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Budget hotels discussion
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STINT47
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Nottingham is my home town and when I was growing up this hotel was pretty good.
Under Britania they've completely ruined it. Most people would prefer to find a doorstep for the night than enter it now
Was he hurt? That is awful - I think this will make me remember to thoroughly check my little one's Z-bed if she ever uses one in a hotel once she gets to that age...
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They also offered this to me at a check in kiosk when turning up early to the one at New Street in Birmingham. Which I happily took, I think it was £10 and about 1230pm.
The one time I did it through PI reception told me it wasn't worth doing in advance, because it didn't guarantee anything and didn't cost any more on the day. That was a pretty odd PI all round though.
One new thing I've noticed on my last two Travelodge bookings is that they offer room selection (for £7+) so you can select the floor and specific room which is kind of neat.
However, I noticed on the small print that they won't guarantee you get that room as it's best endeavours only and will refund the £7+ if you don't get that room. Seems an unusual thing to offer if they can't guarantee it? Haven't bothered to use it yet as I don't normally care where my room is.
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However, I noticed on the small print that they won't guarantee you get that room as it's best endeavours only and will refund the £7+ if you don't get that room. Seems an unusual thing to offer if they can't guarantee it? Haven't bothered to use it yet as I don't normally care where my room is.
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Agree, I've found that it's worth just turning up and asking if the room is ready. Quite often I've been allowed in an hour or two early without paying the charge as the room was available. If it's not no bother and no money lost and they've always not had a problem stowing luggage / allowing me to use the car park early so just take it as a hint to drop off the stuff and grab a quick bite to eat and come back at the normal time.
If Leeds hotels are expensive , Bradford is worth a look, as the PI,TL and HI are often quite cheap.
SuspectUsual
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He was fine thanks, but really thanks to luck - he was squashed by the mattress and not the hard metal edges; he screamed straightaway; and I'm a horrendous sleeper when I'm not in my own bed so I was wide awake about 0.5 seconds after it happened.
That it happened was terrible but - just about - one of those things that can happen from time to time, and I can forgive them for that.
The utter indifference of the hotel management and their head office are a different matter though.
As I said, never again!!
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Is it that they've only got the minimum viable product in, and its essential a tool to merely request a room, rather than a dynamic system that knows all the existing bookings and only allows you to request a room that's available?
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I'd think it's more that they have no idea when the person in it will check out and how long it will take to complete cleaning?
SuspectUsual
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If they know someone has booked a room then they also know how long they’ve booked it for?
It’s basically a seat reservation system but with each station along the line being a day in the calendar isn’t it?
They know the day when you will check out, but not the time.
The cleaners will be most efficient if they can move along a corridor, rather than having to clean rooms on different floors because someone has booked early check in to a specific room.
Quite often when I stay later , perhaps after 9am,I often get cleaners wanting in despite check out being 11 or 12.
Just imagine the difference between a 100 room hotel entirely filled with entrants to the “world’s most considerate hotel guest” competition who have all checked out by 07.15 and the same 100 rooms all filled with their counterparts in the “least considerate guest” who all vacate their rooms one minute before checkout deadline having thrown up in the bedrooms, blocked the toilets, trashed the furniture etc. Ok - it’s unlikely to be as extreme as that, but it illustrates the unpredictability.
I guess it would depend on how many people actually opt for the room selection. I would imagine at £7 (almost a quarter of the cost of the room - £37.99) not many people do, so surely the logical step is:
1) Don't assign that room the night before to anyone who has requested a late check out.
2) Don't allow an on the day late check out for that guest.
3) Clean the rooms that have selected a room first.
To me if they get a couple of people select a room this should work, but obviously if more people that I imagine are opting to pay for a room selection then it gets less do-able.
1) Don't assign that room the night before to anyone who has requested a late check out.
2) Don't allow an on the day late check out for that guest.
3) Clean the rooms that have selected a room first.
To me if they get a couple of people select a room this should work, but obviously if more people that I imagine are opting to pay for a room selection then it gets less do-able.
I think a lot of it comes down to the way guests act and the way hotels are actually run, as opposed to the way the people who invent and develop the features think they run.
The system can come up with a "perfect" room allocation which takes into account all early check-ins, late check-outs and specific room bookings. That won't make any difference at all when a guest randomly smokes in a room or otherwise soils it to the point where it can't be used. It doesn't take account of the cleaners who call in sick last minute and have to be covered, or the ones who just ignore all instructions and work their way through all the rooms in order.
Probably worst of all, it can't even begin to take account of the guests who love to find something wrong with the first room they are allocated. In most cases receptionists will just allocate them to another room in the name of good customer service and a quiet life, even if the room they are then allocated turns out to have been specifically reserved.
I'm increasingly starting to feel like hotel systems are developed exclusively by people who had never worked in, and quite possibly never stayed in, a hotel.
They are never going to be able to guarantee it 100%. That wording means that other than the return of the £7, the disappointed guest can have no further claim. OK - it also means that they don’t need to “go the extra mile” to fulfil the booking if it’s a bit difficult.
