Meadowhall Travelodge Sheffield

[Drsatan]

Good evening,

Has anyone stayed at this Travelodge recently? I've booked a two-night stay and some of the more recent reviews aren't exactly positive.

 

[Blindtraveler]

If you're able to cancel it, do so. Sheffield has a wealth of affordable accommodation including a new easy hotel in the city centre. You might not be familiar with the concept even if you've heard the name but believe me easyHotel have come in in from the side and got a lot of things right that the Ibis budget and Travelodge brands have simply not even thought about. Rooms are compact but beds are supremely comfortable, there is enough power sockets to keep everything you have with you charging or or powering away nicely, the rooms and ensuites are spotlessly clean and generally work, air-conditioning is standard and although the rooms do not have extra niceties like a comfy chair or a kettle with cups and some cheap nasty catering brand tea and coffee there is a machine in reception at quite a few of them dispensing bean-to-cup coffee and other beverages as well as cold drink and snack machines and there's always a supermarket within staggering distance from their properties with the exception I think of Luton airport and Heathrow

 

[Drsatan]

If you're able to cancel it, do so. Sheffield has a wealth of affordable accommodation including a new easy hotel in the city centre. You might not be familiar with the concept even if you've heard the name but believe me easyHotel have come in in from the side and got a lot of things right that the Ibis budget and Travelodge brands have simply not even thought about. Rooms are compact but beds are supremely comfortable, there is enough power sockets to keep everything you have with you charging or or powering away nicely, the rooms and ensuites are spotlessly clean and generally work, air-conditioning is standard and although the rooms do not have extra niceties like a comfy chair or a kettle with cups and some cheap nasty catering brand tea and coffee there is a machine in reception at quite a few of them dispensing bean-to-cup coffee and other beverages as well as cold drink and snack machines and there's always a supermarket within staggering distance from their properties with the exception I think of Luton airport and Heathrow

Thanks for your suggestion. I stayed in the easyHotel in Croydon the night before a job interview in October 2018 and didn't enjoy the experience. The bed was rock hard and there was hardly any soundproofing, presumably because the hotel was located in a converted office block. I could hear comings and going throughout the night.

I've opted to stay at the Premier Inn on Angel street- that was only £10 more than the easyHotel for two nights.

 

[jamesst]

Thanks for your suggestion. I stayed in the easyHotel in Croydon the night before a job interview in October 2018 and didn't enjoy the experience. The bed was rock hard and there was hardly any soundproofing, presumably because the hotel was located in a converted office block. I could hear comings and going throughout the night.

I've opted to stay at the Premier Inn on Angel street- that was only £10 more than the easyHotel for two nights.

Yep stayed at the Premier Inn, much better

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yep stayed at the Premier Inn, much better

Travelodges are rubbish. Premier Inns always much better and often not much more expensive, sometimes even cheaper.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Yes I would be quite happy to see Travelodge disappearing forever

 

[Hardcastle]

Travelodges are rubbish. Premier Inns always much better and often not much more expensive, sometimes even cheaper.

I've stayed at a few Travelodges most have been fine except the ones in Leamington Spa which is a old building & feels like your in a tent with the outside walls being thin & Dundee with a busy road outside but with ear plugs i slept well A few need a corridor carpet refresh but the bedrooms seem ok. But most Premier inns are ok.

 

[bspahh]

Travelodges are rubbish. Premier Inns always much better and often not much more expensive, sometimes even cheaper.

In my experience, Travelodges vary quite a lot. The good ones are cheap and perfectly fine. The worst hotel I've stayed in was a Travelodge.

After that I made a point checking Tripadvisor reviews. Don't just look at the overall rating, but read a few of the recent ones and the negative ones. I'll ignore moans about car parking for a hotel in a city centre, or a limited choice of restaurants for one on a bypass in the middle of nowhere. However, any that talk about mould or damp, and I'll stay somewhere else.

 

[Bletchleyite]

In my experience, Travelodges vary quite a lot. The good ones are cheap and perfectly fine. The worst hotel I've stayed in was a Travelodge.

