I?ve just celebrated my birthday, and to celebrate the occasion we chose to visit the capital city of England. We were swung in our hotel choice by an email we received from Travelodge, saying they had just opened a new hotel in Covent Garden and offering us an opening deal of £60 per room per night. Enough said, we snapped the limited offer price and booked online. If anything were to go wrong we could always cancel right up to Noon on the day of arrival without being charged.

Getting off the train at Kings Cross station, we ambled our way to the taxi rank, via the café. We finally got to the taxi rank, and were pleasantly surprised ? for the first time ever ? no-one was queuing!

The taxi driver looked a little puzzled as we shouted our destination to him through the clear plastic hatch. ?In Covent Garden?? he quizzed, ?Yes? I replied ?Drury lane?, it was then the penny clicked and we began to move away from the station.

A few minutes and a tenner later, we were outside our hotel: My immediate thoughts were mixed as the entrance we were dropped at had neither a reception nor door that opened liberally without the need of using the ?buzzer?.

Walking up the side of the hotel we hoped for a more welcoming entrance, but alas our dream was shattered by just a blank wall. I had no choice, I had to press the buzzer and get in. By now my head was telling me the reason for buzzing in, was because it was a posh and exclusive hotel, and that security must be very tight. Or maybe they were trying to keep me out, they might have heard whisper of my moaning on Ciao, or worse still it might be run by St Edmundsbury council whom I had recently slagged off in the paper for their rubbish collection?.Or was my mind now playing havoc?

Finally a minute after pressing the button a voice was heard, As 
3; placed my face within millimetres of the talking metal grid, a scene of my mother trying to use a mobile phone played in my head: She didn?t realise it was a real phone and held it in front of her mouth before shouting down the line ?I want a taxi?, in a crowded pub!

Finally, we were in! And first impressions were instantly against the building. The décor was drab, the lighting was dim, and the place just seemed very ancient. But hey, we were only on the base and needed to elevate ourselves up three flights in the lift.

We pressed the button, and waited: When the lift arrived it looked reasonable enough, and although it wasn?t the brightest or nicest lift I have ever been in ? it certainly wasn?t the worst either. That said to see the levels on the push button panel, involved great detective work, and the need of good eye sight, which is why we needed help., brought to us by the way of a receptionist who just happened to be in the vicinity. The writing for the levels wasn?t as you?d might expect in level numbers (such as level 1, 2, 3 etc), rather it was in room numbers, so level ten had rooms 1000-1100 or whatever. Not only that but the writing was engraved, and not highlighted at all, so to have any chance of seeing the levels you literally had to put your nose to the writing.

Arriving at our room we were already disappointed with what we had seen, and hoped that the room would improve our view of the hotel. Again we were disappointed, the room was again in drab décor ? with brown polka dot paper adorning the walls, and it was again dark and dull.

We shared our room with a decent size TV that would accept viewing for BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, and C5 ? some great choices I?m sure you?ll agree. Press the ?information? button on the TV and you get a black screen with nothing at all. Press the ?pay-TV
; button and again you have no selection to help wile away the time should you need it.

The bed looked a decent size, and the company claim it as a KING SIZE bed. However in reality the KING SIZE bed is simply two beds put together. Which is okay apart from the little ?lump/gap in the middle ? no cuddling during the night for us: The bedding was clean enough ? at last one clean bright thing to ?glow? about.

Venturing into the bathroom was a scary prospect, but it had to be done; opening the door the first thing you might think is ?no toilet?. This is an illusion as when the door is fully opened the toilet is quite visible, right next to the toilet is a hand basin, and next to that the shower/bath. A quick glance in both the sink and bath assure you that using them will be on a need must deal. The hand basin had a very visible crack in it which may well have been done by someone smashing a hammer in it or dropping something heavy on it. The shower head was visibly tarnished, giving the look of rust, while the sink fittings had a similar standard.

The room is also equipped with some lamps (about two of which didn?t work), and a kettle with two mugs and tea/coffee facilities. Shame the kettle never worked, and luckily we had our own kettle.

The first night was somewhat of a nightmare, I lay awake thinking ?what if there is a fire? How will I get out being on the top floor and being disabled?? I switched the light on and checked for smoke alarms to try and ease my fear, and luckily there was one perched above our bed! The noise outside is minimal, though the noises from the neighbours might be a problem. Our neighbours on one side were quiet enough, while opposite and the other side, were on the other side ? non-caring (both rooms were friends/family). At least two of the nights we were woken
by the slamming of doors early in the morning and by the constant chattering at the door of the neighbour?s room. But I am aware this is not really the hotels fault.

Breakfast is not included in the price you pay for your room, so you need to find it. The hotel does serve breakfast between 7-10am (I think). They do two types of breakfast, a full English and a continental one. You need to buy your ?breakfast ticket? before you can go to the restaurant and eat, you pay at reception. You?ll pay about £9 or so for full English and £5 for continental. We chose full English to check it out.

We started with cereal, and then had the option of bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs (no alternative) has brown, beans and tomatoes (and mushrooms I think); and of course toast.

The breakfast was edible, but certainly nothing to write home about ? I?ve certainly tasted better that?s for sure. The croissants that were on the cereal bar looked rather stale, and although our breakfast was quite warm it was not hot.

DISABLED ACCESS:

If you are fully wheelchair bound then this hotel is certainly not for you, and if you can walk down a few steps with NO grab rail you might manage it. Once down the steps inside the door, you have to manoeuvre into the lift which isn?t too bad and could accommodate a wheelchair okay, providing you can see the level panel.

The room we were in was certainly not catered for the disabled traveller, although in all fairness I didn?t tell them I was disabled, though when I checked in it was obvious and nothing said. Once outside the lifts, the doors are not-automatic, rather difficult narrower than normal doors.

The bathroom had no rails at all, and bathing might prove difficult for some people, it did for me, though I managed it. r>
The restaurant was also down a few steps, so breakfast at the hotel would be impossible for wheelchair users, unless you had the continental in your room.

Overall, this was by far the worst hotel I have stayed in, not only was the décor antiquated and miserable, the rooms had much to improve on themselves. For example our room never even had a telephone.

It?s such a shame because this hotel could really be good with some money invested and thought invested too. It is no way new as my email stated. Staff was polite enough and you really couldn?t knock them in any way. A letter of complaint has gone off to the company, and I wait to hear the result. Personally I won?t bother with Travelodge again unless I hear better reports of them.

The hotel is in Drury lane Covent Garden, which is within easy walking distance of the Covent Garden market, the Strand, Leicester Square, Regent Street, Oxford street etc. You can also walk down to the Thames and stroll along the water front.

BEST AVOIDED

Thanks for reading ? Dave

P.S. I sent an email of complaint to the company on 16th May and as of yet haven?t heard so much as a whisper from them. This proves to me that they are a company best avoided!

http://www.travelodge.co.uk/travelodge/locatio n.php?hotel_id=266
http://www.travelodge.co.uk

10 Drury Lane, High Holborn, London
WC2B 5RE
Tel: 020 7208 9988
Fax: 020 7831 1548