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.

By some weird coincidene one of my tasks today was to book a tracelodge room for an upcoming trip. I will now be premiere inning it!

How awful op! I can’t believe they do this as standard practice. Thanks for bringing it to my attention though, I definitely won’t book any more travel lodge rooms when I need to break up a journey. I’ll probably just go for independent pubs with rooms or something. They seem more likely to only take money for rooms they actually have available!

It's not a normal Tuesday night though is it, its Easter hols
I agree that this would make a difference in city centres or places of interest but I can't imagine Birch services just outside Bury is overrun with holiday makers...

@Cakefortea1 - same for where I used to work. And it also wasn't Travelodge.

Disgraceful! I would tweet this and kick up a massive fuss as you’ve booked and paid for a room! I hope they found you somewhere else and you didn’t end up sleeping in your car.

This is terrible. OP did you get any sleep at all? I hope you're doing ok. I can't believe this is possible and I'll definitely avoid booking Travelodge for work bookings in the future - I've been bumped from hotels before and sent further down the road, but I've never been told there's nothing available at all. It's shocking and really worrying. I can't believe in one night they've left a woman sleeping in her car and then a family with a disabled parent and a baby in a pram walking the streets without a room, both of whom had prepaid to guarantee their rooms. It's genuinely awful.

I hope any DM journalist reading this thread waves does a Twitter hashtag search for #travelodge and puts together a nice story clarifying this disgusting policy and how it leaves vulnerable people massively inconvenienced and in some cases in danger. Preferably with LOTS of screenshots of the outraged tweets. I'd ring Shakila Ahmed, Comms Director for your quote. HTH.

Ha, I've never helped the Daily Mail before. I feel sort of dirty.

In all seriousness though, OP this is an awful situation. I hope you get your refund and compensation and wherever you're driving on to today you can get there relatively easily and have a fairly gentle day.

I’ve worked in hotel receptions. If I was planning to arrive after 8pm, even with a prepaid booking, I would not only mention it when booking, but would also give the hotel a call in the late afternoon / early evening to make sure the staff on shift knew I was definitely coming. Rebooking rooms is common practice.
I really hope you managed to resolve the situation in some way, OP.

Dreadful!

@EleanorRobinson she did ring the hotel to say she’d be late.

I'm so sorry I didn't see this last night as I live very close and could at least have offered you a couch.

In your screeching at them today, as why they didn't move you to Pilsworth? It's 2 junctions away from where you!

That's terrifying to be honest. On occasions such as to / from a holiday I have often arrived with my kids very late at night or during the night to check in, and we don't have a car. I would be really pissed off in your situation!

Hope you are ok OP, and manage to get your refund and some compensation.

Totally awful. I’m horrified.

The whole of the M60/62 isn’t closed overnight around there. It would have been easy enough to get to Ancoats from where you are, it’s well signposted and only about 20 minutes away. You’ve obviously got internet, so a quick google would have given you directions if you haven’t got a SAT Nav,

Obviously it’s dreadful that they double book like that and I don’t agree with that at all, totally unacceptable. But, I think you are being a bit unreasonable in thinking it’s a better alternative to sleep in the car than to drive 20-25 minutes to the alternative offered.

At the very least the hotel should have booked a taxi for the OP to follow to an alternative hotel.

The practicalities of navigating to another hotel are neither here nor there. The op's room should have been ready for her, no two ways about it.

Op let them know she'd be late, so she even tried to help them not be complete shits by selling her paid-for room to the first person who asked for it.

It's the mercenary business practice that's an issue here, not whether a tired solo traveler could have got round the M62 roadworks to a hotel she didn't want to stop at.

Travellodge. Bleurgh.

The last time i stayed in a travellodge, one of the staff used his master key card to let himself and one of his buddies in (while I was in bed) to try and steal what he could. When I screamed, he left, but when I got to reception to complain there was a queue of people who had had stuff taken. The police caught him.
This was a long time ago, 2009, and there was no phone in the room so I couldn't even call for help, and there was no number available that I could call using my mobile.
I don't know if there are now phones in the room, as I have never been back but I certainly wouldn't stay in one of their hotels ever again.

Surely though if you have booked and paid, you have a contract with them which they are obliged to fulfil? It's not like they will lose revenue.

@crowd @ladypenelope68 it's already been established that the hotel should have provided a taxi to the alternative hotel as part of company policy in these situations. Talk about blaming the victim.

I can’t imagine how horrendous and cold this will have been.

And you can’t shower 😣

The fact you rang to confirm in the afternoon and they still resold it is absolutely shocking.

I hope a newspaper picks this up they are arseholes of the highest order.

I wonder if it's worth (if you've booked a room) phoning them to say you are on your way and will be with them at X time. Or do they just dish out the rooms on a first come first served basis so you still might have no room when you get there. Perhaps someone who's posted knows?

How are you this morning OP?

I used to work for DeVere hotels in the 1990's in Cambridge city centre....it was common practice then too...I used to feel awful but we would provide a taxi and the guest could leave there car in our car park....
I can't understand why it still happens.....surely the complaints and negativity outweigh any benefit.

Their T&C state they will pay reasonable travel costs to a room in an alternate hotel, That to me would be the cost incurred to drive to that alternative hotel where a room was waiting, since the OP had driven to this hotel. Refusing to take up the rescheduled room, which is clearly an option in their T&C doesn’t exactly hold the OP in good stead!

My chin is on the floor reading this. Absolutely disgusting. They are not exactly living up to their name of travel lodge. The whole point of one is that you get there after a long day's travel to fall into bed. I will never book one again.

Oh for God's sake, of course she thought it was worth ringing to let them know.

She fucking said she did just that.

Can MNHQ please put a comprehension test on the registration page? This gets ever more fucking ridiculous.