Travelodge on Watchdog tonight

colmil

For those who did not see' Watchdog' tonight, Travelodge have been deliberately overbooking rooms to ensure absolute maximum occupancy.

Along with Travelinn, we use Travelodge on a very regular basis for business stays, I now have grave doubts if I will ever use them again.....

Your comments are welcome.

alanrowell

I would have thought you would have had experience of being overbooked

code-a-holic

Have used them quite a bit over the past year and never experienced this. Never even heared they did this....

colmil

I've always regarded Travelodge as being a very good company, and would not have stayed again if they let me down even once.

I have only once experienced overbooking, at a Premier Lodge when I arrived two minutes before someone else and got the last room, he had to travel to the other side of Leicester.

The most important point here is that, due to an eyesight problem, I cannot drive any more, so I travel by train a lot, so if I booked a room at a centrally based Travelodge, such as a city centre one, I would have no way of going anywhere else.

This has really come as a shock to me, as we keep our costs down by using the budget hotels,and quite simply cannot afford to pay £120 or so a night.

jackieb

I watched the programme too. They say that they overbook incase people don't turn up. But if people pre-book they take their credit details and charge them if they don't turn up. Why overbook if they're going to get their money anyway?

I had no idea this happened. I've used them in the past and would be wary of using them in the future after seeing this.

richardw

They turned up late in the evening, which is a thing to avoid at any hotel anywhere.

reehsetin

stupidness - they were saying even if you ring earlier in the day and confirm your room they will still give it away,
and people getting charged for not turning up when they were actually turned away is absolutly ridiculous!

jackieb

richardw wrote:

They turned up late in the evening, which is a thing to avoid at any hotel anywhere.

I meant to quote you not thank you. Never mind.

It says that you can book in anytime up to 6am, so it shouldn't matter what time you book yourself in. You might have been travelling (duh, obviously, it's a Travelodge lol), or to a wedding or concert or something, and not managed to get there beforehand. If it says you can book in up to 6am you should be able to book in up to 6am!

stevebananer

Yes, you can book in up to 6 am unless they've given your room to someone else and then maybe charged both you and the people who took 'your' bed!
I have a couple of nights booked at a Travelodge next month, now I'm almost thinking I need to forego my daytime sightseeing to make sure I get my room.
Wonder if I'd have the nerve to ask the night clerk for the keys to their place, as they wouldn't be needing their bed that night...

csarina

I am now seriously worried. We have a booking at the Chester Northop Hall Travel Lodge outside Chester for a 2 night stay in December........ travelling from the midlands I have no desire to get there and find we have not got a room I have paid for and be forced to travel to another Travel Lodge which may not be so convenient for us.

They say the earliest you can book in is 3pm, I guess we will be sitiing outside until 3pm to make sure we get a room.....

I think overbooking is very bad practice on their part.........pressure should be brought to bear to outlaw the practice.

We had the same thing happen to us in France. We had booked via the internet into a hotel in Monmartre in Paris, we arrived early and left our suitcases whilst we went for lunch, when we got back just after the 2pm booking in time, we were told that we had to go to another hotel.... no reason given, but I can guess why. The substitution was ok but did not have the same facilities as the first hotel and the metro station had 92 steps up to ground level. which for two of us in our third age almost finished us off.
It was not until we booked into the hotel we were told that there was a lift!!!!

saveapenny

This goes on in all hotels ...read Hotel Babylon some great tips in there on how to avoid it and using it to your advantage