Premier Inn Oxford City Centre - Westgate

The staff were cheerful and engaging, and made us feel they cared about our stay. I even had a cheerful chat with the chef at breakfast. At other hotels I've stayed in, staff weren't smiling or happy, and it brings your mood down, especially at breakfast. Even when there seemed to be minimal staff on hand during a quiet midweek in March, they were helpful and polite and didn't keep us waiting. Everything was up to the usual standard we've come to expect from Premier Inn. Our stay at Premier Inn Oxford City was comfortable and what we expected.

The room was decent, clean, and standard for a Premier Inn. Reception on arrival was colder than the Arctic: barely a word, no information about breakfast, dinner or the bar, just my key and directions to the lifts. At breakfast the coffee machines were broken, so only instant was available, and the food was all lukewarm. The saving grace was the very friendly Welsh lady at the bar on Friday evening. I didn't catch her name, but she was absolutely lovely.

It was quiet, and the room was clean and comfortable, with a fair price. The hotel is convenient and central, and I'd still recommend it for a budget stay in Oxford. One small issue was the broken bathroom extractor fan, which left quite a damp smell when you entered room 304. I would have told someone instead of mentioning it here, but there was no one around reception. We stayed for two nights, 23rd-24th December.

The rooms were okay, what you'd expect from a three-star hotel. They were quite clean and everything worked fine. But we arrived to a lobby full of cigarette smoke, then saw the whole morning shift crew smoking outside the main entrance. Breakfast the next morning was a big letdown: the hot and cold counters were empty, with no plates, glasses or even mugs for coffee while one hardworking woman in the kitchen cooked more food. Some front-of-house staff thought it was a good time to put on a bunny costume for Easter and sell chocolate to the waiting guests instead of helping replenish food and crockery. When we left, the hotel was completely deserted, with no one to take our key card, and we found them all smoking just outside. Very unprofessional!