You pay cheap you get cheap (Travelodge Southbound Winchester)

Member Name: tomo359

Product:	Travelodge Southbound Winchester
Date:	20/09/09 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Comfy bed, good lighting, large mirrors.

Disadvantages: Poor shower, poor tv services, stained sheets, terrible outdoor lighting.

We stayed here just for one night when we went to the Southampton Boat Show. We travelled down to Southampton on the Saturday morning, then travelled home the following Sunday. We choose this Travelodge because it was cheaper and still had rooms available unlike many closer to Southampton.

When we arrived we found the hotel easy because it was light and we could see the sign. Near the hotel was a Little Chef and a Shell petrol station.
We parked in the car park next to the hotel and went into reception.

The reception was very basic. Straight ahead of the main door was a large desk. One woman was sitting behind the desk and took our booking. We had booked and paid online so check in was nice and quick. The receptionist was very friendly, if a little quiet.
There were no vending machines in the reception or anywhere in the hotel so you couldn't buy any drinks or snacks.

All the rooms are on one level. The reception is in the centre at one end of the long building, so there is only two ways to get to rooms, through the door on the left, or the door on the right. So its very hard to get lost.

The receptionist gave us the keys, they still use regular metal keys with a large plastic key ring with the room number on instead of those electronic key cards.

We found our room quickly, the numbers on the doors are not easy to see until you are right next to the door though as they are not printed in the middle, instead they are just near the lock, but its still easy enough to find your room.

The rooms themselves are extremely basic. You walk in and there is a door on your left (possibly on your right if the room layout is flipped) to the bathroom. On the opposite side of the door is a closet area (just a few shelves with a hanging rail). You then enter the main room which consists of a double bed, a sofa (which is also a sofa bed as it has a full out bed underneath), there is a large fixed desk opposite the bed which has the tv and coffee and tea making facilities. There is a large mirror above the desk.

The bed was surprisingly comfortable for such a cheap hotel. A nice soft but firm mattress (hope that makes sense) with a simple white sheet. Then a white duvet and two white pillows. The pillows were a bit rubbish and thin but there is a spare pillow on the shelf, and you can ask for more at reception if needed.

The TV was pretty poor. Its an old 17 inch CRT tv fixed to a swivel stand so you can't move it anywhere else on the desk. The only channels were BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4, Five, Sky News, Film 4 and 4Music. The TV did not have any built in tv guide so you couldn't find out what was on each channel without a tv guide.

The coffee and tea making facilities consisted on a simple kettle, two mugs, a spoon (yes only one), two tea bags, four coffee sachets (two regular, two decaf), four little milk tubs, and some sugar.
There is also a basic plastic chair for you to sit at the desk.

The room was actually well lit. it has two ceiling lights, one in the main part of the room, and one in the little hall way. There was also two wall mounted bed side lights, and two wall mounted desk lights all with their own switch. Then of course there was the large window at one end. The two opening windows have those safety locks on them so you can only open them about two inches and these rooms are always too hot and it was very hard to cool them down. The curtains were brilliant though, they are double lined and don't let any light through when closed which was great for me as i struggle to sleep when its not dark. Not that i sleft that well anyway due to the room being so warm.

The bathroom was also very basic. it consisted of a bath with a fixed shower head and a horrible plastic shower curtain. A toilet and a sink. Nothing special about the toilet or sink, they both worked fine. There is a large mirror above the toilet and sink.
The shower on the other hand was not so simple. its one of those systems where when you turn the water on it comes out the bath tap, and you pull up a trigger to switch the water to the shower head.
There are two taps, one controls the amount of water, the other controls the heat. Now its a simple system if it works, but when i had a shower, it took ages to get warm, and it never got hot even on the hottest setting.
Then it kept going cold and back to warm on me. I only just managed to get my hair washed and i just wanted to get out.

Another problem with the bathroom is the lack of hooks/rails. There is one cheap plastic hook on the door, a simple double toilet roll holder and thats basically it. So you either have to put the towels and your clothes on the toilet, the small table unit behind the toilet, the tiny hook or on the floor. Is it really that hard to add a simple towel rail??

When we got in, we couldn't find the tv remote and just thought someone had taken it. We told reception but they didn't actually have any spare remotes. We did find the remote later though. When we pulled out the spare bed we found the remote under this.

The sheet on the bed had an old stain towards one end. It didn't really bother me but it seems bad that the hotel are allowed old stained sheets to still be used.

There is WiFi available in all the rooms, but the prices are high. It costs £5 for just one hour, then £10 for a day, £20 a week or £30 a month.

I mentioned earlier that we arrived when it was light, but if anyone arrived at night, they may struggle to actually find the place. The main sign was not lit up, and most of the outside lights were not on, both in the car park and around the hotel. We found this very poor.

For someone who just wants somewhere to sleep then this place would be fine, but for more than one night it may be a bit unpleasant.

Summary: Not bad for one night, wouldn't want to stay any longer.