I stayed in 2 different travelodges last week and since neither of them had their own section i thought i would review them in here.

I have stayed in many different travelodges, all with very different experiences.
They are great hotels if you have a budget for one or two nights but I would never recommend them as a long term stay.

They are very basic, usually with a bed that has seen better days, 1 pillow (a spare if you are lucky), duvet with white duvet covers. A desk, basic television (sometimes a remote) and a chair. If you book a family room you will have a pull out sofa also. The bathroom usually has a shower over bath, toilet and sink. You are given a hand and bath towel each.

Travelodges can be found in most major cities and in a lot of service stations.
Prices start from £9 in the sales when they are on up to £100 in some major cities like London. Also depending on what night you are staying.

My stays:

Birmingham central
Date of stay: 12th February 2009
Number of nights: 1
Number of guests: 2

Reason for stay:
A friends birthday in Birmingham we needed somewhere to crash for the night.

Prices/booking:
We paid £29.50 for the room only no breakfast, it was cheaper because we pre paid when booking.
The booking system on the website was a bit of a nightmare when booking this one as it kept crashing! But once it was working it was fine.

Location:
The hotel is situated on the main road in Birmingham for all of the night clubs and pubs, Broad Street. We know the road well but have never stayed at this hotel before. Its in a great location for walking to the main shops and has wetherspoons right next door for dinner and breakfast!

Parking:
Oh what a nightmare!! The parking is around the back of the hotel there is limited spaces available. There is some underground parking (it was full) and some up a small ramp! There was one space left luckily and it was so tight we could barely get out! My advice "arrive early"! We arrived at 7.30pm! We were so tired because we had been to a funeral that day we were hungry, ratty and wanted a drink! We had been told the parking was £6, usually you pay reception but instead there was a parking meter! It was £6 for 24 hours (bargain for shopping the next day) but we only had £5.60! It took coins only! No notes or cards (nightmare)! But you could pay by text message (hooray) nope that didn't work either! It replied saying the system was down! So i had to literally search the entire car for coins! we were still 10p short so i asked very nicely one of the work men that had just come back to his car and he gave it to me! (NIGHTMARE)!

Reception:
We were greeted by some friendly but flustered people, who took our details and then gave us our room key.
When we made it up to 1st floor our key card wouldn't work.
So my partner went all the way back down to what was now a very busy reception and left me stood outside the room with bags. They said they hadn't swiped it properly.
So he came back and luckily it worked.

The room:
Well what can i say! A bit of a dump really!
Bed had springs sticking out of it and only one pillow each which were rock hard.
One of the towels had blood on it so i went and had it changed.
No TV remote.
Huge hole in the bathroom door so you could see people doing their business in there.
Shower curtain was covered in crusty dirt and tiles were mouldy!
All in all it was awful!

Check out:
No one was even around, oh no forgetful me there was a receptionist around she was over nattering to her friends drinking coffee and told us to leave the key card on the reception desk! (charming)

My opinion:
If you want somewhere nice to stay in Birmingham try the Apollo hotel or the premier travel inn its worth the extra money! The hotel was awful and it seems they have a lot of youngsters in who wreck the hotel and then they don't bother getting things fixed!

Nottingham EM Airport Donington Park M1
Date of stay: 13th February 2009
Number of nights: 1
Number of guests: 2

Reason for stay:
A stop off before travelling to Yorkshire for a holiday on Saturday.

Prices/booking:
We paid £9.00 for the room only no breakfast, we actually booked this months ago when the sale was on! Booking was easy with no problems!

Location:
The hotel is situated in a service station near Donnington race track. Its perfect for track days (or when the grand prix starts there). Its very near to Loughborough for restaurants and bars etc.

Parking:
Quick, easy and free. You can park right in front of it in the service station.

Reception:
Very friendly man who greeted us, asked us our car registration and gave us our key. Quick easy check in.

The room:
At first we were worried because we were told our room had no natural light so we thought it wasn't going to have a window! But instead we had a window that looked right into the service station which in the end became very amusing. We people watched for ages it was great lol!
The room was a palace compared to Birmingham. It was clean, we had 2 pillows each, clean towels, clean bathroom and it was very cosy indeed!

Check out:
Perfect, friendly lady greeted us and asked how our stay was!

My opinion:
Don't let the fact its in a service station put you off its very convieniant actually and a very clean smart hotel!

We have complained to travelodge about the Birmingham hotel i will keep you updated on what i receive back. (my money i hope)

update 26th feb: we got our money back from travelodge birmingham