Whitbread Reviews 8

I stayed at Premier Inn Derby City Centre (Cathedral Quarter) during the annual Tomb Raider Derby event at QUAD, and my experience with the in-house Thyme restaurant and subsequent handling by Whitbread has been extremely disappointing.

The initial issue began as a payment dispute in the Thyme restaurant during a very busy evening connected to the event. What escalated the situation was not the payment itself, but how it was handled. During this interaction, I was told that my “presence, height, and gender are threatening”, followed by the comment “if you apologise, everything will be forgotten.” I found this deeply uncomfortable and inappropriate, particularly in a customer-facing environment.

Rather than addressing this concern, the situation appeared to worsen. I was asked to leave, and later I was informed that I had been banned from the restaurant and hotel. What followed was even more troubling: this ban was then used as the basis for me being banned from the Tomb Raider Derby event at QUAD, despite the original incident having taken place outside the event and venue. This felt disproportionate and disconnected from what actually occurred.

When I tried to seek clarity, cooperation was minimal. Requests for explanation were repeatedly redirected, and concerns about the discriminatory comment were never substantively addressed. Internal notes later disclosed to me (in redacted form) appeared to present a one-sided narrative, focusing on characterisations of my behaviour while omitting relevant context, including the comments made to me.

I was also repeatedly told that the police would be called, which felt intimidating in the circumstances, particularly as there was no allegation of violence or criminal behaviour. To my knowledge, no police report exists, yet references to police involvement were later used in correspondence, further reinforcing a narrative that I believe was unfair.

What was especially distressing was the sense that information about me had been discussed informally with other customers, contributing to gossip and reputational harm. From my perspective, a situation that should have been handled quietly and professionally instead escalated into something far larger, with lasting consequences.

I am sharing this review because of the lack of accountability, transparency, and proportionality shown throughout the process. Large hospitality companies should be able to manage disputes calmly, investigate discrimination concerns properly, and avoid allowing narratives to form without balanced review.

I hope Whitbread reflects on how situations like this are handled in the future, particularly when events, safeguarding, and reputational impacts on customers are involved.

awful customer service, dirty room, broken toilet, left disabled guest unable to wash safely, air-con turned off so issues breathing, hotel staff didnt care,
no room swap available so told to claim under the refund system and now been told it doesnt count.
after 20+ years using them, never again.
appalling communication, no reply to emails from hotel manager.

My wife and I have just returned from a 3 night stay in Premier Inn, Stockport South. Having moved away from the area in 2015, we have returned to visit family every year since and always stayed at this Premier Inn. The last time was just over a year ago. This time was very disappointing. Firstly, we always book the meals deals in advance. On the first night my wife ordered "beer battered fish and chips" - these were inedible and were returned virtually uneaten - the fish looked more like it came out of a supermarket box, plus the mushy peas on the plate were actually cold. I ordered a beef and ale pie - the contents of which were tasty - the pastry was what I would call "hammer and chisel" pastry - I could not get my knife through most of it and left it on the plate. Compared to what we had been used to it was abysmal. Also - there was one man handling all the table (name of Chan). He deserves a medal! Bearing in mind he has to take drink orders, food orders - 2 courses - and take to tables + clear tables and take orders for additional drinks and food - I do not know how he copes. There are more people serving breakfast and they only have to take one order and serve one plate of hot food (everything else is self-serve!). Having booked 3 meal deals we had to be careful what we had after that - but not one meal came anywhere near to the standard of our last visit. Regarding the hotel part - it is looking a bit tired. There is one man there, Mark, who has been there as long as we have been going there, and he seems to spend his time apologising for the ineffiencies and helping people out. We booked 3 days of housekeeping, and on returning on our 2nd day, tired and wanting to relax, found our room "untouched" from when we had left. This was annoying because I has spoken to a room cleaner and advised our room was ready to clean - and I had put the tag on the door handle! Mark had to find us fresh towels so we could shower. I decided then the service was bad and did not bother asking for this again. Also - on lying in bed I was amused to see an approximately 100mm long cobweb hanging from our ceiling - so much for room cleaning eh?Looking at some of the reviews I get the impression that Whitbread are not really bothered about complaints - so I did wonder wheher it was worth doing this review. Apparently they are demolishing the restaurant area here (they have already shut down the public bar area - and it is like walking through a graveyard going onto the restaurant). Perhaps this is why their menu for food and drinks has been decimated since we were last there? We are planning to travel to the area again this year on 2 more occasions - but I cannot see what would attract us back here again! if you go here and enjoy it - good luck to you. If you go and find what we Found - do not say you were not warned!

