Homeless in a travelodge - any tips???

[Mooovingonout]

Anyone have any advice?

Currently staying in a travelodge as my landlord sold the house and we couldn't find anywhere else to rent.

Any tips to make this whole ordeal better???

The hotel floor we're on stinks of weed. Constant doors opening at night and running in halls. Kids are asleep and oblivious thankfully

I don’t have s as my tips but hope you find a safe home soon.

On a small practical level ear plugs are grey and cheap I'm a light sleeper and they have changed my life

Expand your areas choices as much as is humanly possible, in both your social housing app and your private rented search

Find packet foods you can eat using water from the kettle eg porridge pots, pasta, noodles.

Do you have anything from home or is it all in storage?

Play low background music on phone to diffuse hallway and door noise a little

If you can, buy one of these single induction jobs from ikea - can then cook. Saves
money having to eat out as much. And can take with you to new home.
www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/tillreda-portable-induction-hob-1-zone-white-70493503/

Some good tips about ear plugs, playing music softly etc
And complain about the smell, at least it may put pressure on staff to do something. The smell of weed on people who've been smoking it is vile.
Most importantly, as pp said, expand your search area as much as possible for housing. Are you working? If you're not tied to a job, I would honestly move wherever is more affordable, even if it means a change of nursery or school for the kids. Kids adapt, and tbh stability in their home is more important than staying in an area where it may be crazily hard or expensive to rent

Have you been placed in this accommodation by the council?
If so you could ask if you can be moved to somewhere more family friendly, where you can at least self cater?. I understand that accommodation provided for homeless families is often unsatisfactory though, with many people sharing kitchen and bathroom facilities.
If you have your own bathroom there it might be better to try to obtain some means of cooking/ meals that only need hot water added, as has already been suggested.
In the short term could you get a plug in air freshener with maybe a Christmas spice or pine scent to help mask the weed smell?
It’s a tough place to be, especially so close to Christmas, but could you possibly get hold of some Christmas decorations to make the room more cheery? People often advertise them for free on Facebook, etc.
I hope your situation improves soon.

Ear plugs are a good idea thanks, will look for those today.

We're only booked in until Monday, council said they'll either extend our stay here or find us another hotel so don't want to have too much stuff here if we're hotel hopping.

I'm working part time, DH full time and ds18 full time. 3 dc at school - ds15 is year 11 so really don't want to disrupt his education too much but know I don't have much choice there.

I'm disabled and need a carer with me most of the time, be that DH, dc, one of my parents or work colleagues. Due to my disability I can't drive or travel alone which makes our options limited.

Instant pot meals are a good idea, I'm going to do a shop today so any more ideas are welcome 🤗

Food wise:
Those porridge pots ( just add water) and crossiants make an easy breakfast.

Some tea/ instant coffee, and some instant hot chocolate for the children.

Hopefully it’s just for the weekend. If you can all get outside for a bit this weekend it will break up the lack of space a bit. It’s cold out but a quick walk, library, free museum if close, wander around supermarket will get you all out a while.

If you look online locally, there might be some other free/ cheap events on tomorrow Christmas related for the children.

Complain about weed smoking banned inside fire risk.

Sorry Op. that's sounds rubbish. I hope they find you somewhere decent soon.
We were stuck in various premier inns for a month when our house burned down.
We bought a small cheap microwave in the end so at least we could have some hot meals we didn't have to pay a fortune for. And as pp said pot noodles.

@ChristmasJoysuckers it's probably the smell of week on people and their clothes because they've smoked it outside. People have no effing clue that the rank smell clings to them. It's still worth complaining though, because even if people aren't smoking inside, the smell is unacceptable

Weed not week

I'm guessing you must be in London to not be able to afford anything on 3 wages. So, is there a Gurdwara or a Sikh group nearby? They are very hospitable and offer free hot nutritious meals, usually vegetarian. I know you're not looking for free per se, but hot food is really important now it's chilly. And they'd probably be glad of a donation.

A slow cooker could help you include vegetables. You don't have to precook anything. Also the smell from the slow cooker likely to be better than weed.

Thank your lucky stars your not in the hotel where someone I know is staying! They have not got the heating on its colder inside than it is outside! I had to end up taking them a heater!

If this is going to be longer term, could the council put you in touch with someone who would deliver hot dinners? Round here the homeless soup kitchen also delivers free of charge to people in hotels. Really nice dinners too and bags of cold breakfast and lunch food.

I work in a Travelodge- have you spoken to front desk staff about the smell amd noise?
Any smoking and we evict the people, also we give noise warnings and if the offenders don't stop then they too will be evicted.
If that doesn't work then I'd put something on twitter to them, they don't like that and will be calling the hotel to ask what's going on. You could also ask for head offices number to complain to.

We only occasionally get families housed in the one I work in as it is an airport location but the guests usually manage to get the council to add some meals on, either breakfast or dinner. That makes things a bit easier for them as there are no cooking facilities.
I hope you get sorted soon

Don't be ridiculous. Thank your lucky stars probably said from your home which isnt 5 people crammed into a room. How utterly thoughtless. This is not misery top trumps 🙄

Op I would second what others have said. White noise on an app from a phone might help. You can choose sounds like rain, traffic etc. Wax ear plugs are the best I have tried as they mould to your ear. And could you afford takeaway pizza or something tonight. Something which might feel like a treat for the dc's to help get through the weekend? The slow cooker idea is a good one too if you have plates / bowls etc to eat from

@toogoodtobeforgotten, thank your own frigging lucky stars. There but for the grace of god goes god.
Do you often tell people in distress how lucky they are?

What state are we in that a hard working family are in this situation. Not sure where you are but I would gladly lend you what you needed/deliver a hot meal/ give you access to my kitchen.
Hope you get sorted soon

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, really appreciate it ☺️

We have a few places that help feed homeless people, it's just taking me a while to get my head around the fact we're homeless if you see what I mean. I'm finding hard to accept

You will get through it and are setting a great example to your children of being resilient.

Someone suggested slow cooker, great idea. Hope you can get some fairy lights and get the kids on board with some nice music, popcorn, movies, jigsaw or game, listen to an audio book with them.

Wish you well.

Still here

It's so noisy here. Ear plugs were great except I couldn't hear the kids.

Cars were racing around the car park till gone 12 and people coming back slamming doors all night.

DD and I have been up since 3, I feel so guilty they're living like this...

I hope the Local Council is paying for this as you are homeless. Ensure that you notify them of your situation before the offices close tomorrow. In our area Travel Lodge’s are frequently used to house the homeless. You should be provided with a small counter top fridge and microwave which will help.