The Horrors Of Travelodge

We often have to stay in Travelodges when touring the UK visiting our garden office clients. We use them because there is one in every town, their website is very easy to use and they allow you to bring your dog.
But we don't stay there through choice.
As soon as the dog is old enough to be trusted in a smaller, more intimate space we will be reverting back to staying in pubs or bed and breakfasts where ever possible.

The whole business in run on the doubtful premis that they are the cheapest hotel. They rarely are, unless you want to stay in the back of beyond on a Saturday night.

Here are seven thing you should never do in a Travelodge.

1. Never move the sofa in the family room. You don't want to know what has been left underneath it.
2. Never expect the plumbing to work correctly. You will find a cynical little notice tied to the towel rail suggesting that you help save the planet [they mean help save their laundry bill] by not having clean towels every day, if you are staying for more than one night. Meanwhile the bath trap will be dripping and will have been dripping for months. We have experienced this in Stowmarket Travelodge. We stayed in the same room on two occasions, months apart and the tap hadn't been repaired.
3. Never stay in the Stevenage Travelodge. The central heating system shakes and vibrates and the staff tell us that this has been going on for a year without the manangement doing anything to fix it. It seems is cheaper/easier for them to refund money to customers that complain than fix the heating.
4. Never expect the floor to have been vacuumed. I've never heard one or seen one in a Travelodge. But do be reassured that we dog owners have paid an extra £20 so that the room can be 'deep cleaned' when we have left. The dog normally does the deep cleaning by eating all the items left under the sofa. See point 1 above.
5. Never expect there to be a picture on the wall or .......
6. In the newly refitted Travelodge rooms never expect enough space to be able to put anything down, hang anything up or store anything.
7. But the biggest NEVER of all. Never expect any response or useful comment from their customer services, who can only be contacted by email or letter.

TO BE FAIR: -
Any finally, in smaller, rural Travelodges you will meet kind, helpful and friendly staff who have to fend off complaints because the Travelodge management are not interested in giving their client a clean, well maintained, basic hotel room. They are only interested in the bottom line.