Travelodge booking system - canny way to rip people off

judywoody

Ok I don't know where to start because I am seriously mad at this company!!

I wanted to book a room for 2 nights in March but to get the cheapest price, you have to book every room and every night for the whole stay seperately. I went into their booking system and they quoted the first night @ £ 32.50 which went through fine (and it's non-refundable)..now I wanted to book the second night. The diary grid showed a price of £32.75 (it still does) and once you click on it it shows £42.75, which is £ 10 dearer (it doesn't say FROM £32.75 on the first page by the way!)

Great, I thought. If I didn't agree with this price I can't even cancel my first booking because it's non-refundable!!

Now I wanted to contact them but obviously they make it as difficult as possible..There is a form that you can use but you can only submit it after you narrowed down your question as much as possible by picking certain options that didn't even apply to my question. If you type in a question in F&Q they even tell you that your question is invalid.. nice one...

I then found out the number for the hotel I am staying in (10 p per minute!!) but after 3 mins on hold they just cut me off!!! Are they joking???

Now I looked into the diary grid again to check the price (which still quoted the same price) and it says on the top in very small letters:

Saver rates shown are for 1-night stays and availability was correct at 6am this morning. Rates displayed may have sold out.


Is that how they can get away with it???

Not sure what to do now as I really don't understand how they can do that? I wouldn't have booked the whole stay if I had known that the price just "suddenly" changes once you make the second booking. My hubby said he experiences the same a few years ago with travelodge and said he thinks it's because they log your IP address and know that you already made a booking and kind of force you to purchase the following night at a dearer rate since you can't cancel the first one any more...

I would really like to investigate that because it feels incredibly unfair - We really have to save every penny and this is a necessary stay, not a holiday.

hcb42

why wouldnt you just book it all as a consecutive stay?

I dont book travelodge very often, but I would say that I think your hubby's thought is way off. Hotels do not automatically update their pricing strategies based on IP address or indeed previous bookings and they are not dynamic enough to do this anyway, plus very few people book a multi night stay as a separate booking...so even if they could do this it would be a waste of programming energy.

They will have limited availabiltiy on the cheaper room types, that part is unquestionable. More likely that the rate is available on some nights and not others.

Dont know the best way to contact them though, Try saynoto 0870 website perhaps?

judywoody

Hi hcb - you can't book 2 nights at once. Unless you are willing to pay 50£ per night for a rubbish hotel without breakfast. You HAVE to book seperately if you want to use the offer. Yes, it's still cheaper than paying 50£ but the point is that the price only changed AFTER I booked the first night. And the grid still shows the lower price. It only changes when you click on it. Now I can't cancel my booking for the first night as I don't get a refund. I don't believe that within 5 minutes the lower rate for the second night sold out. We stay in a Travelodge that's not massively popular (like the city center).

Thanks I got a number now from that website but they are closed so have to try tomorrow morning.

Oh just to clarify: they did indeed quote that particular price for the night I wanted to book - it's not like an offer subject to availability. this is actually the more expensive one as it's a weekend. All the other days are 15£ :-(

p00hsticks

judywoody wrote: »

To get the cheapest price, you have to book every room and every night for the whole stay seperately.

....

Great, I thought. If I didn't agree with this price I can't even cancel my first booking because it's non-refundable!!

FYI, although it's true that Travelodge recommend that to get the best rates for multi-night stays you should book each night separately, I think that you can book multiple rooms for a single night and get offered the best rate for each room.

Their suggestion is NOT that you complete the full process each time - you should just select the individual requirements for each night and add to your basket. You then only complete the payment part of the booking at the end when you know that you have been able to make all the bookings you need.

From their website;

How can I make sure I get the lowest price for a multi-night stay?

It may be cheaper to book a multi-night stay by making several one night bookings, using a mixture of Flexible and Saver rates.

To do this:

Select the first night of your stay and click 'book now'Choose the extras for that first night and click on the link 'Add another stay' at the bottom of the Extras page. The first night will then appear in the basket.Then repeat the process each additional night of your stay. Note that you will have to select the extras for each night that you add to your basketOnce all nights are in your basket, click the 'Complete Booking' link in the basked and proceed to paymentYour confirmation of booking email will contain multiple confirmation numbers which relate to the individual nights booked and the terms may differ for each of these reservations. See our terms and conditions.

judywoody wrote: »

My hubby said he experiences the same a few years ago with travelodge and said he thinks it's because they log your IP address and know that you already made a booking and kind of force you to purchase the following night at a dearer rate since you can't cancel the first one any more...

I don't think it's anywhere near as sophisticated as that - they just have a certain amount of non-cancellable 'saver' rooms available at lower rates, and once they have sold those out then only the higher priced 'flexible' rates are availalbe.

judywoody

Thanks, I must have overlooked that - probably because their website is not very user-friendly. I tried to book more than 1 night but couldn't amend it. But I was unaware that I could put a room in a "basket" as the website immediately directed me to the payment site...I will check the price again tomorrow morning (I presume they must update every morning at 6 am) and it should show the new price. If not I will seriously complain with them.

edit: just tried to do as suggested and as I said it doesn't give me the option of booking an additional room, I have to pay straight away and then start a new booking...but I can direct away from the page and look for another room and on the side it shows I have a room in my basket - that's not really obvious.

OsborneViewpoint

Or,as I did, I booked the first night, and my OA booked the following night.
We both got the cheapest rate available and, when there, stayed in the same room continuously.
If we had needed a 3rd night, then I would have booked that.

p00hsticks

hcb42 wrote: »

why wouldnt you just book it all as a consecutive stay?

See my post above, which included a quote from Travelodges own website recommending that to get the best prices you book multi-night stays one night at a time. Travelodge's booking system is pretty unsophisticated and their pricing system is very complex, with prices varying from night to night and depending on whether they are 'saver' or 'flexible' rates. If you just book (for example) a four night stay, you will get charged for four nights at the most epxensive rate that applies. If you book each of the four nights separately, you will be offered the best available rate for each night.

judywoody

All I know is I won't be using them anymore...

judywoody

p00hsticks wrote: »

I don't think it's anywhere near as sophisticated as that - they just have a certain amount of non-cancellable 'saver' rooms available at lower rates, and once they have sold those out then only the higher priced 'flexible' rates are availalbe.

As I said, that's fair enough but they should amend the price once it's sold out and don't lead people into thinking it's cheaper on that date and when clicking on the link it's ten pound dearer.

Whiteknight

I managed to book two nights at the same time on the "Saver" rate for March, was a little annoyed to find the price had gone up since I had look on Saturday - from £15 a night to £19.50 still a good deal.

hemophobic

I booked 2 nights in the £12 sale so had to do it in 2 bookings. Do I have to check out in between?