A mum has hit back at Premier Inn after she found out the hotel she booked for her daughter’s graduation wasn’t open yet.

Samantha Jones paid £250 back in December for a two-night stay at the budget chain’s new hotel at Durham’s Milburngate for her daughter’s university graduation on July 4.

But she was shocked to hear that the new hotel was not finished and had to ring the company to ask if her booking still stood.

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Samantha, a dairy farmer from Staffordshire, told the Echo: “One of my daughter’s housemate’s parents had booked in at the same hotel and got an email to say the hotel wasn’t ready and their booking was cancelled.

The Northern Echo: The Milburngate Premier Inn is still waiting for the finishing touches meaning bookings have been cancelled.The Milburngate Premier Inn is still waiting for the finishing touches meaning bookings have been cancelled. (Image: MICHAEL ROBINSON)

“We never got an email from them, so I rang them and they told me the hotel isn’t going to be ready.

“They offered to move us to another hotel out of the city but we booked that one to be in the centre. They said the Walkergate hotel by the passport office was already full.

“We’d initially booked two rooms so our son could come but he couldn’t get the time off work so I rang in May to cancel the second room. They never said anything about the hotel not being ready.”

The Northern Echo: The Milburngate development in Durham, pictured mid-construction in 2021.The Milburngate development in Durham, pictured mid-construction in 2021. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

She has now had to fork out more to book into another city centre hotel ahead of her daughter graduating with her Geography degree.

She added: “I wouldn’t stop there again.

“There’ll be so many other parents who have the same issue. If they didn’t have the email like me they might not find out til they get there.

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“All the other hotels have put their prices up so much – some are charging £800 a night.

“They’ve left it far too late, surely they knew sooner that it wouldn’t be ready.”

The Northern Echo: The new Premier Inn in Milburngate was due to be open by now. In 2021 the hotel chain said it would open in 2022.The new Premier Inn in Milburngate was due to be open by now. In 2021 the hotel chain said it would open in 2022. (Image: MICHAEL ROBINSON)

Premier Inn has since said the delays are due to issues with the Milburngate development and has apologised to customers affected.

A spokesperson for the hotel chain said: “Our latest opening in Durham City Centre at Milburngate was originally scheduled to open in 2022 as part of the wider mixed-use redevelopment.

“Unfortunately, delays delivering the new development have had an impact on when we are able to open the doors and welcome our guests to the new location.

“Whilst we work with the project team to confirm new dates for the opening of the development and our new hotel, our team have been working tirelessly to ensure all of the guests who had made a booking at the hotel have either been booked into a nearby Premier Inn in Durham or in the surrounding area.

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“However it can happen that due to high customer demand, the nearest available Premier Inn hotels may be a little way from where guests originally booked to stay.  All guests will have been contacted to ensure they have advanced notice of the situation and we do apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused.  

“To minimise any further impacts to our guests we have closed the booking channels to the new Durham Milburngate Premier Inn – and we hope to share positive news on when we will open very soon.”

The building contractors behind the Milburngate site Tolent collapsed into administration in February.