Budget hotels discussion

[Joe Paxton]

The Guardian currently has an article about overbookings by Travelodge which seems notorious for this more than Premier Inn and others.

This happened to myself only once a decade ago as I was booked in at Sleaford then somehow was moved to a service area by the busy A1 near Grantham.

Did this happen to any of you also how often, have other hotel chains, other than TL, done the same to you?

Aeons ago I heard about the potential for this to happen, but I also heard about the solution - which is to call the hotel during the day or evening to say that you'll be arriving late, which means the reception desk will mark you as checked-in on their system and so secure your room for the night.

I've often been a late arrival so this is part of my normal modus operandi nowadays if I think I might be late.

 

[Buzby]

I was at least half expecting them to make me wait until 3pm!)

Or charge you the full booking anyway?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Or charge you the full booking anyway?

I was of the impression that with budget hotels if you didn't arrive on the booked night the whole booking was forfeit and non-refundable. Which is quite annoying as arriving a day late is a useful use case sometimes!

 

[Joe Paxton]

I was of the impression that with budget hotels if you didn't arrive on the booked night the whole booking was forfeit and non-refundable. Which is quite annoying as arriving a day late is a useful use case sometimes!

Though define "the booked night"! I arrived at one Travelodge I was booked in for at circa 5.30am.

 

[Forty29]

Staying in a Moxy currently, very impressive!

Price was slightly more than a Premier Inn but not significantly more so
Much nicer hotel decor, hotel has a nice bar. It's like a cross between an Ibis hotel and a generator hostel
Paid £10 extra a night for a substantial breakfast buffet

Staying at a Moxy next month so very reassuring!

 

[eyebrook1961]

Staying at a Moxy next month so very reassuring!

My better half often looks at Moxy in York, but it is always well beyond the rates advertised by PI or Travelodge. For breakfast we used to always go the Paradiso Dolce Salato, delightful Italian cafe in Walmgate, but the owner has left to run an Italian restaurant in Rufforth and although she said the cafe would reopen shortly after they left, it is still closed a couple of months later . . . . we've taken to going for a buffet breakfast in a pub (£7.95 and they don't mind if you have seconds . . . or thirds . . .)

 

[Tetchytyke]

Did this happen to any of you also how often, have other hotel chains, other than TL, done the same to you?

Only happened to me once, in Dublin in bad weather. Finally got to the hotel after significant wind delays only to find we’d been moved to a sister hotel 20km away. At least they gave us a voucher for a Guinness at the bar when we got there.

Can’t remember the chain, think it was Maldron.

 

[takno]

My better half often looks at Moxy in York, but it is always well beyond the rates advertised by PI or Travelodge. For breakfast we used to always go the Paradiso Dolce Salato, delightful Italian cafe in Walmgate, but the owner has left to run an Italian restaurant in Rufforth and although she said the cafe would reopen shortly after they left, it is still closed a couple of months later . . . . we've taken to going for a buffet breakfast in a pub (£7.95 and they don't mind if you have seconds . . . or thirds . . .)

You have to shop around, and tourist places like York will be more expensive for a Moxy because you are up against a lot of foreign tourists who will always look at Moxy and may not even know about PI and Travelodge.

My feeling is that for most of my stays, free breakfasts and network points will mean that a Moxy, Hampton by Hilton or Ibis (better-than-budget) is a similar or better price than a well-located TL or PI.

If you have the time then basically always check booking.com (or hotels.com - I just have status on booking.com), looking for any credible hotels which are in the same ballpark as PI/TL, and then if there are any check their sites for booking direct.

 

[Port Road]

Aeons ago I heard about the potential for this to happen, but I also heard about the solution - which is to call the hotel during the day or evening to say that you'll be arriving late, which means the reception desk will mark you as checked-in on their system and so secure your room for the night.

I've often been a late arrival so this is part of my normal modus operandi nowadays if I think I might be late.

10 years + ago turned up at Tlodge's "Kings Cross Royal Scot" off the Eurostar to find they were overbooked. Turned out ok though, free drinks at the bar for half an hour then a free taxi to their Covent Garden hotel. (I can remember when the "Royal Scot" was a quality "Thistle" hotel).

 

[johntea]

I booked a Travelodge for 3 days this week at £90 for the whole stay, they promoted their choose a room after booking so I had a look and it seemed they wanted between £30-£50 to choose your room which made very little sense!

I thought it was maybe a fiver at most impulse purchase…

 

[Bletchleyite]

You have to shop around, and tourist places like York will be more expensive for a Moxy because you are up against a lot of foreign tourists who will always look at Moxy and may not even know about PI and Travelodge.

Definitely something in that particularly given that PI and TL aren't always on the global distribution systems (GDS).

