Great Premier Inn!
It's new, so it has the usual nice, fresh rooms that you'd expect from a Premier Inn. The staff are, as usual, very friendly and helpful. One of them in particular was very helpful in printing off a Google map for me and showing me how to get to the pub I wanted to go to, when my phone had been cut off and I had no access to data services to work this out for myself. I was hopping mad as you can imagine, and the guy was super nice to me.
The best thing is the location. It is literally right next to Birmingham New Street train station, so you have no travel distance at all, and also, you're right next to some cool shops, and plenty of places to eat and drink. To get to it, come up to the higher level of the train station - so into the shopping centre section, and then head out the exit on the food side, that leads onto the long ramp onto New Street. It's next to the McDonald's, which I think is quite useful - not because I want to eat at McDonald's, but because that means there are plenty of people about. You then need to take the lift or stairs up to reception.
The next street corner down however, seems to be a section where a lot of people are drinking in the street, and begging. So if you're intimidated by that sort of thing, best stick to the shopping centre end. Given that you have to get into the lift or stairs to get up to reception, and until that point, you are isolated, I can imagine that this may feel some travelers feel a little bit vulnerable. From walking about this area though, sadly it seems like there is a lot of this - so I think you'd be hard pressed to avoid it in the city centre. This sadly does seem to be very prevalent in the English city centres I've been in recently, particularly near the train stations.
For me though, the convenience of it being so close to the train station, and it being a busy area, outweighs the negatives which that can bring.
Being a Premier Inn, there is the Good Night Sleep guarantee, and despite it being in such a busy area, and next to a train station, there was nothing that disturbed me - no noise at all, or any vibration from the trains. The room temperature controls are good, and they have their onsite restaurant.
I'd stay here again, no doubt about it. read more