Would you stay in a Travelodge for a second time?

I remember staying in a family room at a Travelodge back in the 90s with my parents. It was cheap and basic but it did the job. I seem to recall the only issue was that there was a plastic cover on the mattress and the windows wouldn’t open. One sweaty night later we were gone.

Needless to say it didn’t leave much of an impression either way.

Last week I visited Bristol for the Bristol Twestival. Rather than drive home after the party I decided to see if I could get a reasonably priced room anywhere near the venue. The cheapest option, and one of the closest, was a Travelodge. I decided to give it a go. The mother-in-law always raves about what good value for money they are.

When I checked my emails this morning, I was asked to rate my experience and provide feedback. After I did so, I thought I would share my thoughts here as well.

I arrived in something of a mess, having driven round and round and round some more, checked in and headed up to my room, already late for the Twestival. So, what did I think of my stay?

The Pros:

• I arrived without much cash on me, so when I discovered the hotel car park was pay and display, my heart sank a little. Luckily I could ‘phone a number and pay by credit card – fantastic! And as I have used the service before to park at Newbury train station, it already knew all about my car and credit card details so it took me less than 30 seconds.
• Check in was fast and easy, my room simple to find and the card-key let me in first time. I don’t know about anyone else but those plastic credit-card-like door keys reduce me to a gibbering wreck outside my room, wailing that I just want to get inside and use the toilet. I breathed a contented sigh when I got in without a mental break-down.
• Inside I found plenty of power outlets. All too often I find myself in a hotel room presented with only one three-pin power outlet, forced to choose between charging my phone or straightening my hair before going out. I don’t think I should have to choose between being able to call a cab at the end of the night or having to go out looking like I styled my hair after Albert Einstein. At the Travelodge I could charge my mobile, my work mobile, my camera and straighten my hair. If I’d remembered my 4-way adapter like I usually do, I’d have probably been able to cook up something pretty spectacular.
• The members of staff were lovely. They answered all my questions, found me pillows and gave me directions.

The Cons

• Have you ever been somewhere so dingy and depressing that you felt your soul was being sucked out a little piece at a time. I have. It was the Travelodge in central Bristol. My room looked old and tired. One of the walls was orange – why? The carpet and the chair looked positively greasy. The walls were scuffed and the plaster chipped. And the art work – well, it didn’t work as art.
• The room was cold too – I think there must have been an issue with the seal on the window as the draft was arctic and the traffic so loud I thought the window was actually open.
• I started getting ready to go out. There was a mirror in the room, but it was on the wall to the side of the desk, so you couldn’t look at yourself in it. I would have preferred a full-length mirror somewhere that I could have looked at myself. For a hotel located so conveniently close to Bristol city centre, I would have expected it to be more geared towards people going out.
• When I returned, I wanted to collapse into bed with my laptop and check out what the Twitterverse was saying about all the global Twestivals. I realised that in my haste to get to my event, I had not noticed the complete absence of pillows. There were none on the bed and none to be found lurking around the room. There was no ‘phone to call reception, just a battered card telling me that if I needed anything, just visit reception and they would be happy to provide. I put my shoes back on and headed back down in the lift.
• Once pillows had been obtained, I set up my laptop but was disappointed to find that the hotel’s Wi-Fi signal was so weak that I couldn’t connect. Not having the energy to troop back to the Reception desk again, I went without and settled for using the mobile web.

Overall it was a pretty unremarkable place to rest my head. Nothing was so bad that it warranted a complaint, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend staying there unless it was some sort of bargain deal of the century.

What has been your experience of Travelodge?

Tagged as: hotel review, travelodge