£15 Travelodge Xmas Sale

dashy_2

we booked 2 double rooms in a travel lodge 2 years ago in manchester we didnt have time to book in early as we had to get to the match we arrived at travel lodge around 10pm got turned away saying that our rooms had gone as we were late even tho i did ring at lunch time to say we may be late, we ended up driving all the way home not happy at all btw all the other hotels were fully booked due to match, i complained when we got home they sent us free vouchers for 2 nite stay at any other travel lodge and a full refund we have never used travel lodge since my OH chucked the vouchers in the bin thats just my experience tho.

sandybrag

I think all anyone asks that when you book a room and it is "Guaranteed", you want it to mean just that, and you want it to be there when you arrive.

Its completely unnacceptable and a disgusting way to run a business. Travel Lodge should be ashamed. Good on Watchdog for exposing this scam putting profits before customer care and safety, although its not only Travel Lodge doing it, so be careful.

If you do get caught out, take em the small claims when you have to find alternative accomdation. The least they can do is pay up for you to be accomdated elsewhere.

Its no good a few people saying "oh well, its been fine when Ive been there, so there cant be a problem". When you get caught out you with will be seething, and if you have a family it tow too, its just not worth the risk in the first place.

Nicholas

Babbler wrote:

What amuses me is the people just took it and put up little resistance. I would have said "fine, call the police. Im sleeping here in the corridor until you get me a room here". or suied for breach of contract! This would never happen in the states.

Can you imagine and American turning up to be told they had no room even though they were guaranteed one??? Hmmmm...

One old bloke slept in his car!!! :eek:

Actually, it almost happened to us in June 2004 in Scottsdale, Arizona. I booked all my rooms through Best Western, and Scottsdale was the last night. Got there about 4 in the afternoon, and there was no sign of our booking on their system. Luckily they had 1 room left. I showed her my printout, and even logged into the internet on their PC to show them my booking, but if that last room was not available, they would have had to ring around for us to stay elsewhere.

Oh, and before anyone says "isolated incident", out of 14 rooms 4 were not showing on their booking, 1 was showing twice, and 6 others thought it was OK to try and charge us more than than the our guaranteed rate, and two thought it was OK to scrap the free breakfasts we thought we were getting when we booked and confirmed.

kit

I got a reply! Here it is:

Thank you for contacting us with regards to your future stay. I would
like to confirm that I have located your booking and have placed a note
on the system to notify the hotel that you have confirmed your
reservation.

If you would like to notify the hotel of the time that you anticipate
arriving, please do contact the hotel on the day of your stay and they
will be pleased to update their system.

Thank you once again for your e-mail, and we look forward to seeing you
soon.

Kind regards

mmmmmm, it all sounds nice enough but does it really say my room is
guaranteed? No, I dont think it does. Rest assured I will be phoning
the month before, the week before and the day before to make sure!

gwapenut

From their booking terms and conditions "In the event that a room is unavailable on arrival due to overbooking (please see the "What is Overbooking?" question in the General Help section of the Travelodge Help for further information), our staff will attempt to locate suitable alternative local accommodation at no extra charge. Where this is not possible or alternative accommodation is not required, we will cancel the booking. Where the room has been paid for in advance, we will refund the sum paid for the room to the credit/debit card used for payment. "

I'm no lawyer, but to my mind, this means that if they claim not to be able to find alternative local accommodation, ie refuse to offer another hotel at no extra charge, but the traveller IS able to find a comparable local hotel, then I reckon a claim in the small claims court would be successful - their own T&Cs imply they are only entitled to refund money if they are unable to locate a suitable local alternative, not at their own discretion.

Of course, a few people taking their custom elsewhere won't hurt their profits. A class action of lots of people booking full rate "flexible" rooms for the same day, then cancelling without charge at 3:30 pm on the day itself, would cause a more noticeable dent!

But that's my silly vindictive nature coming out when I feel "wronged" by a company. I guess on balance vastly more people, myself included, benefit from cheap Travelodge rates than those who suffer. A more mature alternative might be for all those affected by overbooking to pursue any out-of-pocket expenses through the small claims court.

How on earth can they legally use the word "guaranteed" as part of the booking process?!? Surely the overbooking clause becomes an unfair contractual term when the headline is "use your credit card to guarantee the room" ...? I just can't see how it's legal ....

devild_2

GabbaGabbaHey wrote:

I did watch it closely. I was pointing out that nobody here has had this experience, and many of us stay at Travelodges reasonably often.

COLOR]

That isn't what you said. You stated "Before we completely condemn Travelodge, how often do they actually have to turn people with a guaranteed booking away?"

I was pointing out that the staff stated this happened all the time. I would therefore expect they would be in a position to know the extent of the problem. I have stayed in Travelodges in the past and never had a problem but I have never used one in London for instance which obviously has a high demand. If the programme targeted similar areas they could obviously skew the extent of the problem. Lies, damn lies and statistics

kipper_2-2

Travelodge

Just got this as an email


Here’s advance notice of an early Christmas present from Travelodge.
We believe that it is always better to give than to receive. Which is why from 6pm this Thursday, we’re making 200,000 rooms available exclusively online for booking at just £15*! How’s that for an early Christmas present?

*All rates are subject to availability at the time of booking and may not be available at every hotel


So, if you want to spend a weekend away shopping or visit your loved ones between 17th December and 21st January, book before 26th November and you could have a clean and comfortable room for a fabulously festive £15


HTH Someone

jetty

oooooooooooooooooo, thanks i might just grab one of those!

Mandles

Try jan 23rd to 29th there are tonnes!! You could stay a whole week somewhere.

janeym8

i have just managed to book 2 £15 rooms tonight that were not there last week and when i searched for a supersaver room they only advertised that price for the friday night but i got the sat night at same price when went to book .so i eventually got 2 family rooms for 2 nights 15th and 16th dec for the total price of £60.
was so pleased i hadnt booked the travel inn as i was going to do last week as that was gonna cost over £300.now thaTS WHAT I CALL GETTING A BARGAIN LOL

mega mega thanks for this

JANEY XXX