After that I made a point checking Tripadvisor reviews. Don't just look at the overall rating, but read a few of the recent ones and the negative ones. I'll ignore moans about car parking for a hotel in a city centre, or a limited choice of restaurants for one on a bypass in the middle of nowhere. However, any that talk about mould or damp, and I'll stay somewhere else.

The main problem with them seems to be that maintenance and cleaning is lacking. So if it's newly refurbished then it'll be OK, but it will just get worse.

 

[Kite159]

In my experience, Travelodges vary quite a lot. The good ones are cheap and perfectly fine. The worst hotel I've stayed in was a Travelodge.

After that I made a point checking Tripadvisor reviews. Don't just look at the overall rating, but read a few of the recent ones and the negative ones. I'll ignore moans about car parking for a hotel in a city centre, or a limited choice of restaurants for one on a bypass in the middle of nowhere. However, any that talk about mould or damp, and I'll stay somewhere else.

Also for any talk about "Windows have very limited opening so even with fan the room was very hot". One of Nottingham city centre hotels is like that, the windows only opened an inch if that so hardy any air flow.

Although even the rooms with AC, they have cut back on maintenance as the last couple Travelodges I've stayed in which had AC (St Albans & Stockport) the unit sounded very rough

 

[Blindtraveler]

The Travelodge maintenance policy seems to be that they don't maintain anything until it breaks. Then send a maintenance engineer to assess just how badly it's broken and and management get his report before evaluating a good reason why they should just leave it broken rather than spend money fixing it.

And this kids is why we have have 565 or so hotels full of **** that doesn't work properly or indeed work at all


Sorry to any devotees, employers, Travelodge tickers or heaven forbid shareholders that might be lurking in here but these places do not deserve your hard-earned cash

 

[mrcheek]

surprised at the negativity shown towards Travelodge here.
To me, Travelodge, Premier Inn and Ibis are all basically the same, you get what you pay for.

I did once have an issue in the Travelodge, when the entire water supply was cut off, but that wasnt the hotel's fault, and I got most of my money back anyway.
Interestingly, the entire hotel burned down a few months later....

At least with Travelodge you can usually open the windows. So many Premier Inns these days dont allow that. And also, its nice that the rooms are arranged differently sometimes. Premier Inns are fine, but it is rather unnerving that every single room is exactly the same

And the "no maintenance until the place is about to fall down" mentality seems to apply to most cheap hotels these days!

 

[gordonthemoron]

In Leeds, the Travelodge near the station is great, despite being right next the the railway line. The one in Chinatown, Vicar Lane, is rubbish

 

[Bletchleyite]

surprised at the negativity shown towards Travelodge here.
To me, Travelodge, Premier Inn and Ibis are all basically the same, you get what you pay for.

Not even remotely. A good comparison is Travelodge is Ryanair - rock bottom cheap but low quality, whereas Premier Inn is easyJet - slightly more expensive but more attention to detail.

At least with Travelodge you can usually open the windows. So many Premier Inns these days dont allow that. And also, its nice that the rooms are arranged differently sometimes. Premier Inns are fine, but it is rather unnerving that every single room is exactly the same

Enough people want it the same every time that that is their slogan at the moment! I certainly do.

I agree about fresh air, but everything else I find is so much worse about Travelodge that I tolerate it.

And the "no maintenance until the place is about to fall down" mentality seems to apply to most cheap hotels these days!

Not true of Premier Inn or the Accor brands. Very much true of Travelodge.

Sometimes the price tempts me towards TL. Every single time without exception I've regretted cheaping out.

 

[route101]

The Travelodge plus along from Waterloo was nice, pretty much like a Premier Inn. Some are a bit shabby, the older ones that haven't aged well.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The Travelodge plus along from Waterloo was nice, pretty much like a Premier Inn. Some are a bit shabby, the older ones that haven't aged well.

Even "plus" Travelodges are likely to fall victim to the company's disregard for basic maintenance, but I should give one a go at some point to see.

I am happy with basic (Accor Budget are much more basic than Travelodge, being more like a hostel private room) - but I want it properly clean and everything in the room to be fully working and attached to the wall rather than hanging off.

A good marker is whether any ventilator or air intake is clean or has a buildup of filth, given that it takes 5 seconds with the Hoover to clean one out properly. Guess how they always are in Travelodges?

