Added Jun 1: Congratulations to Travelodge! Shakila Ahmed of Travelodge was very helpful and organized a complimentary stay which went extremely well. While my initial complaint was not responded to, they were very quick to act once they seemingly heard my message :-) Thanks Travelodge.

Added May 20: Travelodge are claiming I did not contact them with this complaint in an amusing article in the Surrey Comet. I did, however, which is why this is still here. Clearly open letters on the Web work better than ones sent in private! To this date, I have not had any contact from Travelodge.

My original complaint, sent to Travelodge is here:

Dear Sir / Madam,

Perhaps you would be kind enough to forward me to the complaints / quality assurance department, or forward this complaint to them? Thank you.

My girlfriend and I booked to stay at the new Travelodge at Tolworth on Monday, April 11th. We had stayed at other Travelodges (Battersea, and Leeds) on two occasions in February and March and were happy with the service. Tolworth, however, somewhat mars Travelodge's reputation!

It took some 40 minutes for us to be in our room from arriving in the reception of the Travelodge. Here's the story:

First off, we had to wait in reception for ten minutes at half past midnight, despite no-one being in front of us and staff being available, due to various systems problems.

Eventually we managed to check in and were given a key to room 209. On arriving at 209, our key failed several times, and then we heard that people were already in the room! On returning to the reception, the manager was apologetic, and went to check the room. He came back after five minutes and said he'd get us another room. He then printed off a master key.

We followed him up to the fifth floor, where he began knocking on doors. The first door got no response but was clearly deadlocked. At the second door, he used the master key to get in, but this was also deadlocked and the guest called out "What do you want?!". At the time this seemed quite funny, and he mumbled and shut the door once more.

He decided to give up trying random rooms, and said he'd put us in the bar, get us a drink, and he'd be back when he'd resolved the situation. He put us in the bar, and I went to move the car to the proper car park. My girlfriend tells me that she didn't get a drink, and that she had to pay for it herself, but that she also received abrasive treatment from the staff saying that the bar was closed (even though it clearly was not). Another member of staff helpfully helped her get a cup of tea.

I moved the car, and tried to get back into the Travelodge from the car park. I pressed the buzzer, and one minute later (I was just calling my girlfriend to see what was going on) someone answered. I explained the situation, they sounded confused, and told me to wait a minute. A few minutes later, I gave up and decided to call my girlfriend who was in the bar literally two rooms away. She wandered out and let me into the Travelodge. At this same time, the manager returned bearing a new keycard, and he offered to carry my bags, but I refused.

He took us up to the fifth floor, where he had found us a room. This was now 40 minutes after arrival. The room was not bad, but it clearly had issues. There were used sanitary towels in the disposal bin, and there was only one half-used roll of toilet paper. He promised to go get some more. We did not notice the bin at this point. I made him promise to come back as I wanted to take down his name.

Five minutes later, he had not returned, and I had to get a drink so I wandered out. Down the corridor two staff were knocking on a door, and they recognized me. They had been sent to the wrong room with the toilet rolls. I took the rolls and continued down to reception, where a drunk man flirted(!) with me. I managed to get the manager's name - XXXXX XXXXXXX - and wandered back to our room.

At 8am, we were awoken as a blasted racket pierced through our room. After sleepily attempting to turn off the noise, we realised it was the fire alarm, threw on some basic clothes, and ran down the fire stairs. Outside, we bumped into another guest we'd talked to the night before, and she said "This place is bloody jinxed!" .. clearly she had not had a good stay either.

After fifteen minutes of standing in the cold, we were let in, and went back to our rooms. Back in the room, we tried to get a little more sleep, and the fire alarm kept going off, only to be reset five seconds later. After ten minutes this stopped, and we got another hour's sleep before fleeing the Lodge.

This night/day was certainly a memory to pass on down the ages, and we're already referring to it as 'our night in Fawlty Towers', but it seriously dents my confidence in Travelodge's management of new Lodges, as our experience in existing Lodges had been good.

I believe the manager, Mr. XXXXXXX, attemped to do his best, but was poorly supported given the significant teething problems that this Lodge has.

If I had managed to pick up the bargain basement £26 rate for this stay, I would have probably dismissed it somewhat more, but as it is, I am annoyed at the poor service and set up of this Lodge.

I was planning on staying with Travelodge again on a holiday to Edinburgh in the next few months, but am seriously reconsidering my options if they match the level of ineptitude shown at Tolworth.

Yours faithfully,
Mr. Peter Cooper