Travelodge Tips

Following my Travelodge Tales last week, I promised to share a few tips with you on how to get the most from your Travelodge stay.

Despite some mixed reports, I feel that Travelodge offer good value, basic rooms, which are sufficient for overnight/short stays, whilst visiting family or friends, breaking a long journey or for going to visitor attractions that are too far from home to visit in a day.

Just remember the following points to help make your stay an enjoyable one.

1. Book at least 21 days in advance to get the best deals, which can cost from just £19 per night for a family room.
2. Don’t expect luxury, rooms contain what you need without the frills. If you want luxury, then Travelodge is not for you.
3. If you have children staying in your room, remember they will need towels as a maximum of two bath and two hand towels are allocated per room per day regardless of the number of occupants.
4. If you don’t have enough pillows, then do ask for more. Travelodge are usually happy to provide extra on request.
5. If you have children staying with you, take some extra cups as usually only two are provided per room.
6. Daily provisions for each room usually include two tea bags, two sachets of regular coffee, two sachets of decaffeinated coffee, some sugar sachets and four pots of milk, so consider taking some extra supplies. I often take sachets of instant latte or hot chocolate and cold drinks can be useful, as the rooms can get quite warm.
7. Check on parking facilities when booking. Information is available on the Travelodge website for each individual branch. Out of town Travelodges tend to have reasonably sized, free car parks, although some may have limited spaces. However, branches in towns and cities tend not to have their own car parks, and you will often be directed to a local car park instead. In some cases, this can prove costly, adding somewhat to the price of your stay. On our recent Travelodge stay at Norwich Central, we used the local (Chapelfields) shopping centre car park, costing a flat fee of just £1.50 for parking between 3pm and 8am, even when we stayed until almost 11am the following day it only cost £4.40. This was a secure car park, which was locked at night.
8. Plan where you are going to eat. Many Travelodges do not have their own restaurants, although many have a Little Chef or some such eating-place next door. These can be pricey and not always great. Even when we stayed at a Travelodge that did have a restaurant we did not eat there, as their menu seemed quite dear for what was on offer. We tend to make good use of out-of-town supermarket cafés (great for cheap breakfasts) or trusted local pub chains for evening meals.
9. If you do have any complaints report them to reception, but clearly and politely. The poor person on reception may not actually be responsible for your problem and it’s not going to help shouting at them.

Enjoy your stay.

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