Hotels near Smithills View Campsite, City of Preston

The space, lighting, sanitation, and facilities of the room are relatively good. The bed is a little smaller. The worst thing is that the exhaust fan outside Room 405 is very loud, which seriously affects rest. The machine is turned off at 11 o'clock in the evening

We stay here quite regularly - not because the hotel is fabulous but because it's the only one in the area which has proper king sized beds available, and because the location is perfect as we are driving down the A6. They don't do weddings either which means you dont have all that noise to contend with. Hopefully now it's being rebranded this update will continue throughout the interior. The rooms are very dark and dated. There was a slight issue when we arrived as my message did not seem to have got through to say we needed a ground floor room due to mobility issues and by the time we arrived they had all been allocated and most of the lifts are currently being replaced, but the reception girls quickly got that sorted and gave us a family room with 2 double beds. The mattresses were in dire need of replacement - terribly saggy and one of them had a huge dip in the middle making them extremely uncomfortable. The duvets are horrendously heavy. There is no need to have something so heavy as you can get a good amount of heat from a much lighter weight duvet. I struggled to move under it as it weighed down so much and I have arthritis in my shoulder making it almost impossible to turn over. We did ask at reception for something lighter and were given sheets to use instead but the weather turned a bit cooler so the sheet was just too thin. I cannot imagine how the cleaning staff cope with changing the covers on these monstrosities daily when people check out. The cost of the 3 night stay for us was around £450 for room only. Extremely expensive. If we had booked B&B it would have been over £500. I do realise the spa/pool etc is probably covered in this price but perhaps a different price bracket to include or disclude the amenities might be a better idea as we were only basing ourselves there to sleep, and go out and about all day. The only other issue we had, which was of no fault of the hotel in any way, was the way some other guests had no concept of the amount of noise they make nor did they seem to care. We were wakened regularly to doors being let slam shut rather than gently closed at very early hours (there were a lot of workmen/businessmen staying) and in the room directly above us there was at least one child who sounded as if they were using the bed as a trampoline to bounce off of, onto the floor with a massive thud then run up and down the floor constantly from 6am each of the mornings.

When we arrived the barrier was down. We had to do that awkward thing of move the car over as far as you can and then stretch to reach the button to contact staff. Unfortunately the staff member who answered the gate intercom was a little hard to understand and she cut us off rather abruptly with the gate still remaining down. We pressed again and the gate allowed access. We checked in and I advised that I had already paid online via paypal. The staff advised that any payment was not an actual payment rather a hold - I would still need to pay again. If you use paypal you will know it takes several days to show on your account so I could neither prove nor disprove their claims. We got to our room and were pleased to be in an annexe as there was a wedding going on. Nice room size etc kettle, coffee machine, mugs, tea and biscuits. I checked in the bathroom for glasses and there were none available - I would assume that a hotel charging over £100 per night would at least supply plastic cups or proper glasses to drink water from. There was plenty of storage available and a decent hairdryer. The shower was nice - however the glass door was not long enough to prevent significant amounts of water hitting the floor - the bath mat was sodden. The shower tray and grout work as well as an area near the radiator had mould/blackening to it. There was also a random hole in the ceiling - possibly an old leak? The food was great although it took a while to arrive. I did ask for mild peppercorn sauce and no mushrooms - my food arrived with mushrooms and no peppercorn sauce. We left the restaurant believing that the meal would be added to the room - a member of staff followed us out advised that many people may have sat at the table and they needed a room number (this was given when we arrived at the restaurant) and could we pay now?!; perhaps they need a better booking/checking system in place? We then went through to the bar there were several tables which had been left with glasses on them. They were only removed when we sat at one of these tables, the table remained unwiped. The two staff on didn't come over to see if we wanted more drinks and didn't interact with other people who were hovering also intending to purchase drinks. I eventually took my chair and sat in front of the bar waiting for the staff to return from a patrol; neither asked if they could help so I shouted over. I believe this is indicative more of a lack of training in customer service than rudeness. Children from the wedding were becoming a nuisance by this point and were pretty much unchallenged by staff. They were running in and out, up and down stairs taking milk from the fridges and leaving plastic rings on the floor. They made enough noise to be heard on at least the first floor as the fire doors were help open by magnets. In our room we hoped for peace and quiet only to be left disappointed by music echoing over from the wedding - this finished just before midnight. The bed was comfortable and we slept well. The gym was lovely and quiet at 8am although the sauna hadn't quite heated up when we headed in there around 8.40ish. Breakfast was mostly tasty - the black pudding lacked any flavour - the scrambled eggs and hash browns were great. The tea was the wrong colour and tasted like very cheap teabags. There were bits of chips on the floor from the food service the night before.

The room and bed were to the usual Travelodge standard and the on-site parking was an added bonus. The reception was friendly and the place was clean and tidy. However, my dining experience was nothing short of appalling. I placed my meal order (a pizza and choc fudge cake with cream) at 18:18. After becoming uncomfortably hungry I managed to eventually (at around 18:45) alert one of the staff team's attention that my food order had not yet arrived. Five minutes later a female staff member appeared with a bowl containing a choc fudge cake and a jug with custard. My puzzled reaction forced the 'waitress' to say ”Sorry about the delay in your order. Have this to be getting on with while we prepare your pizza.” Was this some sort of Halloween stunt? I declined the offer. She stormed off in a huff and re-appeared just as 'The One Show' was starting up and, without a word, smile or any recognisable customer service related gesture, dumped a flat square box onto my table and sped off. Opening the box, I found it contained my pizza. It had some strange looking small soft textured cubes scattered all over it and the melted cheese on one third of the pizza. It seemed to cool very quickly and I discovered these cubes were cheese that had not yet melted. I scraped away the uncooked cheese and base and, in the absence of any staff to help, I continued to eat what I could. Inexplicably, around 20 minutes into my pizza, at 19:29 the same 'waitress' appeared, dumped a bowl of hot choc fudge cake and a huge bowl of whipped cream onto my table, turned and fled like she was about to miss her train! No respect, no communication - except for clearly hostile body language. There were still no other members of staff available. I decided to call it quits with my ”pizza” and proceed with the dessert, which by now had cooled considerably. Still no-one around. It then occurred to me that this was probably the cake she had produced as my ”starter” half an hour earlier. I started to feel physically ill and decided to abandon ship, returning to my room, totally appalled. I had a very restless night and woke at times feeling I was about to throw up. It was an experience that fell far short of what they advertise. If there was a staff shortage, what on earth happened to the old-fashioned system of open communication? If there is going to be a delay, TELL ME!!! I'll then have the option to decide if I want to stay or go elsewhere, but please don't treat me like an object of profit.

Phil's hospitality and laid back friendliness was outstanding. Great take away breakfast when I asked for it. Room comfortable clean and well presented, and great value for money. He is open to feedback on ways to improve the hotel and focused on making it a relaxed welcoming place.