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.

Great Duck over booking is built into their profit margins.

But how are they making money. In this instance they will have to refund, get a bad review, possibly pay for taxi's and other compensation if someone dug their heels in.

It's to increase occupancy and profit and they will probably claim it's so they can afford to offer the best prices to customers.

From experience they will know that X% of people don't turn up, so if the hotel has 100 rooms, they know that they can book, say up to 102 rooms and nearly always have at least 2 people not show up, so not a problem.

Hotels have all sorts of complicated algorithms based on average occupancy, probably events in the area, time of year, in the week or at weekends and probably other stuff as well.

They say that the problem that the OP has had where there wasn't room for her only affects 0.2% of cases, so it's only 1 in 500 people that they have to reaccomodate at other Travelodges.

And in most cases they will be able to but in this case, they haven't been able to give a room to the OP but the worst thing is that they've gone against their own policy of not bumping single female travellers, but in reality, they shouldn't leave anyone without a room and if there isn't an alternative nearby or the customer doesn't accept it (I wouldn't really want to drive to the other side of Manchester in the middle of the night, and I am reasonably familiar with the area. If I had felt capable of driving, I might have accepted it if they were willing to give me the room for free, or a significant discount for the inconvenience) then they should book them into any other nearby hotel, even if it costs them money, because they've made extra money in the past on their no show policy many times more than thist when rooms have been paid for twice and they haven't been caught out.

25? Christ, at 25 most people I know are parents by that age an more than capable of riding a taxi alone

i was certainly more than capable of getting in a taxi alone at 25! no way would i have slept in a car.

I too don’t understand the hotel doing this for PREPAID rooms. Good luck OP.

I doubt many don't turn up for rooms they have paid for with zero chance of a refund.

are you seriously telling me you were as confident/capable at 35 or 45 as you were at 25?

Yes I am

If you were talking about being fifteen then fair enough, but not being capable or confident getting a cab at 25? That's concerning.

It's a derail, anyway, I was just confused as to what you meant by highlighting 25 as i couldn't imagine I'd read it correctly, but clearly I did!

I noticed last time I stayed in a Premier Inn that they are doing online check in now. I wonder if that's about allocating rooms and enabling overbooking? I have a few days coming up where I have to arrive in a city late at night, and have booked Premier Inn or Travelodge - will definitely do online check in or ring them in the morning now to check they actually have a room for me.

They have to book you out to another hotel! It's also standard practice to upgrade on the original booking... Book yourself into the nearest 5* and send them the bill.
It happens a lot, but they've dealt with it appallingly badly.

I was very immature and lacking in confidence at 25 and would have found something like this very scary and worrying. Not sure I had ever been in a cab at that age. I don't know why people are surprised or critical that some young adults are less mature or confident than others...

No room at the Travel Inn???
I'm disgusted to read this OP. Dreadful set up.
Not much changed with them then , still raking in those extra pounds and putting people at risk.
Several years ago now,TL Leicester. Employer pre booked them because I was working nearby . I've never used TL again.

I'm disabled and don't drive ( epilepsy) so several trains/taxi to get there. Told at reception they would book me elsewhere. I kicked up and refused to leave the premises.
I ended up with a bed in some sort of training room they had. Big whiteboard in there, so I left them some training suggestions. They tried to get me to pay again for the room when it had been pre paid already by my employer.

Have never used them again. Premier Inn has never let me down ( and have not paid me for saying this).

Just to answer a pp, I was too tired to drive and the receptionist was not allowed to authorise a paid taxi.

They say that the problem that the OP has had where there wasn't room for her only affects 0.2% of cases, so it's only 1 in 500 people that they have to reaccomodate at other Travelodges.

Assuming that have 5000 rooms nationwide, that's an awful lot daily ... 10 a day, 70 a week, 3650ish a year ????

I'd also wager it's not evenly spread, so some locations will be more affected than others ?

You'd have needed a cab back to get your car in the morning anyway. Ludicrous.

Personally I think I would've booked a taxi and then reclaimed the cost from Travelodge, but easy to say when you're not in that position. I'm surprised people are surprised that this happens as it's quite a common occurrence. I arrived in Fort William with my young nephew and niece and was told that after me the hotel was full and there were no other hotels with space anywhere near. God knows what happened to the folk who arrived afterwards.

In Australia I remember a hotel just opening a tv room and letting everyone lie down in sleeping bags once they were full, thinking back that was quite a vulnerable position for a single female traveller aged 23.

There was a big football match on last night too. 8.30 pm kick off, Manchester United and Liverpool.
Birch Services would have been really busy, as would the motorways and A roads locally. I'm so sorry you had this happen OP.

We had a terrible experience in the Travelodge Chessington a few years ago. Bathroom not clean, room not hovered, door lock missing cover on the back and so batteries dropping out, tears in the corridor carpet etc., and they reimbursed us more than half the cost of the room.....but we had somewhere to sleep. If the OP didn't even get anywhere to sleep they should reimburse her the cost of the room she didn't get to sleep in twice over, surely.

At the time, Travelodge were owned by Venture Capitalists who were, presumably, trying to turn the company around (.....and on the strength of our experience, bot did it need it) so it was, in effect, being run by accountants not hoteliers. I don't know about the situation now, but write to the CEO and post on Trip Advisor....they do read that!

I’ve had to drive when tired and it’s very dangerous. Throw in an unknown area even more so. TL response here is shocking just to basically let you go out and sleep in your car.

Sorry, I meant to also add that if they have a policy of overbooking then they jolly well should ensure that the receptionist has the authority to arrange a paid-for cab!

Sorry, footie match was City and Liverpool... ahem, important to some.

Wow-you poor thing. What a nightmare!

A surprising amount of jumping on the op for not continuing off her own bat to another hotel in an area she doesn't know when tired. She did the right thing by stopping and in that situation it is always more dangerous to press on beyond your safe limit.

There needs to be a serious change in law regarding service booking of all kinds. Something like if a company does not honour a proven booking for any service without 48 hrs notice then they must pay customer original cost x 7 within 24 hrs or face loss of license and heavy fines. This could apply to everything, airlines, hotels, phone companies not showing for installations etc and would force companies to get their act together and raise business expectations in favour of the customer. Customer service is ancient history and that is only happening because we allow terrible service in the uk.

This is from gov.uk:

Fatigue
Don't drive tired

Studies have shown that drivers don’t fall asleep without warning. Drivers who fall asleep at the wheel have often tried to fight off drowsiness by opening a window, or by turning up the radio. This doesn't work for long.
The facts

Research suggests that almost 20% of accidents on major roads are sleep-related
Sleep-related accidents are more likely than others to result in a fatality or serious injury
Peak times for accidents are in the early hours and after lunch

About 40% of sleep-related accidents involve commercial vehicles
Men under 30 have the highest risk of falling asleep at the wheel

That is absolutely appalling. I never use travel lodge and definitely wont be after reading this thread.

I've stayed in premier inn's literally 100's of times (all over the country) and have never ever had an issue there.

Age 25 in Glasgow....it's hardly 13 or 78 in a farflung foreign city with no grasp of language. But it's still pathetic service....