Ross and I decided where to go on a weekend pub and history expedition primarily on the affordability of the hotels, with the Travelodge in Christchurch being rather decent value for money. The welcome was prompt and efficient, with the room allocation being reasonable (by this, I mean that Ross didn’t get a better room than me).
I forgot to take a photo of the room, but it looked like most other refurbished Travelodge rooms, so I’m sure my two loyal blog readers will be satisfied with that knowledge. I’m not sure what this little external area was, but I think it’s linked with one of the cafes that is in the shopping arcade below.
This Travelodge is too small for a bar cafe, so they don’t offer meals of any kind, including breakfast. They do offer this breakfast box, but I’m not sure why they bother as I’ve only ever seen negative reviews of it. There is an M&S and Waitrose that are both within a two minute walk (and a Greggs) so they’d likely offer better value.
Anyway, there were no noise disturbances either internally or externally, with the room being clean and functional. I had a look at the reviews, which are sort of positive. This one sounds exciting:
“Violent, drunk guest banging on our door throughout the night, scaring our 6 month old puppy. The guest went up and down the first floor throwing himself against the doors to other rooms while shouting and screaming to “let him the **** in before he * kills us”. This went on from 10.30pm through to 4am! We tried to phone down to reception, the call would not go through.”
I would have just phoned the police if this had genuinely gone on for five and a half hours. I would have thought that he’d wear himself out banging about for that long.
“However – what let it down was the view – through a small window over a flat roof to a wall and other room windows . Really felt like being in a prison cell. I explained I’m claustrophobic but was told the rooms are allocated automatically and can’t be changed.”
This reminds me that there’s a new Travelodge idea to charge people in advance to pick their room. This feels a poor idea to me that’s driven by accountants, it gives the impression that those who don’t pay will get a poorly located room rather than it being somewhat more random…..
“Booked and paid in advance for a room for the night of 25 August. Confirmed with the hotel the afternoon of arrival that we would be checking in that evening. On arrival at 7:30 pm we were told that the hotel was overbooked and there were no rooms available. We were offered an alternative ten miles away in Poole, which we declined.”
Travelodge does this overbooking thing way too much….. The number of complaints about it is excessive….
“No sleep, workers banging and drilling at 7am, door knocked on to ask if they gain entry to change the locks, did not feel safe or rested.”
This feels sub-optimal…
“Basic hotel at best but fit for purpose. However, our key cards frequently stopped working which we later discovered was due to them being incorrectly programmed. This led to another guest entering our room during the night. Although he understood and left immediately, the potential risk was significant. Reception staff did not understand the gravity of the situation and their response was disproportionate.”
My key card stopped working and reception gave me a new one, but took it on trust that I actually had a room there. I’d rather agree that the safety provision is a little inadequate….
Anyway, I was perfectly happy with the stay, the hotel was clean, the team members were friendly and there were no noise disturbances (although the seagulls could be quite vocal). I’d merrily stay here again.