A nice way to stay! (Travelodge in general)

Member Name: dan 2000

Product:	Travelodge in general
Date:	11/04/03 (460 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good rooms, Majority of Staff pleasant and friendly, Some hotels have well knon brands

Disadvantages: A few staff are not good

I have stayed at a few Travelodges in the past and my family have and they have been excellent. One of the Travelodges I stayed at does not seem to be in the directory(Widnes). My recent trip was in October 2000 to the Travelodge Docklands and it is still in the directory. I stayed for 3 nights.

The location wasn't brilliant at this one. One good thing is that in this side of London you have the Dockland Express which connects you to various places. Opposite the lodge was the station. Small but modern, the station was good. The trains were abit like the underground but more modern. Behind this, opposite the hotel was the Thames and guess what- right opposite the Travelodge was The Millenium Dome sat on the River Thames. Of course it is closed now though.

The hotel itself is very modern. In-fact there is a picture of it in the directory on the page with this lodges map. It is silver metal building and looks new.

There is a car park and then there is the door to the lodge. On your right is the reception desk. It is a beech colour desk with light blues and dark blues. Also, Travelodge has the same or similar decor at all hotels. And the style is my favourite- contemporary. I love contemporary style and this is being introduced in many hotels like Holiday Inn, TravelInn, Premier Lodge, Moathouse and even some Thistles by the look in there directory. Well, I am talking about the reception of this lodge so before I start blabbering on about these others lets get back to where we were. Next to the reception is shelfs in some stands. There are toiletries, sweets, chocolate, drinks and more. You could also have an ice cream from reception. To pay for these items you paid at the recption too.

Opposite reception was blue armchairs and a beech table to sit at. Then there was a large open doorway into the restaurant. Most Travelodges have some high street brands such as Burger King, Little Chef, Moto (the old name for Granada Service sta
tion with many shops and eateries) and more. N
ew City Centre Travelodges have Bar Cafes which are a rippy offy restaurant. Some hotel restaurants have been not so rippy offy but a few have, The Bar Cafe was no exception. It was bright, contemporary and had blues, oranges and whites with friendly staff but for big prices you got small portions of food. I think that the desert I had was bigger than the main course! Lucky I had a dessert then. They had breakfast which was like TravelInn with buffets of Continental or Full English. They had large floor to ceiling windows if any of you wanted to know that!

There was a lift and stairs.

The corridors had that fresh yet smokey hotel smell. I have found this smell in all hotels and it is not like smoke but it does have a hint, yet they are fresh and also have a nice smell too.

The room was quite nice. All Travelodge rooms have the same decor at each hotel although size and shape differ like at any hotel. This is due to obvious reasons becaus eof the shape and size of the building itself. My room was in the usual layout of a hotel with wardrobe on one side, bathroom on other with a large area up ahead for the main part. In-fact, the usual layout can be seen in the directory.

Travelodge styles can be seen in the brochure or on the web. The white(ish) walls with light beech colour furniture and blue fabrics.

The wardrobe was open air with hangars for you. Rooms were en-suite like all Travelodges and all hotel chains and most other individuals

The bathroom had a toilet, sink, bath and shower. They gave you complimentary toilet roll, towels, soap and shampoo with showergel/bath foam. The towels were huge white ones too! You could wrap yourself. The soaps and shampoos all ahd the Travelodge logo. The bathrooms sink was on a vanity type unit with a mirror on the wall. The bathroom was fairly clean although- unfortuanately, the ceiling had mildue which looked like it was f
rom the room above because of that rooms floor bein
g wet. The bathrooms were tiled. The light was operated from outside the bathroom, opposite the wardrobe. The bathroom was not the brightest- the only light it had was a flouresant tube light above the mirror, hidden at the front by a blue pannel. One member of my family when they went to a new one in Warrington had more lights consisting of halogen downlighters/spotlights.

The room itself was nice. In the main area was a dressing table which was in a light beech colour and had a rectangular mirror above it. On the dressing table was a hospitality tray with a white kettle, cups, and pot with teabags and coffee beans. On the other end was a TV with the five terresrial channels aswell as a few satellite like Sky News, Sky Sports, Eurosport and Cartoon Network. The TV was a medium sized portable. Not small but not big either. The dressing table had an easy chair which was blue with light blue patterns- can't remember what pattern- sorry!

Then there was the beds. The rooms have a double bed(king or queen in most Travelodges) and I know from the internet that they are luxurious hypnos beds. A company which to me surely make ultra-comfy beds. Family rooms like we had also have a sofa bed which has the main part of the sofa and under the mattress is another single bed and rolls out with wheels. The rooms have blue duvets with dark blue horizontal and vertical lines with light blue in between the lines. The pillows are white with the white sheets. There is also a beech colour headboard. The sofa is blue with light blue patterns.

There was bedside cabinets for the double bed. They are beech with drawer space.

The lighting consisted of 3 switches has you entered the room. One operated the bathroom light, one operated the built in "flush" light(thats what they call them I think) in the entrance area and the other operated the flush light in the middle of the main room. The
re was also wall lights with lamp shades on each side of
the mirror which were operated by the hospitality tray along with a switch for the main room light. There was one of these lamps above each side of the double bed. Both were operated seperately from each side of the bed along with the switch for the main room light. Although Travelodge rooms are identical one Travelodge I have been to had square bed lights and dressing table lights.

Other facilities were windows with blue curtains and the rooms were great.

One downside though- the headboard was dusty when we got in the room.

I would reccomend Travelodge if you want to save money yet get a nice room for your base. They do not have room service or leisure facilities and you do not have that superior feeling about yourself like you do in big hotels but I still love to think that I am in a hotel no matter the facilities as long as it is good, clean and had good service and is part of a chain of hotels. Don't forget that Travelodge has about 300 hotels which is great!

The staff were OK but some are not great while others are superb!

I have not used this company since Oct 2000- I have used others like Holiday Inn, Travel Inn and Innkeepers Lodge since and do not know how they have gone however on dooyoo they sound good- look at the others and you will find out!

Yes, I do reccomend.

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