Friday, April 12, 2019
Travelodge Bangor - tired is OK, tatty is not
Here is a corner of the bathroom of room 101 (indeed!) at the Travelodge at Bangor in Wales, as at 8th April 2019:
The bathroom door squeaked loudly enough to wake up a partner in the middle of the night. And the bathroom fan wasn't working.
I understand that budget hotels will tend to look a little tired as they get towards their next refurbishment, but this is more than tired - it is tatty. It makes me feel poor to be staying there. And oiling door hinges and testing fans should be routine maintenance. If they can't do that reliably, how sure can I be that they check safety-critical maintenance like fire alarms?
How interested is Travelodge in hearing about customer feedback?. Not much, as far as I can tell. Once upon a time, they would email and ask what you thought about your recent stay. Not any more, it seems. They don't publish any email address, so you can't send them pictures. And if you fill in their complaints form and ask them to contact you, the typical response time is (according to the agent I spoke to tonight) 3-5 working days.
Not impressive
UPDATE - it took four working days for Travelodge to respond to my request for contact. While they don't advertise it, the reply email was customer.service@travelodge.co.uk - why didn't I think of trying that in the first place.
I understand that budget hotels will tend to look a little tired as they get towards their next refurbishment, but this is more than tired - it is tatty. It makes me feel poor to be staying there. And oiling door hinges and testing fans should be routine maintenance. If they can't do that reliably, how sure can I be that they check safety-critical maintenance like fire alarms?
How interested is Travelodge in hearing about customer feedback?. Not much, as far as I can tell. Once upon a time, they would email and ask what you thought about your recent stay. Not any more, it seems. They don't publish any email address, so you can't send them pictures. And if you fill in their complaints form and ask them to contact you, the typical response time is (according to the agent I spoke to tonight) 3-5 working days.
Not impressive
UPDATE - it took four working days for Travelodge to respond to my request for contact. While they don't advertise it, the reply email was customer.service@travelodge.co.uk - why didn't I think of trying that in the first place.
