Hello, Just to let you know I am 'topsyturvy' over on Dooyoo. I am also very happy to finally be Br...
Hello, Just to let you know I am 'topsyturvy' over on Dooyoo. I am also very happy to finally be Bronze!! Thank you to everyone for reading and rating.
Member since:02.03.2002
Reviews:470
Members who trust:60
Last weekend I was going to visit my sister in Manchester and I needed a place to stay. It was only one night's accommodation I needed though, so I didn't really want to pay anything over £60 for the night. It may sound too cheap for some but I am saving for my holidays so that's why. I know the Travel Inn and Travel Lodge do cheap rooms as does the Novotel so I looked on their websites to see what they had on offer.
Out of all of them the cheapest was definitely the Travel Lodge. I have stayed at the Travel Lodge at Ashton Under Lyne which is on the outskirts of the city and I usually stay here for £26 a night. You have to book over a month in advance if you want to see if they have any of their £10 saver rooms but what I tend to find is the hotels that have this offer are usually motorway ones and not near cities. The next best thing is the £26 a night which is 21 days in advance but I didn't choose Ashton Under Lyne because this time I wanted to be central. I ended up having to pay £46 for the one in Ancoats in Manchester which was still reasonable enough to me.
It
was easy enough I chose that I wanted a room for 2, paid and got a confirmation e-mail and it was all booked. On arrival the staff were friendly enough they welcomed me in and asked for my booking. You usually pay when you get there with Travel Lodge's so once this was all done quickly I was given my card and send to my room.
One thing I do but yet don't like is the whole electronic card system. Now in this hotel you have to put your card in the slot to even get onto a lift and of course I was given a faulty card that kept flashing red instead of green. It was all confusing at first but then this was fixed so I got up to my room. Again to access the room you put your card in, it goes green and you are in. They ask you if you want more than one card at check-in so it's not awkward if you lose one. I remember once though at another Travel Lodge a couple walked into my room while I was sitting there as their card had been allocated to my room also, I was just happy that I was clothed at that point as that could have turned into a very embarrassing moment.
The room was nice, standard room with a double bed, an ensuite bathroom and the desk with the TV and some mugs and drinking sachets. I was happy with the room but since it was me and my friend sharing I didn't like how they just assumed 2 adults were meant to be married. The room was clean enough and of course there was a Bible there as there always seems to be. The bathroom was nice there were enough towels, there weren't a lot of pillows but the bed was comfortable.
The view was quite nice outside I was on the side so I got the view looking down the street which was all lights and it was quite nice. The only thing is being on quite a main road when trying to get to sleep isn't the best thing ever as the cars are really loud. The shower was fine inside and worked well and the TV was good but the remote control sensor was put in front of where the chair is so that was annoying but the picture was fine.
On top of the TV there was a choice of pay per view films they had 'The Interpreter' and some other things which I can't remember. It was something like £6.50 a film though which I thought was ridiculous considering now that could seriously buy you the DVD, I decided to pass on that. They also give you a menu for the downstairs restaurant if you want to check prices and what's on offer. It looked nice and reasonably priced but I didn't go there.
The bar was a nice touch to this Travel Lodge as normally the ones I have been to haven't had this feature. The bar was quite long and went on from the reception desk, there were lots of chairs and at night it was dimly lit. The only bad part is the receptionist on was also the one making drinks and she didn't look to sure about what she was doing. However, it's still good for guests who don't want to go searching for a bar or who want a drink before going to bed to have this option.
If you want breakfast you can either go downstairs to the restaurant for a hot breakfast or you can buy one to your room. This consists of one of those cornflakes cereal things with the milk and cereal attached, a banana, some drink and something else. It's not really what I would call breakfast but it costs around £4 if you want it anyway. I didn't bother because I found a Wetherspoon's which served breakfast for £1.99 in the town centre and it was probably nicer than the hotel offered.
Now for the complaints. When we arrived we didn't know where to park the car as it all looked like a rough area around. The car park to the right is for gallery visitors only and threatens that they will clamp your car if you park there long so I was unsure of what to do as I couldn't see a car park. We then asked the receptionist who told us that in fact there was no car park here, she then said it was 'clearly' stated on the website. I hadn't noticed but looking now in small text it does say this but it should have been in bold writing as this is quite a major fact when you have driven for 4 hours and don't want to leave your car to face an £800 fine with no way home.
She then nicely said that if we came back later she would let us into the disabled car park. So, we came back later and the receptionist said she had passed the message onto the next worker, this however was not the case. This girl was rude and talked to us like we were worthless. We said that the receptionist had said she would let us in and she told us that she shouldn't have done this as she could not let us in. We further explained that we didn't know where to leave the car and she said that she could only let us in when all guests had arrived, we then said well when will that be and she said all night. Clearly stating that she was going to be uncooperative and not let us in even though there were about 10 spaces left and 4 cars using them and obviously they wouldn't have had 10 more disabled guests after midnight checking in .
Her service ruined the stay because she then told us that there was an NCP car park further down that cost £12 for the night which was making the stay even more expensive. This was at about 12.30am and the area was not the safest to go wandering about in. Lucky for us we found a parking metre that only cost us £2.50 so we stayed there, no thanks to her recommendations. The next day the previous receptionist was back and seemed very angry at her colleague not letting us in, so safe to say I'm sorry for my rant but I am not putting down the hotel for one rude member of staff.
To find this Lodge is quite easy you drive through Picadilly then down Newton Street making a left at the end and the Lodge is right on your left. The hotel is in an ok location, it takes about 10-15 minutes to walk into the town centre and there are some takeaways nearby but as I said before it is still in a rough area.
To book a stay here go to http://www.travelodge.co.uk . The check-in time is 3pm and check-out is at noon.
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Not keen on Travel Lodges myself - good review though and welcome to my COT
phil2001 08.07.2006 22:43
I stayed here recently, breakfast was a disgrace, was susposed to be buffet style hot food,most of it was dried up & shrivelled. I agree car parking is a mockery of a sham of sham of a mockery! lol
HotBabes 07.07.2006 13:33
Its sounds ok for a badic stay. Shame about the car park, or lack of! x x
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