The UK's hotel chains have been ranked from best to worst as part of a Which? survey to find the best rooms for staycations. Unfortunately, the data showed that it's growing increasingly difficult for Brits to find a nice hotel for under £100, the report stated.
Over 5,000 people rated their hotel stays within the UK for the consumer champion’s annual hotel survey, with respondents invited to rate their experiences at 28 large and nine small hotel chains. These included big names like Travelodge, Premier Inn and Britannia hotels – but not all fared well.
For the survey, guests scored their stays out of five stars across 10 categories including cleanliness, customer service, bed comfort, how well the description matched reality and value for money at the UK hotels. An overall customer score was calculated combining overall satisfaction and likeliness to recommend and these were combined to find each hotel's score.
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While none of the chains managed a full five stars for value for money – perhaps due to the cost of living crisis squeezing pockets – many still managed to impress holidaymakers.
Impressing in the (shared) top spot was boutique chain Hotel Indigo, owned by IHG, and Premier Inn’s satellite brand, Hub by Premier Inn – both of the winners were awarded the coveted Which? Recommended Provider status. Generally, that means you can trust them to offer you a clean, comfortable stay within the UK.
Hotel Indigo stood out to respondents for its "stylish" boutique rooms as many of its 18 UK hotels are housed in gorgeous historic buildings. Meanwhile, customers also praised the chain’s "quirky" décor – after all nobody likes a bland and boring stay. It scored an impressive clutch of five and four star ratings – dropping to three stars only on value for money.
The Hub By Premier Inn boasts excellent city centre locations in London and Edinburgh that brought it accolades thanks to its facilities and compact rooms. Multiple people in the survey praised the Hub hotels for their "convenient" locations, and while some did say that rooms were "extremely compact" they thought that they were "efficient".
The chain scored a full five stars for cleanliness, bed comfort and the description matching the reality, and scored four stars for its bedrooms, bathrooms, customer service, and communal areas and décor. Hub by Premier Inn just pipped its parent brand Premier Inn to the post, but the well known chain was hot on its heels coming in second place for the best hotels with a 75% customer score.
Premier Inn also secured Which? Recommended Provider status, and was rated five stars for its bed comfort, and four stars for its bedrooms, customer service, cleanliness, value for money and how well descriptions matched the reality.
After that, some may be surprised but third place was awarded to budget pub chain Wetherspoons. Yes, you can actually rent a room above many Wetherspoons venues – and with a customer score of 73% it could be a good choice. Holidaymakers claim they paid £84 a night on average making it one of the cheaper options – it scored four stars for value for money.
Wetherspoons also scored three stars for bed comfort, cleanliness, customer service and how well description matched the reality. Rival pub chain Old English/Greene King Inns was ranked in the bottom three with a score of just 60% despite its higher reported room cost of £103 a night on average.
Also down in the lower ranks, Britannia finds itself at the bottom of Which?’s tables for the eleventh consecutive year. The chain has suffered with plenty of terrible reviews including one couple who said their room was cold and 'decrepit'. The chain's score was an extremely low 48%.
The chain scored a one star rating for its bedrooms, bathrooms and quality of the wi-fi, and no higher than two stars in any of the remaining categories – including cleanliness.
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The chain once held a rather luminous reputation and even Winston Churchill was once a guest at the famous Grand Hotel, Scarborough – however, they now act as a display for "faded elegance" according to one person. Another respondent said their Britannia hotel was "awful… so filthy that we cleaned the whole accommodation ourselves." Another moaned that their stay was "like something out of the sixties".
Just above Britannia was Travelodge and Mercure both with a score of 55%. Some holidaymakers praised Mercure for its locations and service, but it nonetheless secured a run of two and three star ratings, including two stars for the quality of its bedrooms, bathrooms, and communal areas.
Customers slammed the chain’s "dingy", and "tired" feel. With respondents reporting they paid £106 a night on average, it scored just two stars for value for money.
Travelodge also didn't rank well for value for money offer, scoring just two stars even though it was one of the cheapest brands in the survey at £79 a night on average. In the survey it received a mixed bag of one, two and three star ratings – including two stars for its bedrooms, bathrooms, and breakfast, and just one star for wifi.
One Travelodge guest described their room as having "an NHS hospital aesthetic" while another said it seemed "dated and tired". But, some did claim they had a "good overall experience". The ratings are a sharp contast to budget competitor Days Inn, which despite also having an average price per night of £79, bagged a score of 65%
UK hotels as ranked by Which?
- Hotel Indigo
- Hub by Premier Inn
- Premier Inn
- Wetherspoon Hotels
- Ibis Styles
- Sofitel
- Hilton Garden Inn
- Hilton
- Holiday Inn Express
- Marriott
- Marriott Courtyard
- Holiday Inn
- Best Western
- Crowne Plaza
- Hilton Double Tree
- Radisson Blu
- Days Inn
- Hilton Hampton
- Ibis Budget
- Ibis
- Jury’s Inn/ Leonardo Hotels
- Marriott Delta
- Novotel
- MacDonald
- Old English/ green King Inns
- Mercure
- Travelodge
- Britannia
In the small chains category, Brend Collection, Coaching Inn Group and Inn Collection Group all achieved Which? Recommended Provider Status. Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel said: "With prices at many hotels rising further this year, finding good value, budget accommodation is increasingly difficult. For those looking for a reasonably priced stay, there are big differences between the best and worst chains, with the likes of Premier Inn and Wetherspoons distinguishing themselves from the pack.
"When you’re booking your next trip, make sure to take time to research your options carefully, and read reviews from a range of sources to see what other guests thought of their stay."
A spokesperson for Travelodge said: "Last year we welcomed over 21 million business and leisure guests to our hotels. 90% of our Travelodge UK hotels are rated 4* or above on TripAdvisor and our new breakfast menu at our onsite Bar Cafes has been rated excellent value for money by over 70% of our customers.
"Travelodge is investing significantly in our UK portfolio to deliver a high-quality, premium look and feel hotel design and a great value for money proposition to our customers. This hotel refit programme is Travelodge's most significant brand transformation to date and is well underway across the country, with approximately £45 million being invested this year to update our hotels. We take our guest feedback very seriously and are sorry to hear that the Which? reviewers did not receive our normal high-quality service."
Britannia did not respond to a request for comment. Mercure did not provide a comment prior to publication.
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