Travelodge Hotels in Britain & Ireland

[ramboflyer]

As part of an overseas trip this year my wife and I will be spending about a month in Britain & Ireland in July. We plan to go to London then down south and head up to Wales (Ashes test) and then Ireland, the midlands and Scotland for the British Open at St Andrews. Haven't decided to drive or train yet. After spending the kids inheritance on accommodation on the US and Europe I am hoping to find some less expensive but nice Hotels in Britain.
I found the Travelodge chain on the web and they look pretty good but the prices are so low I wonder if there is something I am missing? The idea of going to the one web site and booking all the Hotels at once appeals to me. Does anyone have any experience with this chain? good bad or ugly?

 

[Welsh-Kiwi]

I've used them a number of times while travelling around the UK. Functional and clean which is fine if you're only there to sleep.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

The Travelodge chain in the UK & Ireland is owned by an investment arm of the UAE government.

They are similar in standard to the Australian chain, but not related.

I frequently stay at the Travelodge chain when I'm In the UK, as they have some absolutely amazing deals.

Often you can score a room for £29 or less, if you book in advance & they have numerous locations in just about every major UK City.

What I would say is that the Travelodge Chain provide basic, clean hotel rooms..... Certainly not to the standard of the Pullman's or Hiltons that many contributors here on AFF frequently visit

In the room you will get the basics, with a TV that picks up the free to air TV stations only with pretty much a small cake of soap in the bathroom & two basic white towels provided.
In room TV & coffee is also included.

A full Breakfast Buffet can usually be purchased at the time of booking at a discounted additional cost .

Depending on the location, parking can be limited although the parking situation is stipulated for each location on their website.

Some of the Travelodge's I've visited are actually former Hotel chains that are converted into the Travelodge chain & have a surprisingly good size, although this of course varies from location to location.

One really good plus for Booking with Travelodge ( unless things have changed) is check in is from 3pm & checkout is at 12 noon. You can also purchase earlier check in ( from 1pm) & later checkout (2pm) for an extra £10.

All in all, I'm a big fan of Travelodge & usually always find them the best value for money in the UK & Ireland, sure they don't have all the frills, but the savings I pocket when staying with Travelodge can be spent on other things like more flights within Europe for example.

 

[deka2]

Agree with the above posts

We have stayed in several Travelodge in England and Scotland.

Good clean rooms and they often have room sales which make them very good value.

 

[jastel]

They are great for roadtrips if you have a car...as opposed to B&B's and quaint old hotels with no parking.
They may lack a bit of character and look like prefab Lego buildings (which many are) but are more like what a drive in highwayside motel is like in Australia/USA.
A bed, shower and TV...all you want if you are just passing thru.
And located in obvious spots rather than down a back lane or a cobblestoned one way street.

There wasn't too many in the cities back then but they were at major motorway service junctions and on the outskirts of towns.
Always plenty of parking, a fast food restaurant and shop/servo nearby and the ones near town had a bus outside the door if you didn't want to take the car and try to park.
They were basic but did the job. They were about 50 pounds a night back then, probably 80 ish now.
My only complaint was sometimes they were FULL and I had to go elsewhere.
This usually happened when there was some event on and locals drove there from nearby towns.
Maybe pre book the ones for the cricket/golf in the busy towns and leave the rest to just see how far you get...there are a lot.

I have stayed at the multi storey London Covent Garden one, similar to an Ibis I would say. Around 100 pounds in the city is good value for that location.
Back then I just phoned ahead to the nearest one in their book...nowdays there is a website or app I guess.

Heading back next week with a car so will be using them again I am sure.
I return in May so can update again if you like...and I remember...

 

[ramboflyer]

Thank you jastel for confirming what previous posts have said. We have since decided to drive ourselves and yes I have booked the 2 Travelodges in Cardiff (cricket) and Perth (golf). Interestingly you say that all have parking. There are 3 in the Cardiff city area. I wanted to book the closest to Sophia Gardens which looked in walking distance but I found that neither that one and the next closest had parking so I booked one near the docks because it had parking.

I plan to book them all before we leave because we prefer the security of locked in reservations. We leave Australia the middle of May but please feel free to pass on your experiences.