 

[Grumpy Git]

Travelodge is on a par with sleeping in the back of your van, but with a worse bed. The absolute last resort in all circumstances, I detest them.

 

[Andy Pacer]

Premier Inn gets my vote, generally very good with a few exceptions.

 

[ChrisC]

I gave up on Travelodge standard rooms years ago. Too basic for me with no shelf space to put any belongings. It felt like being homeless living out of a case. In contrast I actually quite like the Travelodge super rooms. I’ve had very good super rooms at Leeds Central, Glasgow Queen Street, London Vauxhall and York Micklegate. I just don’t bother with Travelodge breakfast as it doesn’t compare with Premier Inn.

There are a few Premier Inns that are not up to their usual standards. I don’t understand why Premier Inn keep opening new hotels and yet do not refurbish old ones in popular locations. I love the location of the London Hampstead Premier Inn in Belsize Park but it falls well below their usual standards. When I first stayed there over 10 years ago it was badly in need of refurbishment but still has not happened.

I have recently stayed in a few Holiday Inn Express hotels and have been quite impressed with their rooms. Certainly better than standard Travelodge.

 

[Aictos]

Yes I would be quite happy to see Travelodge disappearing forever

I should hope not as that would lead to less competition in the hotel industry which would lead to job losses too.

surprised at the negativity shown towards Travelodge here.
To me, Travelodge, Premier Inn and Ibis are all basically the same, you get what you pay for.

Fully agree, the term you get what you pay for certainly applies for all the hotel chains mentioned above.

Not even remotely. A good comparison is Travelodge is Ryanair - rock bottom cheap but low quality, whereas Premier Inn is easyJet - slightly more expensive but more attention to detail.

I would strongly disagree here; if you want to compare Ryanair with hotels then I suggest you have your priorities wrong as a good comparison to Ryanair is EasyHotel which offers cheap and no fills rooms as least with Travelodge you get free coffee or tea in the rooms and free wifi. Travelodge and Premier Inn I would say are about the same level of service.

Travelodge is on a par with sleeping in the back of your van, but with a worse bed. The absolute last resort in all circumstances, I detest them.

Strange as I've never had a bad night's sleep with them, the only issue I have is the pillows are too soft.

 

[paul1609]

Travelodges are rubbish. Premier Inns always much better and often not much more expensive, sometimes even cheaper.

I sentence you to two nights at Premier Inn Newark. Sorry Sir you rooms not ready at 5pm weve run out of bedlinen but theres a very expensive beefeater where you can wait for 2 hours before we move you to your room which has the twin lane mac donalds take away underneath the window offering free intermittant chav music through the night. The travelodge on the lorrypark 10 miles along the a46 is bliss in comparison.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I sentence you to two nights at Premier Inn Newark. Sorry Sir you rooms not ready at 5pm weve run out of bedlinen but theres a very expensive beefeater where you can wait for 2 hours before we move you to your room which has the twin lane mac donalds take away underneath the window offering free intermittant chav music through the night. The travelodge on the lorrypark 10 miles along the a46 is bliss in comparison.

I must admit I've come across "my room" not being ready in a PI...they did change the allocation when I asked them to do so, but I do think their system is flawed if it pre-allocates rooms in that way rather than just making available a block of rooms available for various lengths of stays so people can be allocated them as they arrive.

PI also don't ask for an expected arrival time, maybe they should as it would aid allocations.

 

[Grumpy Git]

The last time I paid to use a Travelodge (Hatfield) it was late when I arrived (about 21:30 from memory) about 10 years ago. Unbeknown to me, they over-allocate and there were no rooms left, even though I had only booked it 60 minutes earlier on-line.

Eventually I was given an alternative reservation in one at Cheshunt 15 miles away and although it was very late by the time this had been arranged, (it was past midnight when I arrived), the manager refused to give me a beer on the house (which I thought was a reasonable request)?

The room was hot (July heatwave) and the bed was terrible. I felt like I'd slept on the central reservation of the nearby M25 as trucks were coming and going from the next door print works all night.

