Travel Inn, Tower Bridge, London

...had already booked at a Travel Inn near to the conference venue, it made sense for the rest of use to stay there as well. The chosen location for our rendezvous was the Tower Bridge Travel Inn, which is actually a Travel Inn Capital.

I must confess to having nothing to do with the booking – a friend from Northumberland booked a twin room on our behalf. However, booking appears to be very straightforward. You can book online at ...
...telephone or fax your chose Travel Inn direct.

Once booked, my next concern was actually finding the Travel Inn! A small local map is available on the website, but given my lack of any sense of direction, I felt it prudent to telephone beforehand to get directions from the easiest Tube station. It sounded easy enough – turn right out of London Bridge station, go to the end of the road, turn right and the Travel Inn is on the ... more

Yes, I had managed to get a night away from home! Hubby was away on business and I roped my parents in to look after the children for a night so that I could head off to London to meet up with some friends on Friday night, prior to attending a conference on Saturday.

As a couple of friends from Northern Ireland had already booked at a Travel Inn near to the conference venue, it made sense for the rest of use to stay there as well. The chosen location for our rendezvous was the Tower Bridge Travel Inn, which is actually a Travel Inn Capital.

I must confess to having nothing to do with the booking – a friend from Northumberland booked a twin room on our behalf. However, booking appears to be very straightforward. You can book online at www.travelinn.co.uk, which is how we booked. The website is clearly laid out – you search for your chosen location and click on a button to check availability. A booking can be made there and then and a confirmation email is received shortly afterwards. If you prefer, you can telephone the Central Reservation Service on 0870 242 8000 – a service which is available from 8am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and from 9am to 8pm on Sundays. Alternatively, you can telephone or fax your chose Travel Inn direct.

Once booked, my next concern was actually finding the Travel Inn! A small local map is available on the website, but given my lack of any sense of direction, I felt it prudent to telephone beforehand to get directions from the easiest Tube station. It sounded easy enough – turn right out of London Bridge station, go to the end of the road, turn right and the Travel Inn is on the right. Great, I thought. What they forgot to tell me is that there are two exits from London Bridge station, which take you onto totally different streets. Guess who took the wrong exit!! Anyway, after lots of walking and several conflicting sets of directions from various people, I eventually located the Travel Inn.

The reception area was very clean and tidy and looked welcoming. I was supposed to be meeting my friends in the bar, so after a quick chat with the receptionist, I found the bar and my friends. We had decided to eat at the Travel Inn, so set off into the restaurant.

Every Travel Inn has a licensed bar and restaurant. The restaurants are different at each location – they include Beefeater and Brewers Fayre. Our Travel Inn had a Slice restaurant. The standard menu offered a wide variety of food and there was also a daily specials list. I had a rather tasty stuffed mushroom to start, followed by a fillet of red snapper, finished off with almond tarte! Although the food was good, unfortunately the service wasn’t. It took around 30 minutes for them to get our wine to the table! Starters arrived after about 45 minutes. Thankfully we all had plenty of chatting to do, but it was not an impressive start! As I said, the food was tasty and we all enjoyed our meals. There were 6 of us, we all had starters, main course and either a pudding or liqueur coffee, as well as two bottles of wine on the table, and the total bill came to just under £115.

After the meal, we headed off to our rooms. My friend had already checked in and obtained our key cards. These are vital – if you wish to access the toilets in the reception, you need a key card! To access the lifts – you need a key card! I guess it stops people from wandering in off the streets to use the facilities!

Our Travel Inn has 196 bedrooms situated on 6 floors. Smoking and non-smoking rooms are available. We had a twin room, which had one double bed, and a couch that converted into a single bed. My friend took pity on me and let me have the double! The room was very clean and tidy – as well as the bed there was a desk with a chair, a television, a telephone, hanging space and some storage shelves. Tea and coffee were provided, although the supplies could have been more plentiful – for example there was only one sachet of hot chocolate for the two of us! However, the literature does say that further supplies are available from reception.

The bathroom, again, was clean and tidy, containing a toilet, pedestal basin and bath with shower facility. A heated towel rail held two of the tiniest towels you have ever seen! Don’t expect to leave a Travel Inn with a case full of toiletries – all we had was a small bar of soap each! (Enquiries were made at reception about shampoo, but we were told they ran out a month ago and hadn’t got any more yet!) Water was very hot and the shower was invigorating, to say the least! There is a warning on the wall not to leave the bathroom door open while showering as the amount of steam produced can set off the fire alarms! It was certainly very steamy in there, despite the automatic fan.

Alarm facilities are available in the rooms by means of the telephone or television. Irons and hairdryers are also available from reception for a small deposit (£5 in ours).

Well, our alarms worked, and we headed down to breakfast the next morning. In every Travel Inn restaurant, there is the choice of a continental or traditional breakfast. Continental costs £4 (£4.95 in a Travel Inn Capital) and traditional costs £6 (£6.95 in a Capital). Fairly standard stuff – continental gets you juice, cereal, toast or croissant, yoghurt and fruit, traditional contains all the above plus a range of cooked items – eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown and mushrooms.

Cost for our one night stay was £69.95 for the room. Staying at a Travel Inn Capital Monday – Thursday costs £74.95. Standard Travel Inns cost from £42.50 per room per night, and Metros start at £49.95 per night. As these prices are per room, the more of you there are in each room, the better value!

There are around 300 Travel Inns located around the country, so there is a good chance you will find one wherever you are staying.

This was my first stay at a Travel Inn, and I doubt it will be my last. Everywhere was very clean and tidy; the staff were friendly and the prices reasonable. Yes, we had to pay more for our room in London than I would if I stayed in a local Travel Inn, but you expect to have to pay more in a large city.

Definitely recommended if you’re looking for a place to stay!
 

...less