Travelodge
Customers of the budget hotel chain Travelodge have been turning up to check in to pre-booked, guaranteed rooms, only to be told the hotel's full and they'll have to stay elsewhere. Watchdog investigates.
here are the details
24 October 2006
David Coxhead booked and paid for two rooms at the Travelodge in Battersea three weeks in advance. But when he tried to check in to his 'guaranteed' rooms, staff told David the hotel was full. The nearest room staff could find for him was in a Travelodge in Wembley, 16km (ten miles) away on the other side of the capital.
Coxhead said: "The journey across London was pretty horrendous. We didn't know the area at all and struggled to find our way. It was a bit of a fluke that we actually found where we were going to."
Coxhead had been overbooked, but it was no accident.
A Travelodge staff training video revealed that it's company policy to overbook its hotels. It sells more hotel rooms than it has available. Once all rooms are full, anyone else turning up will be sent to another hotel, even if they've booked in advance.
But not everyone gets an alternative room.
Jeremy Wright tried to check in at a Travelodge after a wedding in Somerset. He arrived at midnight but, despite his guaranteed booking, staff had no room for him. They tried other Travelodges, but to no avail. Wright resorted to sleeping on the floor of a room of a fellow wedding guest.
Travelodge charged Coxhead an extra £60 for his stay in Wembley. And Wright was charged £55, even though he had to sleep on the floor in a friend's room.
A Travelodge whistleblower said: "Overbooking comes first before the guests' welfare or satisfaction." He explained that "the last person to turn up gets outbooked to another hotel. It doesn't matter if they booked six months ago."
Watchdog researchers booked three rooms at a Travelodge in London. Each went to check in late at night, but well within Travelodge's terms and conditions. All were told the hotel was full, and that, despite their bookings, there were no rooms available.
Researchers booked a further seven rooms across the UK. They got their rooms, but staff at the hotels confirmed that overbooking is a constant problem.
Travelodge provided Watchdog with the following statement.