Comlpaint about noise levels in a travelodge?

kr15snw

Stayed at a travelodge this weekend and have never had a problem before with them.

The room was fine and all was ok until 3:30am when our neighbours came home. I understand we were in the city centre and I can put up with being woken up for 5 minutes while people stumble into rooms.

But this wasnt like that. For 3 hours we had music being played, people screaming, people coming and going constantly. From what we could hear it appeared they had over 20 people in there at one point (and alot were seen leaving the hotel and not coming back, as in they werent guests at the hotel).

On 4 occasions we went to reception to ask them to sort it but no one was there (although they advertised a 24 hour reception). The sign said the receptionist was busy and to press the buzzer for attention. No one came.

My boyfriend went to ask them to be quiet but after one of the guys came back at him, we decided it wasnt safe to.

Next morning the receptionist asked sheepishly if our stay was ok (at this point it was obvious she knew somehting was up). So we explained what happened and she apologised and said they had a lot of complaints from our coridoor and would call us (she had a list of mobile numbers in front of her with room numbers all close to ours).

We havent recieved a call and to be honest were a bit miffed. Yes travelodges are cheap but I still expect to get a nights sleep! Not be kept up for 3 hours by some drunks. What annoyed us the most is that there were no staff to be found to sort the problem!

So, is this worth complaining about? Are we likely to get anywhere with it?

missymugwump

Hi
We had this at A premier travel inn at Hayle
It was awful

Premier travel inn offer a good night guarantee so we were refunded for our room
My OH wrote a letter to the head office as well he felt that the staff didn't stop the problem at the time and by the time they did no one had any sleep for several hours

It involved a heated row in the car park the couple then carried it on through the corridors & into their room

Head office sent us (in addition to our refund at the desk next morning) a £60 voucher

You should complain a hotel is for sleeping in
If they can't control guests they shouldn't be in the business

Personally I would of called the police stating there was a distrubance on the premesis & no staff to be found
Poor you it sounds terrible

hazey31

That's appalling. Sorry for your awful stay.

You should definitely follow this up with a letter of complaint to head office.

Mister-D_3

With hindsight I would have demanded a refund from the receptionist or be asked to be put through to customer services. I would certainly recommend that you write to head office and complain.

Its been years since I worked for Travelodge and they have changed ownership at leat two times over so policy may have changed.

ukjoel

I would write to head office.

It will NEVER get resolved by receptionist for two reasons.

Firstly they are not authorised to give refunds.

Secondly they were the one who by their absence allowed 20 people into one room.

This means they were not at their desk doing the job they were paid for and probably shot off home the minute the last person was signed in.

The company would consider this a gross misconduct offence based on several factors but would quote fire regs and health and safety procedures and they would be instantly dismissed.

Difficult situation when you are there on your own and I would have probably have given up sleeping at 4am and after an hour called the police.

You would then have a crime ref number, everyone would be cleared out the room, travelodge would have been in clear breach of several regulations covering hotels and guest houses and your claim for compensation would be stronger.

luxor4t

I agree, complain to Head Office, don't waste your time with the actual Lodge.

We had a dreadful sleepless night at Glastonbury last spring, with drunken wedding guests shouting & running up and down outside our room. Reception were useless and told us to put complaint in writing.
After two letters, a phonecall & several weeks the "Manager" denied anything had happened etc etc - clearly had not read the letter.
Sadly, we did not copy it to the Head Office.

Good luck with your complaint.

yorksrabbit

Yup, complain in writing, send it by Signed For and give head office seven days to respond. Travelodge contracted to provide you with a night's accommodation, and in Law the reasonable expectation of night-time accommodation is undisturbed rest.

Sadly, your experience is a reflection of the way a once deservedly popular brand has been propgressively devalued; at the cheapo prices Travelodge seems to major on nowadays it's no wonder a cheapo audience of drunken yobs is drawn to it (wow, what an audience profile.)

And though the receptionist is plainly at fault, that failure can only be part of a wider picture relating to investment from staffing levels to property condition.

(The last one we stayed at, we reported it to the local council's Environmental Health department.)

No hotel or hotel group can be responsible for the conduct of hooligan guests but it can make pretty damn sure it doesn't encourage their presence through dirt-cheap pricing and inadequate staffing.

We'll never stay in another Travelodge again. There's enough rubbish out in the streets without it checking in to the next room.

PlutoinCapricorn

I think that Travelodge are great, and have never had any problems. Yes, when you leave the receptionist does usually ask if everything was ok as a matter of routine, but I have also seen comment cards in the rooms and received emails asking for feedback.

This does sound unacceptable, and worth taking further.

kr15snw

Update on this.

Before we got chance to write to them we had a call from the manager, who asked us to explain the situation. We explained about the noise and the fact we had been to reception on multiple occasions during the disturbance, but no-one was there.

He rang back to explain he had checked the cctv tapes and yep he could see me going to the reception and no-one being there. He also noted it was a 24 hour reception so they would be having words with the member of staff!

But anyways, turns out the police got called and next door got chucked out! (explains why it went silent very very quickly).

And we got a full refund

So, thank you travelodge! We are very happy, but wont use that particular one again (he said the police get called far too often as they seem to attract noisy drunks..)

cabbage

I still think its worth writing to head office to complain. Its nice to have a refund but I don't think it covers the effect this had on your night away and the stress it caused.

Its better that Head Office know of this and can take action from their end to prevent it happening..

You never know, you may get a voucher for another nights stay in a quieter hotel to make up for the night you had there, but if not, you know that you've done everything to prevent this happening again.

nearlyrich

It is awful when you get disturbed in a hotel and it doesn't have be a cheap hotel either, I have been disturbed in some very expennsive places by drunken or just ignorant people who think it's OK to yell and scream at each other and slam doors all night when I have to get up for work the next morning.