Premier Inn Housing Homeless

[UpsyDaisy6789]

As a family of four we very often have short breaks away in Premier Inn. Mostly just 1 night at a time, occasionally up to 3 nights at a time.

We've noticed on a few occasions now, Premier Inns seem to be housing homeless local families/individuals. On our most recent break of 3 nights this particular hotel seemed to be mainly housing homeless people. Some with obvious substance issues. There was one family with a very small baby, the man in the couple obviously very volatile and uncomfortable to witness/be around his manner to the young woman.

No one seemed to dress in the morning, all just downstairs just rolled out of bed in various dishevelled states.

It all made us feel really uncomfortable to be honest and now considering cancelling future breaks we have booked.

Honestly, if a local council are willing to fund a hotel to house homeless I'm impressed if anything. It's not that I'm not all for them having that help, especially the young couple with a tiny baby. I can see locally how much homelessness has increased and that there is a rising need for help.

However, with this most recent stay I think the right thing would be to now close that particular hotel for general bookings. We honestly felt that we were holidaying in a homeless shelter and it was really uncomfortable for us and we were particularly unhappy with some of the behaviour around our young kids.

Also can't help feeling awful for feeling this way, because I'm also very glad for them they're getting help. Feel really uncomfortable and conflicted about how we felt. Fed all this back to Premier Inn when received their usual "how was your stay" email and they've just totally ignored it.

Just wondered if anyone else had noticed similar and if it had/would put you off?

I can't believe what Im reading. When my DS was born me and DH were made homeless and put into a hotel. Not a nice one like a premier inn either. Nice to know lots of people think we deserved to stay in a cockroach infested shit hole with a newborn baby because homeless people shouldn't have anything nice 🙄

That wasn’t my comment though, was it? I was asking whether the OP really had multiple stays already booked.

And yet some people complain that it’s only asylum seekers housed in hotels, next time someone says that OP give them the name of that premier inn

Anyway YANBU to cancel and book an alternative hotel. Although councils use Travelodges as well, or at least my local council does, in case you were thinking of them as an alternative.

Why would OP say they were considering cancelling future trips they have booked if they didn’t have any future trips booked?

There has been a rapid increase in homeless. They can be divided into 3 categories

1 otherwise stable family suffering terrible setback as a result of death, redundancy, chronic health,

2 family having multiple kids and never been in a position to provide for any of them

3 drug/ alcohol induced mental health issues

Only number 1 is a deserving case as it is not their making.

Can I ask why you were made homeless?

I couldn't care less what someone wears to breakfast at a premier inn. It's not the Ritz fgs.

If they live there then they are more entitled to do as they please in the space than someone only spending one night.

It's their home. You're very lucky indeed. Just go somewhere more expensive.

Because the flat we were living in was in a shared house and they said we couldn't have a baby there. We tried to find a place before DS was born but didn't get it so I went straight from the hospital to the shit hole hotel with my DS. Why, does it make a difference to whether you think they're ok staying in the hotel?

As a housing officer, there's no way if stay in a travel lodge or premier inn anymore. We do use these as emergency accommodation, often fir people who our usual temporary accommodation won't accept. Homelessness doesn't equal bad or difficult in all cases, but from personal experience of those we've placed in this sort of accommodation, I would avoid if I had my dc with me.

My most recent TL placement was a convicted child sex offender just released from prison..

So you think the kids in scenario two should just be left to suffer because of who their parents are?

I don't know where you get your categories from, and don't have any stats, but when I worked at the shelter about half were 30/40/50yo men following relationship breakdowns. Most were in work.

They might not be representative of the overall picture becuase you had to be sober to get a bed at the shelter, but there were a lot of them, who would have otherwise been sleeping rough.

Blimey. Not true at all in fact.

I’ve been homeless and lived in a homeless shelter. I have worked with homeless charities.

I would not like to stay in a hotel (premier inn or otherwise) that had a large number of homeless people in it.

Their desperate situations mean they often (not always) have drug and alcohol problems and often (not always) are unemployed - not having a job isn’t a problem but what it does (nearly) always mean is that they do not keep ‘regular’ hours this results in lots of noise and disruption through the night.

This is my experience of being housed in a homeless shelter. Virtue signal all you like but I can assure you nobody who can afford to choose should pay to stay in a building that houses homeless people. (unless you enjoy the above)

“Homeless” in this context doesn’t usually mean street homeless people where there is (sadly) a correlation between substance abuse and their status as street homeless. In many cases it means people such as PP who have lost their home for other reasons such as through relationship breakdown, having a s21 served in them and unable to find new accommodation etc. it would be great if these people could be given proper accommodation by the local authority, but a hotel is the next best thing.

So where does it end? Everyone should get everything they need/want all of the time because the children will suffer if they don't?
Tell me where the line should be drawn please.
I am like pps who don't believe that anyone arriving at a hotel with their children would be absolutely tickety-boo with it being full of homeless/asylum seekers either. I mean, they may say they would be OK with it because it makes them feel morally superior, but words are easy until they are tested.
For some reason, they reminds me of the Tax The Rich rhetoric. Everyone is absolutely fine with the idea in theory, on the understanding that The Rich is not them.

This is exactly what is happening at the two local Holiday Inn hotels near me. They are housing the homeless and vulnerable which is absolutely fine in itself. The problem is they are still accepting full paying guests. If the Trip Advisor reviews are any thing to go by, I very much doubt anyone will be paying to stay there in the near future.
It’s not the fact that homeless people are being housed there, it’s that the hotel is still taking money off paying guests and not warning them of the situation.

At the same Premier Inn?

Obvious solution - go somewhere else?

What do you think should be done then? Leave the children to live in poverty/be homeless and forcibly sterilise the parents?

I would switch to Airbnb

Have you ever been inside a homeless shelter?
Do you know how unsuitable they are for children?
Have you got the faintest clue about best practice when it comes to housing and rehabilitating people who are homeless?

Last question? Is that you Nigel?

No. I am asking where the line should be drawn, somewhere between giving the adults absolutely everything they want because not doing so would affect the children and forcibly sterilising the parents.
Where do you think it should be?
I don't have the answer, but I know that responses such as yours and the one I responded to are easy to say and you can pat yourself on the back at how kind you are, while spending millions we simply don't have.
What's your answer?

It would bother me OP. I sometimes stay alone at a Premier Inn to prevent a long drive home. It my go to hotel as beds are great.

Ha ha you don't think Nigel has better things to do than post on mumsnet

Best practice is people not being drug addicts or having swarms of unruly kids they can't provide for.

Out of interest, which hotels do you stay in, as you are very accommodating of your room neighbours?

My answer is to have more intervention and support services to stop people getting to this point. Sure start centres, mental health services, free extra curriculars for children, more support for women needing to flee DV, etc etc. Spend some money to solve the problem before it becomes an even bigger, more expensive problem.

I doubt these people are living a great life filled with happiness and hope, and there’s a myriad of reasons behind that, few of which are ever addressed until it reaches a breaking point and a band aid just needs to be stuck over it.

I think it's disingenuous to suggest that there is no more likelihood of socially unacceptable or dangerous behaviour from homeless people as a group than the population in general. A lot of homeless people are in the situation through horrible bad luck or lack of someone to catch them after bad decisions as a pp said. A lot of other homeless people have mental illnesses that are not well controlled, have addictions or generally chaotic lives. Should we want to support and help them all as a society? Of course. That doesn't mean anyone is obliged to be happy to pay for a hotel to find themselves staying in what has effectively turned into a homeless shelter.