I got a free breakfast (whoopee), a refund and a free night. The free night was the last time I stayed in one and I will never use one ever again hopefully.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I do understand why hotels with flexible bookings policies overbook, because people often cancel at the last minute. However, it's inexcusable Travelodge doing it, as if you don't show up you lose your money - the room is paid for. So reselling an already sold room is just greed and avarice.

 

[Blindtraveler]

The thing with the Premier Inn if you you turn up and find that there's a mistake of whatever kind at their end is that they recognise that you, the guest have been or will be inconvenienced in some way and go out of their way to compensate you for it. I've had the shortage of bed linen room not ready problem as well in the past due to the lorry transporting said bed linen having a rather unfortunate accident on a main road. I arrived at 5 p.m. and they said I could check in and dump my luggage and shower if I wanted but was out of luck if I wanted to go straight to bed. Luggage dumped and shower had I presented myself at reception to ask how long they thought they would be and they said 2 hours but go and have a free dinner and drinks on us and we will refund your stay and give you a free breakfast as well so absolutely no issues there as as in total this compensation package came to something like 85 quid

 

[paul1609]

The thing with the Premier Inn if you you turn up and find that there's a mistake of whatever kind at their end is that they recognise that you, the guest have been or will be inconvenienced in some way and go out of their way to compensate you for it. I've had the shortage of bed linen room not ready problem as well in the past due to the lorry transporting said bed linen having a rather unfortunate accident on a main road. I arrived at 5 p.m. and they said I could check in and dump my luggage and shower if I wanted but was out of luck if I wanted to go straight to bed. Luggage dumped and shower had I presented myself at reception to ask how long they thought they would be and they said 2 hours but go and have a free dinner and drinks on us and we will refund your stay and give you a free breakfast as well so absolutely no issues there as as in total this compensation package came to something like 85 quid

No compensation whatsoever offered for my awful stay at PI Newark, Im sticking with Travelodge in future basic but reliable.

 

[cactustwirly]

Not even remotely. A good comparison is Travelodge is Ryanair - rock bottom cheap but low quality, whereas Premier Inn is easyJet - slightly more expensive but more attention to detail.



Enough people want it the same every time that that is their slogan at the moment! I certainly do.

I agree about fresh air, but everything else I find is so much worse about Travelodge that I tolerate it.



Not true of Premier Inn or the Accor brands. Very much true of Travelodge.

Sometimes the price tempts me towards TL. Every single time without exception I've regretted cheaping out.

Premier Inn are just as bad, some of their hotels are disgusting but they charge more than Travelodge for the "pleasure".
Some of the newer Travelodges are actually very nice, I guess Premier Inn appear to be nicer because they have more new hotels, but their older ones are just as bad.

I don't really get the hate for Travelodge on here, it's a cheap room which is clean. What else do you expect from a budget hotel?
If you want something nice you stay in a Hilton or Holiday Inn

 

[SteveM70]

As others have said, travelodges seem to range from bloody awful to mediocre. The only positives I can think of are (1) the staff are generally as helpful as possible and (2) they’re pretty good at refunding when things go wrong.

I think I’ve already mentioned my experience in Glasgow when I checked into “my” room to find it was actually someone else’s, more specifically a man who was asleep naked on the bed. They gave me a refund for that. And I’ve stayed in the one in Norwich up by the bus station and on one of the three nights there was no hot water, and I got my money back in full.

The rest of the time, I just find them soulless depressing places.

And because they’re so cheap, quite often there are groups of workers staying which generally means noise in the corridors late at night and first thing in the morning which is a pain when I’m on holiday.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I don't really get the hate for Travelodge on here, it's a cheap room which is clean.

The thing is, it isn't. Pretty much every time I've stayed in a TL the cleanliness and basic maintenance have been well below par.

 

[Bletchleyite]

No compensation whatsoever offered for my awful stay at PI Newark, Im sticking with Travelodge in future basic but reliable.

Did you ask them for the Good Night Guarantee? As long as you don't claim it too often they'll pay that out even for really trivial things if they genuinely affected the quality of your stay. I claimed it once to make a point because a specific PI had lighting pointing at the front of it (most don't, but I'll be watching out for it on the pictures in future - it's a really stupid idea that sits up with contravision on buses - looks fancy but awful for the customer), which looked all very impressive but meant my room wasn't dark so I couldn't sleep properly.