Premier Inn guest says she was humiliated when her room toilet broke and staff gave her ‘bucket in a bath’ to use instead
- Terri Elder was staying at one of Premier Inn’s hotels in Inverness, Scotland
- The supermarket area manager said she was given a room without working toilet
- Instead of a toilet, Ms Elder said she was offered a bucket to use overnight
A Premier Inn guest claims she was left humiliated when her toilet broke and she was instead given a ‘bucket in a bath’ to use.
Terri Elder was staying at one of the chain’s Inverness, Scotland, hotels on Thursday evening for work and claims she was allocated a room without a working toilet.
The horrified supermarket area manager said she was offered a bucket to use overnight, the option to use a staff toilet one floor away or to be moved hotels.
Terri Elder (pictured) was staying at one of the chain’s Inverness, Scotland, hotels on Thursday evening for work and claims she was allocated a room without a working toilet

The horrified supermarket area manager said she was offered a bucket to use overnight (pictured), the option to use a staff toilet one floor away or to be moved hotels
Ms Elder said it was ‘concerning’ that the room had been allocated to her without working amenities.
A Premier inn spokesperson said they were unaware the toilet was not working when the room was allocated.
They claimed the bucket was only provided for flushing the toilet and apologised for the inconvenience caused.
In her initial complaint Ms Elder, from Edinburgh, wrote: ‘Absolutely delighted to be away from my family tonight for work.
‘Thank you for providing me with this luxury toilet. Bucket in a bath. How humiliating.’

Ms Elder made a complaint to Premier Inn about the lack of a functioning toilet in her room
When asked by the Premier Inn social media team for further details Terri wrote: ‘My toilet in my room is broken. It was when I arrived. The hotel is full.
‘A maintenance man came and could not fix it. The assistant manager I spoke to seemed to know there was an issue with my toilet though, which is concerning then why they would give the room out.
‘I have been offered the bucket, to use a staff toilet one floor away or to maybe move hotels (which was suggested then I was told though they’d all be full due to an event on in town).
‘I had wine with dinner so can’t drive to another hotel anyway.
‘Surely you cannot accept customers being left all night without the use of a working toilet in their room?’
Since lodging a complaint with Premier Inn, Terri has been offered a refund as a gesture of goodwill.
A Premier Inn spokesperson said: ‘We are sorry that Ms Elder did not have a positive experience when staying with us last week.
‘We were unaware the toilet did not flush when Ms Elder checked in and did everything we could to fix it once we were made aware.
‘We also offered a paid taxi to an alternative hotel or use of our staff toilets, as soon as we realised the problem could not be fixed immediately out of hours.
‘The bucket for flushing the toilet was provided as a temporary measure and last resort overnight.
‘We have apologised to Ms Elder directly, have refunded her stay and provided a goodwill gesture by the way of an apology for the inconvenience caused.’