In my experience I don’t believe Whitbread Pension Trustees are actually fit for purpose and certainly do not have their fund members best interest at heart. Having gone through the formal complaint procedure due to Aptia (Whitbread’s Pension Administrator) providing me with significant incorrect forecasts over the last 12 years in the excess of 100K shortfall on my final salary pension that only came to light a few months before I was due to take my pension. They showed no compassion and offered a minuscule 2.5K compensation and missed out several points of my complaint in their reply. My case is now being dealt with by the ombudsman! Had I known how incompetent the schemes administration was and the lack of support from its Trustees I would not have joined the pension scheme or stayed with Whitbread and given them 25 years service. Shame on you Whitbread and your Trustees! A heads up for their employees, when they mess up they basically say oops tough luck we made a mistake. Shocking!

I've been to Beefeater (a Whitbread brand) 3 times over the summer, encouraged by a good food and service experience the first time and being enrolled on the Rewards system with the promise of offers for money spent as well as birthday meal etc.
My parties spent over £400 using my card, every receipt acknowledged that the points had been credited but I couldn't sign in to check / use the points.
I contacted 3 times Whitbread (Beefeater marketing and customer service) to point out that I couldn't avail of the rewards I'd earned and as such they were misrepresenting themselves and conning customers.
They said,
"Restaurant_Guest-Relations@whitbread
​
Hello David,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

I can appreciate the disappointment caused, unfortunately ,as previously advised we no longer accept card registrations as our reward scheme has changed.

You would need to visit the restaurant website to sign up for our online scheme. I do apologise that I am unable to assist you further on this occasion, we do advise that this has been reviewed by management and we do advise that this will be our final response regarding this matter.

Kind regards,

Stephanie

Guest Relations Advisor"

So now we see Whitbread treats its loyal customers?

As much as I had great food and service from the outlet I used (Crewe Beefeater), I will never use them again, I put a load of business their way and they never even apologised for the misunderstanding (the Crewe staff, on each of 3 occasions I went, encouraged me and my party to joing the schemes, gave us promotional material with rewards cards attached) and offered me a compensatory meal voucher which I should have got for my birthday never mind the £400 plus business I put their way?!

In October 2023, I booked and within timescale, I successfully cancelled a premier inn reservation. In March 2024, premier inn, owned by whitbread, debited £70 from my account without my knowledge, consent or authority. PI did credit the £70 back in on the same day.

I queried it and was given flack that it was a mistake etc.

I successfully cancelled the reservation six months earlier, so how can they then mistakenly, debit a sum?

Submitted a dsar which was pointless. PI failed to provide the detailed replies I was expecting.

First, PI wanted me to access the dsar replies online, yet to do so, I had to provide them with my mobile number! I refused and repeated my request for them to send paper documents and gave them the address.

PI posted dsar replies to the WRONG address.

PI then emailed asking for the correct address which they FAILED to write down correctly.

Emails were exchanged as it was clear they had FAILED to read the dsar, for in it, was the correct and complete address.

I sent everything to the information commissioner, yet the ICO is as useful as a toothless kitten.

Whitbread, like all other corporations, are greedy, harvest information and proviee the least in return.

PI data officer ought to be ashamed. Submitting a dsar is pointless as PI failed, utterly failed to reply to my serious questions.

Administrative staff FAIL to read and so gain all the information they require.

Almost 3 weeks since we were double charged for our stay at the Premier Inn, Exeter, we have yet to receive an apology, let alone a refund. This is despite the involvement of their CEO, Dominic Paul.

"We believe we have a responsibility to help people live and work well" What a total lie.

I left a perfectly good job to relocate to Cumbria and work for Whitbread. Instead of the 3-bedroomed accommodation I was promised as part of the remuneration package, I spent a total of 3 months in a Premier Inn room away from my family and over the Christmas & New Year period. I emailed my area manager 2 months in to say the situation was starting to have an affect on my state of mind. I was signed off by a doctor with stress and anxiety and they didn't even pay me sick pay. I left the business and moved back to Yorkshire. I still haven't had my P45 despite emailing 4 times. They are not nice to work for. What company makes you do a 48 hour working week and then expects you to cover staff that ring in sick??