 

[jastel]

I should have been clearer...the ones on the motorways or outskirts of towns have good parking.
In the CBD areas not so much, or it costs a bomb.
While I had the car I avoided most of the inner big cities due to parking/navigation problems (no GPS back then) and stayed on the outskirts and caught the bus in.
After being caught in an inner city traffic jam for 45 minutes to do 1 mile I found it easier.
A lot of UK towns have a Park n Ride, you park in a proper parking lot near the outer ring roads and get a bus into the town, costs about 2 pounds IIRC.
Some even have Park n Rides on each main road into the town. The bus just does a loop and comes every 15 minutes or so. Just check when the last one back is.

If you are only going to larger cities just use the train/plane to get there and taxi/train/bus to get around.
Train travel is easy and if you avoid peak hours, fares can be cheap.
Cars are a pain in many UK towns. Even many smaller towns have no room for cars and only 1 council pay car park on the outskirts.
Some National Park type lookouts and attractions also charge to park, keep a supply of pound coins handy.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

I would be interested to know what people think of Travelodge on the upcoming travels.
For someone like myself who isn't overly fussy, they do the job of hotel accommodation fine.

 

[jastel]

Probably a bit late for the OP but here are some pix of a countryside motorway Travelodge.
I stayed in about 3 roadside ones on this trip and the average price was about 50 pounds.
I did try for the Covent Garden one again in London but it was booked out at 110 pounds per night.
There is a website now which is very handy to prebook.

They are still much the same quality wise...not 5 star but good enough for a night or two.

 

[phily]

In my experience, Travelodges in the UK are strictly a budget motel, much like Ibis in Australia. I think that the Premier Inn hotels are a step higher, and like Travelodge they seem to be everywhere in the UK.

If one is looking for budget accommodation, then one should seriously consider staying in a Youth Hostel. The YHA is part of the Hostelling International (HI) network, and their hostels have similarly regulated standards to the YHA, as opposed to the largely unregulated backpacker hostels. Many YHA & HI hostels now offer single and double rooms, though mostly with shared bathrooms, but still at ridiculously low rates. Most of their hostels feature large commercial standard shared kitchens, and an abundance of local tourism information.

ramboflyer, please report back here after your trip in July as to your experiences of using Travelodge.

 

[DontGetMeStarted]

We have stayed at a few Travelodge's over the years and for the cost they are great value for money, but you need to choose the location well, some are better than others. We find the one at Heathrow Terminal 5 great value and the Hopper bus picks up and drops off right outside the front door.

 

[ramboflyer]

ramboflyer, please report back here after your trip in July as to your experiences of using Travelodge.

I must have missed this as we flew out after it was posted and I came back to this thread by accident. Better late than never and the info is still relevant.

We stayed at 2 (previously booked) Travelodges in Britain. The first in London near Kings Cross (Royal Scots I think). It's a really busy hotel in easy walking distance to Kings Cross station with all the train and bus services. The room was average at best. The photos in an earlier post here are very typical. I was unhappy with the water pressure in the shower. A really good dining/bar area and the food was good.

After staying there we decided to cancel our Travelodge in Scotland but kept the booking in Cardiff as it was difficult to book elsewhere because of the Ashes cricket being in town. The hotel was on the Cardiff Wharf and again a good location. Lots of restaurants and even a casino close by. It was an easy and pleasant 30 minute walk to the CBD. The room again was average and this time the dining/bar was ordinary at best. Staff were all quite young and rarely seen at reception or the dining room.

We decided to try Premier Inn as they had hotels all over Britain (except Ireland) and looked nice. We were not disappointed and stayed with them in Southampton, Swansea, Preston, Glasgow and back at Kings Cross again. All the rooms in all the hotels are the same design. Plenty of space, clean and friendly staff. The thing we liked the most was all have restaurant/bars attached. Good food and a relaxing cold beer at the end of a day of sightseeing and breakfast the next morning. Price is good but better if you can book a long way in advance. Travelodge may be a bit cheaper but we liked a reasonable standard of accommodation with parking and the eating & drinking options.

Kings Cross in London is a great place to stay but next time we will try a Premier Inn close to the river where most attractions can be reached on foot.