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Not just hotels - it seems to apply to most things that get “improved” by computer technology - if what you need doesn’t fit what someone in a back office thinks “people” need, then heaven help you.
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A view of the car park instead of the bin store? (What other room variation is there?) It just smells of more up-selling to me.
A budget hotel for me is a cheap bedroom and bathroom. If I’d wanted a view I wouldn’t have been in many Travelodges.
Photo - The beautiful view from Swindon Central Travelodge.
Attachments
Regular guests will likely have a reasonable idea of what room will suit them best. Preferences are more likely to be around being away from the lift, being on the end of a row so that you only have one neighbour, and not being near a cleaning closet. I've got to admit I've also never seen a Travelodge with a view.
It's almost as if in most problems in this world, humans are the root cause. You can certainly imagine that the world would be a lot better without us in it!
The only reason I've ever had a problem with a room allocation was once when I stayed at a Travelodge which was situated on top of a Tesco Express/Sainsbury's Local type shop and they had their deliveries come in at about 1-2am which involved a lot of roll cages being dragged across the service area which my room overlooked, driver having a ciggie break and chatting on their phone and of course it was a Travelodge without air con and in the summer so my window was open. But I'd have never known that prior to booking but a regular might know to stay in the other side I guess!
WelshBluebird
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I mean they are hardly going to me making much interest on 7 quid held for a matter of days. And neither would you be! You get the money back if they cant fufil, and its a nice option for some people. Maybe they should be advertising it a little different but out of all the issues ive had with hotels this is not even worth mentioning!
Of course, I'm not going to be earning much on it.
But as the £7 taken by Travelodge is at the time of you booking (which could be months in advance) and they have over 47,000 rooms which can be rented out each day. Even if only 5% of people choose to take up on a room booking that's an extra £2,350 a day in money.
Plus as well, remember the £7 is for the bog standard room selection, depending if you want a premium popular spot at the hotel I was looking at the most in demand rooms (ones by the lift and those that only had one neighbour) were being offered for £29.98.
But for each one they have to refund, the processing cost is going to exceed any interest earned, even if you’ve booked a year in advance (how long would someone on minimum wage have to work to cost their employer 25p?)
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
That would probably follow. It did surprise me that they even considered offering room selection for specific rooms rather than just attributes (e.g. high/low floor, near/far from lift etc) which are easier to meet.
At least they did something, though. Premier Inn Hub don't even let you pay to guarantee a window!
Silver Cobra
Member
I noticed similar with Blackpool South Shore branch of Travelodge. The rooms on the south side of the hotel are all £4 per night to pick a specific room, while on the north side those with the bathroom to the left of the entrance door are also £4 per night and those with it to the right are £16 per night. My guess to the logic here is that the north-facing rooms with the bathroom to the right of the entrance have the desk and TV on the left side of the room, so you don't get the sun shining onto them during the summer (whether this price difference applies outside of summer time I couldn't say, as I've only checked this for a booking in June), so hence why they are deemed 'in demand'. Similarly, those on the south side get the sun in them for most of the day, which can make those rooms absolutely sweltering in the summer, so no surprise that all of them are only £4 per night to select them.
Kite159
Veteran Member
Blimey you can pay extra to stay next to the lift, that's normally the rooms to avoid due to potential noise from the lift.
In my eyes, the better rooms are the ones located furthest away from the main entrance area, preferably not overlooking a road. Solely as the rooms at the end of corridors won't get so much noise from outside when drunks come back from their night out on the booze causing noise as they attempt to remember their room number
Who knows the Travelodge logic! Maybe people don't want to walk too far?
On the note of budget hotels I'm booked in a last minute easyHotel next week, it's been a few years since I've tried one of these so will be interesting to see how it goes. I'm fairly sure you don't have to pay for the TV anymore which is a plus.
On the note of budget hotels I'm booked in a last minute easyHotel next week, it's been a few years since I've tried one of these so will be interesting to see how it goes. I'm fairly sure you don't have to pay for the TV anymore which is a plus.
Do they even have TVs anymore? Now they've got rid of corby trouser presses, the TV is definitely the most expensive item in a room which I never use.
I'm expecting a tiny 19" one screwed to the wall.
Incidentally I was at Travelodge Gloucester Quays the other day which is a fairly new hotel and it had such a tiny TV on the wall that had nearly half the channels not working properly (signal drop outs etc.) which was frustrating, really struggled to actually see it from the bed!
Conversely I was at a Village Hotel where the TV was an amazing 65" job with Chromecast built in so was able to watch YouTube and Netflix in bed. And that only cost a small amount more than a Travelodge.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
TVs are incredibly cheap these days, particularly if generic Chinese goods bought in bulk as a hotel would, so not having a decent one is just being really cheap.
Like the difference between easyJet and Ryanair/Wizz, or PI and Travelodge, you can be budget but decent or you can be penny pinching but save very little.
Absolutely, it was that well known brand Cello, too... so was clearly cheap as chips!