Premier Inn Exeter City Centre

Everything exactly as it should be. I always use premier inn as I know what I’m getting. They are all pretty much the same so you know you will sleep well and also what services are available. They are a home from home for me and usually well situated with nearby parking. Highly recommend them.

The hotel itself is fine, the rooms are nice, it's clean, the facilities and location are great. I've stayed here before and had a nice time which is why I booked again. Its what you'd expect from a chain hotel. HOWEVER, while we were staying here a guest smoking in their room caused the fire alarms to go off. This is obviously not the fault of the hotel or staff, of course, and just as frustrating for them as for the people staying there. But the response to this situation was ridiculously bad. People started trying to evacuate straight away but were only outside for a minute (literally) before a member of staff told one person we could go back inside. That one person then had to tell everyone else as the staff made no efforts to do so. While everyone filed back in, the alarm went off again. So, everyone tried to go back outside again. A very flustered member of staff then came into the stairway and was asked by a few people if we needed to evacuate or not, as at this point everyone knew it was due to a person smoking and not a real fire. The staff member told us they didn't know what to do, and they needed to call their manager, and then disappeared never to be seen again. People stood on the stairwell for around 10 minutes waiting for someone to tell us what the procedure was and if we could return to our rooms, before everyone just gave up on waiting. The staff made absolutely no attempt to communicate further with anyone about the situation and all of the information we got was due to other guests passing it on to each other. The alarm also then went off for another hour because, apparently, the staff didn't know how to turn it off. It was honestly quite shocking that not a single staff member took charge of the situation and made a decision on what to do, and then left multiple guests- some elderly who were struggling with the stairs- on the stairwell confused about whether or not the building was safe. No one made any attempt to follow up with guests. And as this all happened at 10pm it completely ruined our night, which was supposed to be a relaxing night away to celebrate my partners birthday and new job. Again, it isn't the fault of the staff or company that someone triggered the alarm, but the response from the staff was really bad and they seemingly had no training or common sense. No one took control, no one communicated, and because they didn't know how to turn off the alarm we had to sit listening to it until 11pm. It doesn't exactly encourage people to come back and I hate to think what would've happened if it was a real emergency.