I have noticed actually that Ibis hotels (basically French PI) are often full of French accents whereas PI and TL almost always just various British ones.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Mar 2026 ==

I booked a Travelodge for 3 days this week at £90 for the whole stay, they promoted their choose a room after booking so I had a look and it seemed they wanted between £30-£50 to choose your room which made very little sense!

I thought it was maybe a fiver at most impulse purchase…

I'm not sure how useful this feature actually is, to be honest. A few regulars will have a favourite room (I know one PI where I would pay for it as the annex rooms are much nicer than the main ones) and some will like ground vs. top floor, but specific rooms is a bit confusing. It's not like train/plane seats where different ones have different desirable features.

The one that surprises me still doesn't exist (particularly given that PI does charge extra for a guaranteed sea view and the likes) is that in PI Hub you can't pay extra to ensure you don't get a windowless room. It puts me off staying in one entirely. And some (who like it totally dark) might want to pay NOT to have a window! But less so specific rooms, more specific attributes.

 

[Kite159]

I booked a Travelodge for 3 days this week at £90 for the whole stay, they promoted their choose a room after booking so I had a look and it seemed they wanted between £30-£50 to choose your room which made very little sense!

I thought it was maybe a fiver at most impulse purchase…

Money to be guaranteed a room away from a noisy lift, or a room overlooking the main entrance/smoking shelter.

Pick your room is a good idea for those who stay in that particular hotel regularly so they know which rooms to avoid (overlooking a busy road etc) but for someone who is staying there for the first time, they might not have the knowledge based on the floor plan.

 

[jon0844]

Money to be guaranteed a room away from a noisy lift, or a room overlooking the main entrance/smoking shelter.

Pick your room is a good idea for those who stay in that particular hotel regularly so they know which rooms to avoid (overlooking a busy road etc) but for someone who is staying there for the first time, they might not have the knowledge based on the floor plan.

There was a time you could just speak to a hotel to ask for a 'regular' room you liked (yes, I know that in some cases rooms with a sea view are more expensive, but I'm not talking about that as they're usually distinctly different rooms that already have different prices when you book), but obviously everything has to have a cost/value these days - and such fees are great because they're not in the headline price advertised. We allowed airlines to introduce loads of fees because, hey, if you travelled light why should you pay for things you don't want? Well, now you will soon have to travel naked and sit in the aisle without paying some fee.

We are our own worst enemies because we've allowed all of this. We have allowed everything we used to buy to become a subscription, and if the hotels haven't done it yet then I'm sure they'll be offering tiered memberships (at a cost, not just loyalty/points based) to get things like preferred room booking and other things we used to be able to just ask for. Again, it keeps the advertised prices down but soon nobody will be paying those prices.

 

[jon81uk]

There was a time you could just speak to a hotel to ask for a 'regular' room you liked (yes, I know that in some cases rooms with a sea view are more expensive, but I'm not talking about that as they're usually distinctly different rooms that already have different prices when you book), but obviously everything has to have a cost/value these days - and such fees are great because they're not in the headline price advertised. We allowed airlines to introduce loads of fees because, hey, if you travelled light why should you pay for things you don't want? Well, now you will soon have to travel naked and sit in the aisle without paying some fee.

We are our own worst enemies because we've allowed all of this. We have allowed everything we used to buy to become a subscription, and if the hotels haven't done it yet then I'm sure they'll be offering tiered memberships (at a cost, not just loyalty/points based) to get things like preferred room booking and other things we used to be able to just ask for. Again, it keeps the advertised prices down but soon nobody will be paying those prices.

Its the Ryanair/Easyjet model, make the initial price very low, but then add-on if you want flexibility, food or a specific seat. Or choose a full-service airline where more is included (although this is rare for short-haul now).

So you could book a hotel where the only option is a bed and breakfast rate where you can cancel up to the day of arrival for say £120 and call them to ask for a specific room for free. Or see a Travelodge for an initial price of £50, then add £25 to make flexible, £15 for breakfast and £30 to select the room for a total of £120, same as the full-service hotel.
Or for those who are happy without the ability to cancel, don't want to select a room and will get breakfast elsewhere, they can pay just £50, saving £70 compared to the full-service hotel on the B&B rate.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Money to be guaranteed a room away from a noisy lift, or a room overlooking the main entrance/smoking shelter.

Pick your room is a good idea for those who stay in that particular hotel regularly so they know which rooms to avoid (overlooking a busy road etc) but for someone who is staying there for the first time, they might not have the knowledge based on the floor plan.

I've had good and bad rooms, but it's not always obvious which they might be unless you've experienced that room before. It's not like picking seats where there are usually obvious attributes you can get from the seating plan like more legroom, by the luggage rack, good window view etc. I think this will be a niche pursuit, though as noted there's one Premier Inn where I would pay to do it in most of them all the rooms are basically the same. I think they would sell far more by doing what PI mostly is doing and offering "sea view room" or "city view room" etc for an extra tenner, because these are the sort of attributes people like and will pay a bit extra for.

