Budget Hotel in the City (Travelodge London Covent Garden)

Member Name: mrsbump1

Product:	Travelodge London Covent Garden
Date:	11/12/08 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Close to tube, clean quiet room, cheap room rate.

Disadvantages: Long wait at reception and for lifts. Breakfast a bit steep.

My other half and I were invited to a friend's wedding in London. We looked at the suggested hotels on the invite, but being on and around Charring Cross, although they looked wonderful, boy did you pay for it! We settled instead on the Travelodge at Covent Garden.

We booked the room online with no problems; the website is easy enough to navigate and was user friendly. One possible quibble is that the room photo seemed to be a generic one (though I admit that there may have been a room in the hotel that looked like the picture). Having selected the date and the room options we wanted we were presented with two prices; we could either book and pay for the room outright, but the room would be non refundable should we have to cancel (which was £59) or we could have a flexible booking which would allow us to cancel upto a short period before our stay (this option would cost us c. £125 - I'm afraid I can't exactly remember the cost). We went for the non refundable option. We also paid £10 for an early check in (12 noon instead of 3pm). So all in the room cost us £69, not including breakfast.

The day of our stay arrived and we rocked up to the hotel at about 1pm. The hotel is a short walk (couple of streets) from Covent Garden tube. Although we didn't go to Holborn tube, on the map it appeared to be equally situated from both tube stations. We were met by a mean flight of steps... not ideal when you have cases to carry, but we were expecting them having seen the photos online. When we got to the reception there was a huge queue. There was only one receptionist on whilst we were there and she seemed to take an age to check anyone in... this was not helped by the fact that many of the people ahead of us were paying their early check in fee on the spot which was very frustrating because I had prepaid and we needed to get to our room quickly so we could get changed and off to the wedding. We couldn't even use the express check in machines because annoyingly they were out of order. Finally though we managed to check in. We were given the option of having 1 or 2 room keys but as we would be together the whole time there seemed little point in getting 2. We finished checking in around 1:30pm - 30 mins was a little steep to have to wait but with only one girl on reception and a big queue it was to be expected.

We were on the 3rd floor of the main hotel (there appeared to be a seperate annex next door also). The room was located along the usual rat runs that these hotels are made up of. We had to dodge round cleaners and cleaning carts/hoovers but as we were checking in early this I suppose you can't complain and to their credit the cleaners were quick to move obstacles out of our way when they saw us coming.

The room itself was rather on the small side, I have stayed in a couple of different travelodges in my time and this had the least generous floorspace. The bedroom itself wasn't too much of an issue but the bathroom was a let down size-wise. I confess I am not the smallest person in the world but even my husband had a squeeze to get past the sink to get to the toilet. You also had to close the door to get to the shower (not a huge issue but it did prevent us communicating whilst the other showered). The shower also suffered from a severe lack of pressure but I think that is a common problem in these big hotels. The room on the whole was clean, if a little battered. There was a tiny kettle and a selection on tea, coffee, milk and sugar (no biscuits though which would have been a nice touch). The tv had a small range of channels but to be fair you don't stay at a hotel to watch tv anyway so not a great problem there. There was a desk and chair and open wardrobe to stow your case and hang up clothes.

We got changed and headed out. We didn't want to be late and left with time to spare and it is a good job we did as one lift was out of order and the other remaining lift was occupied by cleaners moving dirty laundry around. Again I appreciate that we were on an early check in and the cleaning happens around that time but it was frustrating that the one working lift was being monopolised by staff. We must have been waiting 10 mins for it finally stop on our floor and it be empty. We would have used the stairs if there were any (we saw no signs for them).

We returned back at the hotel after the wedding. The room was nice and quiet, there was some traffic noise but nothing problematic and the bed, if a little soft was comfortable nonetheless. We both had a good nights sleep.

I can't comment about the breakfast as we didn't have it but it was £7.50 per person for a buffet breakfast. We decided that this was a little steep and headed into the city to find a cheaper alternative.

The hotel wasn't perfect but you don't book into a travelodge for out and out luxury. It would have been nice if there had been more staff on reception (or if one of the express check in machines had been working) but we may have just been unlucky arriving at a time when reception was swamped (when we left the hotel for the wedding the reception was clear). It would also have been better if there were more working lifts or stairs accessible. At the end of the day we wanted somewhere to stow our stuff, get ready for the wedding in and somewhere to have a good nights sleep in, all within easy reach of the wedding. In all those requirements it ticked the boxes, all the rest would just have been icing on the cake.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a budget hotel for a night or two then this is it. I would probably use the hotel again but only for one or maybe two nights, the Ritz it ain't!

Summary: Good budget hotel, not the ritz but ok for a night or two.