Travelodge London Kew Bridge

Arrived at the hotel at 2300, following a 10 hour drive from Scotland to discover, although we had booked a room there were no rooms available. There were several other people in the same predicament. We were offered a taxi to another hotel. However, we had our dogs with us and therefore we had to go in our own car. Firstly, we were offered another hotel close by. I asked the duty manager, Hannah to ensure they would accept the dogs. She did not ask them on the phone and when I asked her she said they would accept the pets. To make sure, I asked her to call the hotel again and the hotel said they would not accept pets.

We were then offered a travelodge hotel in Brentford and was informed it is a 'centre of excellence'. If this hotel is a centre of excellence I dread to think what the other hotels look like!

We then travelled back to Kew and discovered another customer checking in at reception. When I questioned the receptionist about this I was informed, very rudely that this customer had arrived earlier in the day to guarantee a room. The customer arrived back at reception 2 minutes earlier to say that there was someone already in this room!

With much persuausion we were eventually allocated a room (even though I had been informed there were no rooms left). The room was filthy. The toilet had not been cleaned and had faeces on the toilet seat and the duvet was covered in stains which looked like dried in vomit!

I complained to the duty manager, re sending us to the 'centre of excellence' hotel and about the cleanliness of the room and she replied 'do not fuss with me'!

Eventually, we were given a room in Heathrow terminal 5 for one night and we were informed we HAD to return back to Kew for the rest of our booking. I informed her we would not return to this filthy hotel and she said we had no other alternative but to return there the next day.

Arrived at the heathrow hotel to find it was modern and reasonably clean. We were told the next day we did not have to return to Kew. Phew!!

On the third night our keycard would not allow us access into the lift or to our room. I went to reception three times and eventually it worked. However, the room had been cleaned and they had changed the duvet cover with a cover which had stains on it and the bathroom sink was covered in pubic hairs.

I went to reception to complain and the receptionist and duty manager informed me very bluntly that their policy is to change the duvet cover after the 4th night stay and therefore it must have been the duvet we had been using. They were both very rude and incorrect.

We were allocated another 4 rooms and each room smelt badly, had stains on it and was not clean. When we were on our way to be shown another substandard room, the member of staff was talking to a colleague through a walkie talkie and we overheard them saying we were 'complainers' as we complained in Kew and to not give us another room. We ended up having a poor nights sleep on the sofa in the original room.

We will never stay in Travleshodge again. The may be cheap, but even then it is not worth the money!

Travelodge management should be ashamed of themselves. They have the potential of assets in their staff, but through shabby policies, no training and a total disregard for the satisfaction of their customers they are alienating most of their share of the market. We arrived at 12.30 on the afternoon of our booking. Planning to head into central London to shop, eat and see a show, we told the receptionist that we were here and that we did not need our rooms or room keys, we just wished to ensure that if we returned at 11/11.30pm later that day there would still be a room. Names and booking references exchange, assurances made, we left. Fast forward to 1130pm - No rooms (we had booked and paid for two doubles). We were promised a speedy taxi to the nearest available lodge (Heathrow Term 5) and the receptionist advised that the taxi would take @ 15-20 minutes, but to have free drinks while we waited. An inattentive bar man mutely shrugged to any question we asked and we gave up and helped ourselves to cups of tea. Taxi arrived.....driver didn't know where he was going and took us to the terminal building. AN HOUR AND A HALF later we arrived. Checked in swiftly and fell into bed. Next morning arriving back at Kew at 0930 the receptionist advised us that we still hadn't got rooms.....despite many promises the night before that whatever time we arrived the following day we would be checked in. I know it doesn't make sense, we did know that the hotel couldn't miraculously magic us a room on a Sunday morning when it didn't have one the night before. The duty receptionist did suggest that last night's shift said it to get rid of us! Then when I asked her why she had assured us of our rooms and booking security the day before and we ended up being shipped out to elsewhere, she told me "I don't have to justify that" Funny, because I would have thought that the first responsibility of your job was to look after your customers and do what you say you are going to do. To be fair, I do think that she did her job and did it well. I think she was let down by careless handovers between shifts and no set procedures for booking people in. Anyway, we finally were allocated one of our two rooms at about 11am and when we returned at 6pm we got the second. The final Griswold (National Lampoons vacation reference, for those unfamiliar) moment was when at midnight; I could hear tapping on the door next door followed by my Dad's voice. Then tapping on ours. The muppets had only allocated other suckers to their room. Only my Mother's love of double locking every room she ever stays in saved them from the embarrassment (and terror in my Mother's case!) of Mr/S Sucker getting into the room. When they returned to reception Mr Reception frog-marched them back to the room to get to the bottom of it. This ended up with my naked hubby sticking his head around the door (in the style of a tortoise emerging from his shell) and suggesting that we discuss it in the morning, while Mr Reception continued to ask to see our original booking confirmation. God help any of us had their been a fire, because Fireman Sam and his mates wouldn't have been looking for us.......surely this is basic health and safety at the least. Anyway, if you like the sound of any adventure weekend, with a bit of sightseeing and confrontation - Go for it!

Just back from a trip to London where we stayed at this Travelodge. My only complaint is that the hotel was so hot and without air con, it was quite hard going!

However, this is a typical Travelodge ie. clean, basic, everything you need, and at a fair price (we got a brilliant deal for L29). It is a 5 min walk from Kew Bridge SW Train service (30 min into Waterloo).

I would stay there again if it suited what we wanted to do in the area.