Travel lodge. Am fucking fuming

[IAmNoAngel]

I am currently bedding down in the car park of the travel lodge at Birch services on the M62 as the room I booked and paid for over a month ago has been double booked and there are no rooms left.

Am especially pissed off as have driven here straight after a 6.30 start this morning and a long day at work... in Nottingham. So a nice tiring drive as well.

I have stayed here a lot. I never will again. Cunts.

I doubt it's that the TravelLodge employees lack initiative it is probably more likely they lack the authorisation to do anything and are shit scared of losing their jobs.

Ugh, I really hope you're OK this morning and not too cold or stiff. Absolutely appalling from Travellodge. I have had poor experiences with them in the past, but nothing on this scale. I now book Premier Inn in preference!

I feel really sorry for you OP and hope you can catch up on sleep when you get home. It’s nearly 8 years since they did the same to me and I haven’t set foot in a Travelodge since.

We had a long drive from the NE to Cornwall and were stoping overnight near the M5 in a prepaid room. Arrived at 11pm to a hotel in chaos - there’d been one member of staff there all day so none of the rooms had been cleaned and they were turning everyone away. DS was 3, I was pregnant with bad sickness and SPD so It was always going to be a difficult journey but this just made it 10 times worse. They found us a 5* hotel in Bristol but insisted we had to pay and then claim it back later which we refused. Eventually they found us 2 rooms in a local b&b and we got to bed at 1am. I know they don’t care but we’ve spent £000s since with Premier Inn which serves them right.

If you'd booked without paying I might understand it, but if you have a pre-paid (non refundable) booking then the hotel is in breach of contract.... and there is NO justification for them re-selling the room - they just want to "have their cake and eat it", being paid twice for the same room - a truly disgusting policy which should be made illegal.
If they got a £10 000 fine every time they shunted someone then it might help to concentrate their minds on customer service rather than profit. Presumably at present even the costs of taxis and free breakfasts are offset by being paid twice for several rooms.
I too will be avoiding TL from now on due to their unscrupulous business practices..

That’s shocking! 😡

This is fairly common practice unfortunately. I had a similar experience when I rang a Hilton hotel to tell them we would be arriving late & they blithely told me rooms were allocated on a first come, first served basis and the room might not be available!

As we were going to be arriving on an extremely busy weekend, late at night after a long drive having travelled straight from work, I was livid & remember emailing the manager telling him that unless I dropped dead that day, I'd definitely be turning up & expected a room I'd paid for up front to be available.

It's extremely shoddy - WatchDog ought to get involved in this.

After reading this thread I won’t be bookings travel lodge ever.

That's not travelogical

I'll be sure not to book them again, I hope you're well, safe and warm

This is awful. I’ve used premier inn and travelodge when I’ve flown for work to different uk parts. Imagine flying up from London to Edinburgh and getting to your hotel ‘sorry you’ve no room’. What the fuck are you meant to do, you book and pay for a room so you know you’ve got that bit sorted and safe for when you get there. Doing this is just wrong

I daresay TL can run a script to refund all last night's bumps in one go, and send out a hollow apology in the same run!

Yes if they do it on a large scale - the amount gained per customer wouldn't be much but then its a small margin business at the low end.

That if you work minimum wage you "pretty much guarantee zero initiative.

I think the problem is that the cheap chains don't only pay low wages on zero hours contracts (or similar) but they don't invest in the training and provide the management support.

Leaving a low cost receptionist in sole charge of a hotel at night with no power to go off script is a recipe for bad customer service. IME Premier Inns work on a similar model.

I used to be a hotel receptionist and this is quite common! I think it’s disgraceful. Of course it’s the reservations team who double book from the comfort of their cost office and then leave the receptionists to deal with the fall out. Tbf, it only happened once that everyone turned up. Usually they double book and enough people cancelled last minute so that it didn’t matter. The time it did happen was mega stressful for us and more so for the guests. We managed to find them alternative accommodation but obviously they were piiiiiiisssssed off.

Sorry you've had such a crap experience OP. Tonight's sleep will be bliss!

I arrived late at a TL near Luton airport once and ended up in a room with no curtain, which also had a bright light outside. The staff tried to help by getting a sheet to hang at the window, but it didn't do much good.

I took photos and complained by email that the room wasn't fit for purpose and eventually got a refund. It took months of chasing, though.

Oh and I did earn minimum wage but I have a pretty good degree from a top university. One of the barmen had a law degree. Don’t underestimate hotel staff .

i would have thought people underbooked to make sure there is always at least a few spare rooms.im sure this is how it used to work.but now current climate I suppose has meant they need to make sure they get every available money so now overbook just incase someone cancels.
then surely this happens more than one offs,double booking must make this happen often.

For once, I hope this thread does get picked up by the press.

The least they could have done is offer you a duvet and towel!! I hope you get compensation for this OP, this is insane.

I don't actually think Premier Inn do this as we often book extremely popular hotels in August near ferry ports for early morning ferries. Having the one nearest the ferry is crucial and we always turn up very late due to living miles away. Never ever had a problem. In fact bar the aircon I have never ever had any issue with PI ever. My sister uses hotels a lot for work, not keen on the thought of this ever happening to her late at night. Will give her a heads up to avoid TL.

I cannot believe the staff TL let you stay in the car park. Why didn't they sort out taxis to another hotel for you? Crazy...

Stayed once in a family room that stank of fags, cig burns all over the settee bed. We all got bitten by bed bugs.
And the 4 of us were expected to share 1 pillow.

kateandme what do you mean by 'current climate'?

I always use Premier Inn and haven’t had a problem so far...

Would never use Travelodge though.

I've not heard of Premier Inn doing this and have never had a problem with them myself (including when I had to live in one for over 2 months due to disaster!).

But they did refuse to let my friend book into her room at 11.30pm one night, on the grounds that she was a prostitute. The receptionist guy told her 'We're getting fed up of having to tell you lot'. She is a primary school teacher and had just driven about 400 miles, hence the late arrival. I'm utterly baffled as to how she could be mistaken for a prostitute. He threatened to call the police if she didn't leave, so she drove up the road and stayed at a naicer class of establishment, who had no problem letting her stay! She did get an apology, refund and I think a voucher when she complained to head office.

Not had time to read full thread this morning, and maybe its been suggested, but posting on Tripadviser would be a good idea

Oh my god OP what a nightmare scenario, I’m so sorry you’ve had to dealt with this incompetence.
But I have to say I’m so impressed with how you’re making do - showering in services, sleeping in car etc - you’re clearly very resilient!!

Just checked on their website. They have a lot of rooms in tge UK and Spain - over 40,000. 0.2% is a lots of pissed off individuals - that could be 800 room bookings a night if they were all full - and they're not all going to be individuals, that will include couples and families and groups so you could be looking at 2000 people or more a night thinking they have a booking but beu
Ing turfed out into the night...

Definitely think they should have rung around and sent you by taxi to another hotel nearby, not just one of their own that was even more of a pain to get to than normal.

Overbooking prepaid rooms doesn't seem right as a general policy. However, I agree with itsalmostsummer on being careful what is said re or to TL based on just this thread.