Think twice before staying alone in a Travelodge

So many on here saying they block the door or put extra locks on which then delays the exit if there is smoke or a fire. Men will never understand it. How we have to increase the risk in one area to reduce the risk in another. We block the fire door because we know we've a higher chance of being attacked than caught in a fire. Im so angry for us all.

It's appalling.

I've got a room booked in a v cheap hotel (not TL or PI) next week. I will be ensuring the front desk are clear that I am a solo booking and that no one else should be given a key to my room. Although I'm also worrying about stressing that I'm a lone woman

I was SO shocked at this. Not at the mistake being made (although hideous) or even at the £30 offered (even more hideous) but at the fact they didn’t say they were going to learn from it. In fact, they did the opposite and doubled down that they’d not done anything wrong!

I think it's a good idea for lone female travellers to always keep a door wedge in their luggage.

Electronic keys are too easy to get hold of.

Of course we shouldn't have to go to such measures but knowing nobody can open the door is a comfort.

I've just emailed Travelodge and asked for a copy of their lone traveller policy and staff process documents for such situations.

I doubt they have the first at the very least.

I would encourage others to consider doing the same, it took me 2 minutes.

I will report back.

Shocking and disgusting response from Travelodge.

I do a fair amount of solo travel, including Travelodge stays on occasion, and like PPs already pack a little rubber doorstop and move a chair behind the door for my own peace of mind but FFS why do we need to do this?

Jesus wept, that is horrific, the appalling negligence and then to offer her what feels like a deliberately insulting £30 which seems to have been done to trivialise the hell she went through.

I was flabbergasted by this. Not only that it happened at all, but the casual brushing it off as a minor inconvenience that could be smoothed over with a perfunctory cash distraction, as if the victim were a small child who would forget a grazed knee on production of an ice lolly. Adding insult to injury doesn't begin to describe it.

I use travelodges alot. Saw this earlier & it was really concerning. I have stayed at that particular travelodge quite frequently when flying from Heathrow & alone.

The whole point of you needing keys to get through to the accommodation part is meant to keep us safe. Can’t speak of now but I do recall my friend coming to meet me at one & the reception called me to come down & escort them in over just letting them in so I can’t understand why they have been so lax

Travel lodge work with local councils and often house homeless/asylum seekers. The one at the end of my street has lots of young men staying there. They are definitely not suitable for female travellers imo.
This case beggars belief though, their response is unbelievable.

Highly recommend every woman travels with a Doorjammer if staying in ANY and ALL hotels. Incidents aren't isolated to one hotel chain.
door-jammer.co.uk/

Absolutely terrifying and a shocking response from Travelodge.

I travel alone for work a lot and bought myself one of these after hearing too many stories like this of women staying alone in hotels:

www.amazon.co.uk/Door-Stop-Alarm-Portable-Lock/dp/B0FQJJNWDN?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ACJ1G8H1GT6UM

Who would have thought that possible!
It sounds as though they’d watch while someone gets killed.

Well to be fair it wasn’t their fault. It would have been nice if they had given you a partial refund, although I doubt you had a right to one. They must know that pissing off customers is not good for future business. I don’t blame you for never going back.

Never use travelodge. Always grotty and full of undesirables

I booked a travelodge 2 days ago for myself and 3 friends, just off to cancel my booking. Note to Travelodge, will never use you again.

Yes, I spoke to a solicitor about it but was unable to get anywhere with it. To be fair, I gave up pretty quickly as I just wanted to move on.

They didn't really try to justify refusing to call police other than saying their policy was that guests should make the call themselves. I was shocked mainly by how little they cared.

@FolioQuarto I wonder if that varies on location, where I trained I was told straight away dogs weren’t allowed and to watch out for guests trying to sneak their smaller dogs in.

This is really helpful thanks. I am going to email her.

I know door wedges are being recommended but isn't this a risk in case of fire? Why should women have to choose between fire safety and risk of assault- ridiculous.

Did you as the guest whose privacy was violated raise merry hell with them? What did they say?

I have never used a Travelodge after a bad experience when I was 22. I was on a grad scheme where hotels had been booked for us. There was a minor fire in the kitchen one night and the evacuation process was so piss poor I vowed never to use them again. There was literally one guy present who couldn’t speak English who was fumbling with the guest numbers for the fire bridge. I was so young but knew enough to know if there had been something more serious, there would have been zero help from staff.

When I was a student our university issued all the females with a rape alarm. It had an attachment that turned it into a door alarm, by jamming it between the door and the frame. I don't know if something like that is available still.

I rarely use budget hotels and never Travelodge due to their policy of allowing dogs into rooms. I am even less inclined to use them now.

Travelodge customer service is absolute trash, but frankly with the way they treat their employees I’m not surprised. You can’t pay absolute pennies to staff, leave them largely unsupported and then expect them to do their job properly.

I don’t know about this specific location but there are locations where during the night is one person for the entire hotel, it’s beyond unsafe. Reception staff is often really young women barely out of their teens and expected to deal with drunken guests on their own - and there’s no CCTV in the corridors, only on fire exits and by the reception entry.

Absolutely horrific!!!

Would love to see 'the proceedure' that was followed that enabled a man to be given a key for a room he had not booked!

Thanks for sharing OP.

Am going to buy a doorstop. (And never use TL again).

My daughter and a female friend stayed in a Melia hotel abroad a couple of years back. She called me at 3am to say a man had entered her room, he was literally in the room when she called me , I could hear both girls screaming, as they physically pushed him out, it was horrific . As they pushed him out they found his friend in the corridor unbuttoning his jeans. They managed to get him out but he had entered with a key card and the hotel refused to do anything at all, and told them cctv wasn’t working. Even local police dismissed the whole thing . Absolutely zero action taken.