Does Anyone Sleep In The City Road? (Travelodge London City Road)

Member Name: Machair1

Product:	Travelodge London City Road
Date:	22/12/08 (116 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great location for visiting London and good value deals available.

Disadvantages: Location can be very noisy and the bed we had was uncomfortable.

I stayed last night at The London City Road Travelodge and what follows is the most detailed and honest account of the lodge I can provide based on my experience.

I booked the room several months ago and paid £19. This bargain price was for a saver room, and one paid for at the time of booking, this cannot be changed and cancellation involves a total loss (unless you pay an extra £1 for their insurance cover). This price is extremely good value as to stay there this evening would cost you £81 late booking. If you book through the cashback site Topcashback you will also get 3.8% back. www.topcashback.co.uk

The location of this lodge is very convenient for Moorgate underground tube station which is half a mile away, and it is within easy walking distance of Liverpool Street which is a major overland station serving Essex and Hertfordshire, as well as Norwich. The Stansted Express also departs from here.

A list of nearby attractions and some more hotel details is at the end of this review, but I now want to go deep inside the rooms and tell you what it is really like to stay there.

On arrival we had to press a button to be allowed access. This took a couple of moments when for the only time we were drenched in clouds from the smokers huddled by the door as this is a no smoking hotel. Just inside the hotel reception was the debris of about 5 or 6 cigarette ends which was not the most aesthetic view. The reception desk was spacious and welcoming and the attendant was efficient and we were quickly given our room card which was for 452. Access to the lift area was by key card, so an extra security feature here. Incidentally you can't leave luggage at the hotel so bear this in mind as for security reasons it is prohibited.

First impressions of the room were summed up in three words: sparse, ultra mimimalistic and clinical.

The walls were all painted white which I love, but there was nothing on them at all not even one picture. This differs so much from my experience of staying in other budget chains like Express by Holiday Inn where some effort has been made to provide one tasteful picture of serenity. On the positive side the room had a very fresh smell which was lovely. It had a double bed with two thin pillows (one each) and the area where a settee might once have been was bare giving the room a stark feel to it. There was a small flat screen television and a kettle which had a very mean selection of tea, coffee, and enough milk for two drinks each. I pulled up the white blind and this revealed an attractive casement window backed by modern double glazing. The view was into the backs of other houses and a rather nice amber glow of a lounge in one of the apartments reminded me of home.

The bedcovers were also white but it makes me smile because I think the designer who used to be responsible for all those horrid diagonal blue ones which used to be in all Travelodges still has a preference for shapes as the cover was squared white. There was a small stain on the bed cover which looked like iron mould but the sheets were otherwise clean.

The bathroom was strange really because it was mainly white but with turquoise handrail and tiles which were vivid turquoise and quite heavy on the eye! But the shower was powerful. However the bath was no more than a tub and anyone over 5 feet 8 would be uncomfortable. The bathroom was clean and there was no mould or evidence of wear to the tile grout and the curtain was clean too.

We had booked this room because we were attending an event near to Shepherds Bush. As I have M.E I can't travel home to Essex where I live, as this results in a late night which knocks me out for weeks, so when we arrived back at the room I was looking forward to a quiet and peaceful night.

My husband and I got into bed and knew straight away this was going to be a bad night. We are quite similar in size give or take a stone, but someone had been sleeping on one side of this bed quite a lot, and was not slim as the bed sloped so I spent the night rolling into the middle. It reminded me of the bed my dad gave us in 1981 when we first got married - he had been heavier than mum by about 5 stone and this bed was moulded to that shape and resembled a mountain slope! I spent most of the night at base camp! This Travelodge bed was on the way to that and so it was a struggle- but there is worse... the website warns you about music and noise radiating from nightclubs in the area and they are not joking- but what is worse is that every half an hour you hear piles of empties being hurled into a bin and the sound of this is like an hourly alarm! By the end of the night I began to ask myself the question- "does anyone sleep in City Road?" There was a notice in reception warning of further noise from building work but as this was at night we were never really disturbed by it.

By the morning I looked wrecked and my husband had to go to work this morning in London so I returned home on the train. I was so shattered I put my contact lenses in the wrong eyes - something I haven't done for years and wondered why all the people walking along the pavements were blurred! We didn't stop for any breakfast but there is a Bar Café and a Café Republic where you can eat if you like and there were all choices of breakfast available. With all the Christmas food to come I settled for a Trek Bar (great food for on the go see my review on these) and so here I am back home shattered and wondering if I should have caught the last train home last night instead.

You can't moan too much, the room was cheap, they warned you about the possible noise, the place was clean but if I had paid £81 I would have been horrified by the bed which was only surpassed in discomfort by another Travelodge bed I stayed in at Retford on the A1 recently (but that's another story!)

The room was so clinical I did feel as if I was in a hospital ward and was almost waiting for the nurse to come with a clipboard. It only needed a new mattress and a black and white canvas picture and the room would have been transformed from functional sterility to cosy and romantic. I think if I had been staying there alone I might have been tempted to pack a teddy!


What follows are a few extra details from the website www.travelodge.co.uk



Globe theatre-I mile
St Paul's Cathedral - 1.2 miles
Covent Garden Market - 1.6 miles
London Eye - 1.8 miles
Cleopatra's Needle - 1.9 miles
Trafalgar Square - 2 miles
Tower of London - 2.4 miles
Madame Tussauds - 2.9 miles
London Zoo - 3.2 miles



Early Check-in and Late Check-out
service available at this hotel for an additional charge.
Early Check-in available from
12noon, subject to available rooms.
Late Check-out available until
2.00pm, subject to available rooms.

Bar café and Cafe Rrepublic.

Parking Nearby at:
NCP Ltd
Finsbury Square
London
EC2A 1AD
(Chargeable)

Summary: Good value if you can purchase a saver room but not at the full price.