Inn’s beds as some of the most comfortable in the survey, some guests told Which? their stay wasn’t good value and suggested that standards were slipping.

One guest said that “Premier Inn has lost its way. Prices no longer budget levels and service is no longer a priority”. An average night’s stay is £94. Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said: “A night away should be a real treat but with hotel prices climbing, finding a hotel chain that consistently offers comfort, good customer service and a charming location at a fair price has become harder. “

A spokesperson for Premier Inn said: “At Premier Inn we help millions of people have a great night’s sleep and sell over 20 million room nights every year to families, leisure and business guests. We’re pleased that the 2,746 Which? members who answered for Premier Inn as part of this summer survey awarded us five stars for bed comfort and that they also rated our customer service and cleanliness highly.

“Whether it’s our estate-wide roll-out of brand new, high-quality beds all with a choice of soft or firm pillows, providing relaxing shower products in every room or keeping our food and drink menus updated with new offers to tempt and excite customers, we’re continually investing in our guest experience. We are always looking to improve and welcome comments and feedback– indeed we actively seek them through our own customer surveys. We will certainly pay special attention to address anything that feedback suggests we need to.”

Britannia Hotels was contacted for comment.

Holiday-maker Jason Hall was heading home after a nine-day break in Cyprus with his 13-year-old daughter when they found themselves ‘abandoned’ at the wrong airport

A holidaymaker vowed to boycott an airline after he and his daughter were left ‘abandoned’ overnight.

Jason Hall, 54, had been enjoying a nine-day getaway with his 13-year-old daughter in Cyprus, and they had been due to land at Birmingham Airport at 5.30pm on August 6. But, after a small aircraft crash-landed on the runway, their flight was diverted to Cardiff Airport, arriving at 6.10pm.

Passengers on the aircraft were promised that return transport would be arranged for them – but, according to Jason, that did not take place. He has gone on to slam the company’s ‘shocking’ after-care.

Jason, of Clayton, told StokeonTrentLive: “I can’t complain about the holiday – it was lovely. Coming back was where the trouble started. We were promised that we’d be provided with coach travel back to Birmingham – I didn’t mind, these things happen sometimes.

“We spent an hour-and-a-half collecting our bags because they weren’t expecting two massive 300-passenger TUI planes in. But once we’d got our things, we couldn’t see a single member of TUI staff in the whole airport. We left for the car park, and there were around 450 people stood waiting for these coaches.”

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He continued: “Eventually, a member of staff from Cardiff Airport – not a member of TUI staff – came out to tell us that three coaches had already been and gone. But if you think that a coach can hold roughly 50 people, that was nowhere near enough for the 600 of us who had landed.

“There were young families, children, kids in wheelchairs, all sorts of people left with no way of getting home. We stood in the car park for around an hour waiting for some sort of direction. Then everybody’s phone went off at the same time. It was an email from TUI informing us that they could not get us home and that we’d need to make our own arrangements.”

Passengers left stranded at Cardiff Airport were told that the airline was ‘having issues sourcing transport’ and encouraged passengers to pay for their own travel arrangements. TUI promised customers it would compensate them in full for any extra costs after their journey.

“We were all just abandoned by TUI,” Jason explained. “There were students and people who didn’t have the money to pay for this up front. Some people were getting local taxis that were costing £350. Others were getting Ubers which were costing £450. Within half an hour, you couldn’t even book one. They’d all gone.

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“I made a decision to get a nearby hotel room for me and my daughter, as I didn’t want to make her sleep in the airport. We got a little room down the road for £85. We couldn’t physically get home. There were no taxis and you couldn’t get a train until the next day.

“The next morning, we went to the station and caught four different trains. We went from Cardiff to Bristol, Bristol to Birmingham New Street, and Birmingham New Street to the airport. When we finally arrived back to the car, I’d got a parking fine.”

Jason’s disastrous journey home led him to miss a day’s paid work as well as the £85 hotel bill, £100 in train fares, and the £60 parking ticket. But he claims TUI refused to compensate his costs in full.

He added: “They only offered to pay for my train fares. I explained the rest of my additional costs, but they just weren’t interested. They made out as if I should have just gone straight back, but that wasn’t possible. The duty of care and customer service was just non-existent.

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“It was absolutely shocking. I’ll never use them again. They’re fine so long as everything runs smoothly. But as soon as there’s some kind of incident, it seems they just don’t want to look after you at all. The bare minimum is ensuring they can get you to your destination – not just abandon you somewhere else.”

TUI has since repaid Jason in full.

A spokesperson for TUI UK & Ireland said: “We would like to apologise to all customers impacted by this unexpected flight diversion, which was unfortunately out of our control. We always strive to provide our customers with the best possible travel experience, and we understand that this situation impacted the end of their holiday.

“We have been in direct contact with all customers, including Mr Hall, and have arranged refunds for out-of-pocket expenses.”