The one thing I wish PI would do is offer a late-checkout option. TL do but I don't overly like TLs. It's much easier to work from the hotel for the morning if you can extend checkout until 2pm (12 is a bit early in case you're thrown a lunchtime meeting), and provided they only offer it for a subset of rooms it isn't going to cause them a problem to do so. I could see them doing something like changing the default to 11 rather than 12 and making it an extra 20 quid to stay until 2, and I think overall most of the time I would book the 2 then. Between 11 and 12 is not that important to me but an extension to early afternoon really is.

The other thing that would be handy would be allowing you to lengthen a cheap-rate stay without having to do it as a separate booking and thus risk having to swap rooms. They usually can line them up on the day but not always if it's full depending on who has already checked in to which room.

 

[Cross City]

We are our own worst enemies because we've allowed all of this.

You're assuming that everybody has the same opinion about these things as you do.

I don't need a suitcase when I fly to Europe for the weekend, why should I automatically pay in case I might want to bring one? I like being able to reserve an exit row window seat when I book, I like being able to not pay for a streaming service for a month or so until there's something I want to watch, etc etc.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I don't need a suitcase when I fly to Europe for the weekend, why should I automatically pay in case I might want to bring one? I like being able to reserve an exit row window seat when I book, I like being able to not pay for a streaming service for a month or so until there's something I want to watch, etc etc.

FWIW being tall (and not fitting in some rows at all on particularly bad airlines like Wizz) I was initially a bit annoyed at charges for the exit row, but now I think I prefer it because you don't have to check in really early or sweet talk the checkin agent any more to get it.

 

[Peter Sarf]

There was a time you could just speak to a hotel to ask for a 'regular' room you liked (yes, I know that in some cases rooms with a sea view are more expensive, but I'm not talking about that as they're usually distinctly different rooms that already have different prices when you book), but obviously everything has to have a cost/value these days - and such fees are great because they're not in the headline price advertised. We allowed airlines to introduce loads of fees because, hey, if you travelled light why should you pay for things you don't want? Well, now you will soon have to travel naked and sit in the aisle without paying some fee.

We are our own worst enemies because we've allowed all of this. We have allowed everything we used to buy to become a subscription, and if the hotels haven't done it yet then I'm sure they'll be offering tiered memberships (at a cost, not just loyalty/points based) to get things like preferred room booking and other things we used to be able to just ask for. Again, it keeps the advertised prices down but soon nobody will be paying those prices.

I agree. It is the easy to spend convenience option that people head for.

Can argue till the cows come home over whether no frills unless you want to pay for them is better or worse. But things like music / video subscriptions I prefer to own my copy and have it in my possession than just pay a subscription for ever more to access it. See how YouTube is slowly becoming subscription as the adverts drive you into submission. I still come across friends who do not understand why YouTube introduced adverts - was it always going to be free - really ?.

The parallel for hotels is loyalty schemes - they are slowly weaning people on to a dependency. Lost on me as I do not use hotels enough. I just brutally shop around and try to keep the independents alive.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Mar 2026 ==

FWIW being tall (and not fitting in some rows at all on particularly bad airlines like Wizz) I was initially a bit annoyed at charges for the exit row, but now I think I prefer it because you don't have to check in really early or sweet talk the checkin agent any more to get it.

My long legs agree with you !.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The parallel for hotels is loyalty schemes - they are slowly weaning people on to a dependency. Lost on me as I do not use hotels enough. I just brutally shop around and try to keep the independents alive.

Yet loyalty schemes aren't really things low cost airlines or hotels do. They're a full-service thing.

I am however surprised there isn't something like "Premier Inn Plus" offering stuff like refund flexibility at the base rate or free early check-in, or perhaps a free upgrade to a premium room if there's one spare on check-in, at a couple of hundred a year - though I do know that businesses that use their business portal get some extra flexibility at the base rates and I think a discount.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Can vary a lot, Guildford one is great but the Reading one i stayed in last month was a disgrace.

Sorry to drag up an old post but last weekend and this weekend I'm doing two nights in Reading -- and I'd be curious to know which Reading one this was?

 

[styles]

FWIW being tall (and not fitting in some rows at all on particularly bad airlines like Wizz) I was initially a bit annoyed at charges for the exit row, but now I think I prefer it because you don't have to check in really early or sweet talk the checkin agent any more to get it.

I also expect that the days of sweet-talking airline staff into better seats is dying out. Far too many people trying to do it, not to mention the addition of influencers trying to blag upgrades based on their follower counts.

