During my most recent visit to Edinburgh to see the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, I stayed in a hotel called “The Hub By Premier Inn” just off the Royal Mile. My main question, though, was what on earth is a Premier Inn  Hub? How is it different to a normal Premier Inn? Now that I have stayed there and I have some answers, I thought that I would share my experience with you!

What is The Hub?

The Hub is a new (I think) type of hotel from the Premier Inn brand – just think about how Ibis have all different kinds of hotels (budget, style, etc) and I guess it’s kinda like that. I’m pretty sure Premier Inn described them as something like ‘compact stylish rooms in great locations’ and I would say that really that probably sums it up quite well!

What are the rooms like?

The rooms are, in my opinion, super trendy. Infinitely trendier than a ‘normal’ Premier Inn. They’re also pretty high-tech – there’s a lot of buttons and things to touch and press and play around with to make the room exactly how you want it (in my case this was a lot of turning the aircon as cold as possible!).

The rooms are definitely compact and are definitely designed to be somewhere that you don’t spend a lot of time. You definitely need to be pretty friendly with whoever you’re sharing with and not have personal space issues. There is also this weird thing where you can’t turn on the bathroom light without turning on some of the lights in the room, but since there’s a (frosted) glass partition between the bathroom and the bedroom I guess the light would shine into the room anyway!

If you’ve ever stayed in an EasyHotel then I would say it is kinda like that (in size and layout), except 1000 times better – more comfortable, more soundproof and just all round more pleasant from start to end. Of course that might just be my personal experience of both hotels, but all I can tell you about is my personal experiences and the Hub was definitely an infinitely better experience!

What about food?

I’m not sure if this is the same in all Hubs, but the Hub where I was staying offered breakfast which could be pre-ordered at the time of booking or – so I believe anyway – ordered when you were there. In this instance breakfast was £5, and there was a pretty good selection of things – I had a cheese toastie and my friend had a bacon roll, but there were also toast, porridge, granola or bagels on offer along with hot drinks or fruit juice and fruit.

The Hub where we stayed also offered 24/7 free tea or coffee and there were free bottles of water in the room. Our hotel also had a cocktail menu, a small bar, a small selection of food (sandwiches, etc) and hot drinks available in reception.

Oh, and they have absolutely no problem with you taking food and drinks up to your room (which we took full advantage of).

Final thoughts

I would definitely consider staying in a Hub hotel if I was visiting Edinburgh again, or indeed if there was one in any other place I was visiting. I know that this is not the only Hub in Edinburgh, but the location of this one and the other one that I have seen (Rose Street) are both really really good. I thought it was very nice and clean and the staff were super friendly and super helpful. The fact that it was all pretty trendy was an added bonus.

I definitely think that the size and the layout of the room is something to keep in mind if booking one of these hotels as it definitely wouldn’t be suitable for everyone. For my needs, however, I would say that it was beyond perfect and since I’m usually travelling alone the potential issues wouldn’t really be a problem at all.

Have you ever stayed in a Hub by Premier Inn before? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!