 

[Kite159]

There was a time you could just speak to a hotel to ask for a 'regular' room you liked (yes, I know that in some cases rooms with a sea view are more expensive, but I'm not talking about that as they're usually distinctly different rooms that already have different prices when you book), but obviously everything has to have a cost/value these days - and such fees are great because they're not in the headline price advertised. We allowed airlines to introduce loads of fees because, hey, if you travelled light why should you pay for things you don't want? Well, now you will soon have to travel naked and sit in the aisle without paying some fee

Nah it will be a middle seat if you don't pay extra for an aisle/window seat

 

[Cross City]

FWIW being tall (and not fitting in some rows at all on particularly bad airlines like Wizz) I was initially a bit annoyed at charges for the exit row, but now I think I prefer it because you don't have to check in really early or sweet talk the checkin agent any more to get it.

Excatly. I'm 6'5" and not a small chap and it's 100% worth paying the extra at the time of booking to reserve the seat I want.

 

[Silver Cobra]

Yet loyalty schemes aren't really things low cost airlines or hotels do. They're a full-service thing.

I am however surprised there isn't something like "Premier Inn Plus" offering stuff like refund flexibility at the base rate or free early check-in, or perhaps a free upgrade to a premium room if there's one spare on check-in, at a couple of hundred a year - though I do know that businesses that use their business portal get some extra flexibility at the base rates and I think a discount.

I guess the closest we have to such a scheme with the 'low cost hotels' is All-Accor Limitless with Ibis. While it doesn't directly offer free 'perks' like your suggestion for 'Premier Inn Plus', it does offer a discount of between 5 and 15% on the base rate for bookings. The savings you get could then arguably be used to pay for early check-in / late check-out or breakfasts during your stay.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I guess the closest we have to such a scheme with the 'low cost hotels' is All-Accor Limitless with Ibis. While it doesn't directly offer free 'perks' like your suggestion for 'Premier Inn Plus', it does offer a discount of between 5 and 15% on the base rate for bookings. The savings you get could then arguably be used to pay for early check-in / late check-out or breakfasts during your stay.

Accor of course is a slight oddity in that it operates both "low cost" hotels in the form of Ibis Budget (slightly below Travelodge in the market, maybe a bit like a hostel private room), Ibis (basically Premier Inn a la Francaise) and Ibis Styles (generally smaller city centre hotels operating under franchise, probably operating in a similar market to Premier Inn Hub but totally different in terms of how they actually work) but also full-service ones in the form of Mercure and Novotel. All Accor is primarily the loyalty scheme for their full service hotels but does offer things on the budget brands too.

It's not even unusual to get two or even three of the brands in the same physical building!

Regarding PI, I believe from a friend that Whitbread shareholders get free breakfasts.

 

[bspahh]

Regarding PI, I believe from a friend that Whitbread shareholders get free breakfasts.

Interesting:

https://www.whitbread.co.uk/investors/shareholder-centre/benefits/ says:

Shareholders with a holding of 64 shares or more are eligible to receive a shareholder benefits card.

The Premier Inn and restaurant benefits are available through the shareholder card. Those shareholders who are already registered to receive offers should automatically receive the card with the Annual Report mailing. Shareholders who wish to register for a card can do so by contacting MUFG Corporate Markets on +44 (0)344 855 2327. Alternatively you can email MUFG Corporate Markets on  Whitbread@cm.mpms.mufg.com

Please note that if your shareholding is held via a nominee, please contact your nominee directly to request the shareholder benefits card.

​

Great news! Whitbread shareholders staying in a Premier Inn hotel in the UK (including hub by Premier Inn and ZIP by Premier Inn) – and their guests – can enjoy a free Premier Inn Breakfast for each morning of their stay (subject to availability).

You can claim a free breakfast for up to two adults per room, for up to two rooms – and you must be staying in one of them.  

10% off food and soft drinks for up to 4 people at any UK Whitbread restaurant (excluding Christmas Day, New Years Eve, ZIP by Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn). This offer can be used as many times as you like.

At the current share price, 64 shares would cost £1610.88

 

[JamesT]

Interesting:

https://www.whitbread.co.uk/investors/shareholder-centre/benefits/ says:


At the current share price, 64 shares would cost £1610.88

The current price of a cooked breakfast at Premier Inn is £10.99. So you just need 147 of those to make the cost of your shareholding back

 

[Bletchleyite]

The current price of a cooked breakfast at Premier Inn is £10.99. So you just need 147 of those to make the cost of your shareholding back

Though it's only really a deposit - provided it doesn't go bust or go onto hard times (no sign of that, unlike Travelodge which hasn't done as well commercially in recent years) you get that money back if you sell, and likely you'll get more than you put in, though with shares that can of course never be guaranteed.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Interesting:

https://www.whitbread.co.uk/investors/shareholder-centre/benefits/ says:


At the current share price, 64 shares would cost £1610.88

It says subject to availability - hmmmm.

 

[styles]

It says subject to availability - hmmmm.

I don't think I've ever seen a Premier Inn breakfast unavailable TBF.